Psalter Hymnal (Gray) ‎#44

44. O God, We Have Heard

Text Information

• First Line: O God, we have heard what our parents have told
• Title: O God, We Have Heard
• Versifier: Bert Polman (1985)
• Meter: 11 11 11 11 D
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1987
• Scripture:
  Psalm 44
• Topic: Deliverance; Laments; Alternative Harmonizations; Redemption
• Copyright: Text and harmonization © 1987, CRC Publications
• ONE LICENSE: 90327

Tune Information

• Name: STAR IN THE EAST
• Harmonizer: Dale Grotenhuis (1986)
• Arranger (alt. arr.): Roy Hopp (1987)
• Meter: 11 11 11 11 D
• Key: g minor
• Source: Walker's Southern Harmony, 1835
• Copyright: Text and harmonization © 1987, CRC Publications; Alternative arrangement © 1987, CRC Publications.

Text Information:

An anguished cry for God's renewed help after allowing his people to be crushingly defeated.

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-8
st. 2 =vv. 9-16
st. 3=vv.17-22
st. 4 = vv. 1-3, 23-26

Ascribed to (or assigned to) "the Sons of Korah," one of the Levitical choirs (1 Chron. 6:31-48), Psalm 44 is a communal prayer of ancient Israel. It reflects a cry of faith in the face of Judah's crushing defeat at the hands of Assyrian armies. That God had abandoned Judah to their enemies even though they had not turned their backs on him was a great enigma that tried their faith. Psalm 44 expresses that enigma in a prayer for God's renewed help.

Impassioned as it is, this carefully designed prayer has its appropriate use in Christian worship. In singing it, we join the people who recall God's past victories on their behalf (st. 1), cite God's present abandonment of his people to their cruel enemies (st. 2), and wonder at the great enigma: 'This happened though we have been faithful" (st. 3). Again recalling the LORD's past victories for them, the people cry for a renewal of God's help (st. 4).

Bert Polman (PHH 37) prepared the versification of this psalm in 1985 for the Psalter Hymnal, adapting from the versifications in the 1912 Psalter and The Book of Psalms for Singing (1973).

Liturgical Use:
Because this communal lament wrestles with why God sometimes seems to forsake his faithful people, it is appropriate for occasions when the church is suffering at the hands of Christ's enemies or has been defeated (temporarily!) by the powers of this age.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune Information:

STAR IN THE EAST was published with an Epiphany hymn in William Walker's The Southern Harmony (1835), a popular collection using shape notes. This modal tune is well matched to the lament character of Psalm 44. It is one of the longest in the Psalter Hymnal, yet is very accessible because of its repeated patterns and phrases (AABA). Sing with a solid and steady beat, feeling a slow two beats per measure. Two harmonizations are given–one for congregational singing by Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4), and a three part choral setting (opposite 43) by Roy Hopp (PHH 11). The Hopp setting can also accompany men's voices on stanza 3.

William Walker (b. Cross Keys, SC, 1809; d. Spartenburg, SC, 1875) was known as "Singin' Billy." A Southern Baptist singing school teacher, Walker composed his first hymn tune, SOLEMN CALL, at the age of eighteen. With his brother-in-law, Benjamin F. White, he compiled the famous hymnbook The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (1835), which sold over six hundred thousand copies over the next thirty years. The first edition of Southern Harmony is considered to be primarily a borrowing from Ananias Davisson's Kentucky Harmony (1815), another four-shape-note tunebook. In his travels through Appalachia, Walker collected many folk tunes. His work represents one of the best collections of early American folk hymns, many of which were derived from traditional melodies of the British Isles.

Because White's work in compiling The Southern Harmony was uncredited by Walker in 1835, White and E.J. King published the equally important tunebook The Sacred Harp (1844), which led to rivalry between those who sang from the two books. In 1867 Walker expanded the four-shape notation in his book to seven shapes and published it as Christian Harmony. The Southern Harmony and The Sacred Harp are both still popular tunebooks today and are used in regular hymn-sings in various communities through¬out the southeastern United States.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook