Praise, my soul, the King of heaven
"Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" is a Christian hymn. Its text, which draws from Psalm 103, was written by Anglican divine (clergyman) Henry Francis Lyte.[1] First published in 1834, it endures in modern hymnals to a setting written by John Goss in 1868, and remains one of the most popular hymns in English-speaking denominations.[2]
The text of the hymn was first published in Lyte's The Spirit of the Psalms (1834),[2] a publication intended for the use of his own congregation in southern England.[1] It appeared in multiple influential publications, such as Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) and The English Hymnal (1906).[3] It remains extremely popular and John Richard Watson notes that "it is hard to find a major hymnbook that does not include it".[2]
The hymn is frequently sung in the United Kingdom and was used in the 1947 royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[1] It was also used as the opening hymn at the 2018 funeral of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush.[4]
The text is a free paraphrase of Psalm 103. While, in the mid-nineteenth century, hymn writers usually kept their metrical settings of psalm texts as close as possible to the original, Lyte instead decided to maintain the spirit of the words while freely paraphrasing them. The result speaks, in an imaginative fashion, with "beautiful imagery and thoughtful prose", of themes such as the Love of God, healing and forgiveness,[1] including the repeated exclamations "Praise Him!",[3] in what is a spectacular rhetorical statement of praise.[2]
In modern versions, Lyte's text has been frequently altered. One common variant, which originates in the 1861 Hymns Ancient and Modern collection, is replacing the line "Praise Him! Praise Him!" with "Alleluia!".
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,
to his feet thy tribute bring;
ransomed healed, restored, forgiven,
who like me his praise should sing?
Alleluia, alleluia,
praise the everlasting King.
Praise him for his grace and favour
to our fathers in distress;
praise him still the same for ever,
slow to chide and swift to bless:
Alleluia, alleluia,
glorious in his faithfulness.
Father-like, he tends and spares us,
well our feeble frame he knows;
in his hands he gently bears us,
rescues us from all our foes:
Alleluia, alleluia,
widely as his mercy flows.
Frail as summer's flower we flourish;
blows the wind and it is gone;
but, while mortals rise and perish,
God endures unchanging on:
Alleluia, alleluia,
praise the high eternal One.
Angels, help us to adore him;
ye behold him face to face;
sun and moon bow down before him,
dwellers all in time and space:
Alleluia, alleluia,
praise with us the God of grace.
