It's Christ the King Sunday, and we're also marking feast days for Saints Cecilia and Clement, and hymn writer Isaac Watts.
Saint Cecilia in a window in the church of St Mary the Virgin in Little Wymondley in Hertfordshire Photo: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Cecilia_Wymondley.jpg CC by SA 2.0 / Shaggy 359
SONG: REJOICE! THE LORD IS KING
Artist: Choir of Westminster Abbey, James O’Donnell (dir), Robert Quinney (organ)
Words/Music: Charles Wesley/George Frederic Handel
Recording: Hyperion 712801
Rejoice, the lord is king!
Your lord and king adore;
Mortals give thanks and sing,
And triumph evermore;
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Jesus, the Saviour, reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When he had purged our stains,
He took his seat above;
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
His kingdom cannot fail,
He rules o’er earth and heav’n;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv’n;
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
He sits at God’s right hand
Till all his foes submit,
And bow to his command,
And fall beneath his feet:
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
SONG: CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS
Artist: Choir of Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, Catherine Palmer (dir), Ronald Jordan (organ)
Words/Music: Robert Bridges, Godfrey Thring/George Elvey
Recording: Marquis 1811175
Crown him with many crowns,
the lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy chosen king
through all eternity.
Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o’er the grave,
who rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save;
His glories now we sing
who died, and rose on high;
who died eternal life to bring;
and lives that death may die.
Crown him the Lord of heav'n,
Enthroned in worlds above;
Crown him the King to whom is giv'n
The wondrous name of Love.
All hail, redeemer, hail!
For thou has died for me;
Thy praise will never ever fail
throughout eternity.
SONG: JESUS, MY LORD, MY GOD, MY ALL
Artist: Choir of the King’s School, Canterbury,
Words/Music: Collins/Trad
Recording: Priory PRCD 716
Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All,
Hear me, blest Savior, when I call;
Hear me, and from Thy dwelling-place
Pour down the riches of Thy grace:
Refrain:
Jesus, my Lord, I Thee adore;
O make me love Thee more and more.
Jesus, what didst Thou find in me
That thou hast dealt so lovingly?
How great the joy that Thou hast brought,
So far exceeding hope or thought!
Refrain:
Jesus, of Thee shall be my song;
To Thee my heart and soul belong:
All that I have or am is Thine;
And Thou, blest Savior, Thou art mine.
Refrain:
SONG: OUR GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST
Artist: Band of the Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery
Words/Music: Isaac Watts/William Croft
Recording: Manu CD MANU1286
Our God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home:
Under the shadow of thy throne
thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all our years away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
SONG: TEACH ME, MY GOD AND KING
Artist: St Chad’s Cathedral Choir, David Saint (dir), Nigel Morris (organ)
Words/Music: Herbert/Trad arr Sandys
Recording: Priory PRCD 723
Teach me, my God and King,
in all things thee to see;
and what I do in anything
to do it as for thee!
A man that looks on glass,
on it may stay his eye:
or if he pleaseth, through it pas,
and then the heaven espy.
All may of thee partake;
nothing can be so mean,
which with the tincture, ‘for thy sake’,
will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
makes drudgery diving;
who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
makes that and the action fine.
This is the famous stone
that turneth all to gold:
For that which God doth touch and own
cannot for less be told.
SONG: PSALM 23
Artist: Convivium Singers, Eamonn Dougan (dir)
Words/Music: Psalm 23/Rizza
Recording: Convivium Records CR022
[Lyrics not available]
SONG: A HYMN FOR ST CECILIA
Artist: Choir of St Clement’s Church, Philadelphia, Peter Conte (dir), Matthew Glandorf (organ)
Words/Music: Ursula Vaughan Williams/Herbert Howells
Recording: Dorian 790259
Sing for the morning’s joy, Cecilia, sing,
in words of youth and phrases of the Spring,
walk the bright colonnades by fountains’ spray,
and sing as sunlight fills the waking day;
till angels, voyaging in upper air,
pause on a wing and gather the clear sound
into celestial joy, wound and unwound -
a silver chain, or golden as your hair.
Sing for the loves of heaven and earth,
in words of music, and each word a truth;
marriage of heart and longings that aspire,
a bond of roses, and a ring of fire.
Your summertime grows short and fades away,
terror must gather to a martyr’s death;
but never tremble, the last indrawn breath
remembers music as an echo may.
Through the cold aftermath of centuries
Cecilia’s music dances in the skies;
lend us a fragment of the immortal air,
that with your choiring angels we may share
a word to light us through time-fettered night,
water of life, or rose of paradise:
so from the earth another song shall rise
to meet your own in heav’n’s long delight..
SONG: WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS
Artist: Cambridge Singers, John Scott (organ), John Rutter (dir)
Words/Music: Watts/Miller
Recording: Collegium 880126
When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them through his blood.
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?
His dying crimson, like a robe,
spreads o'er his body on the tree;
then am I dead to all the globe,
and all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
