HYMN: How Excellent Your Name, O Lord

I skipped Psalm 7 by accident, It's not that I necessarily have to go in order, especially since I've written other hymns based on later-numbered Psalms. But I do so like to do things in an orderly fashion, to impose some sort of control upon the chaos that seems to run roughshod on my life.

So I worked on a metrical text for Psalm 8. This reminds me of the day I baptized the twins. The pastor of the church we were attending thought it would be good for the congregation to use The Message for the psalmody/introit during worship. If you haven't heard of it, the Message is a paraphrase of the Bible assembled by Eugene Peterson. Peterson has done a lot of good; the Message is so awful that I believe it all but offsets the good Peterson has done. Psalm 8 begins with the grand claim, "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!” The Message treats God's name with entirely too much familiarity and much less majesty: "GOD, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name." I was and remain unimpressed. 

(I remember sitting in on a Bible study class where the pastor was translating on the fly from the Greek, and one of the attendees had the audacity to hold up her copy of the Message and tell the pastor, "That's not what the Bible says," as if her paraphrase of Scripture was more accurate andd desirable than the original language and a literal translation. But I digress.)

Here's my Psalm 8 text. I wrote it with the tune KOMMT HER ZU MIR in mind, which is the tune for "O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe" (LSB 666). But I also like the way it sounds with MERIBAH, the tune for "May We Thy Precepts, Lord, Fulfill" (LSB 698). 

As always, feedback is love. 

How Excellent Your Name, O Lord

1. How excellent Your name, O Lord,

By all in heav'n and earth adored.

Your glory overflows.

And mouths of nursing babes will raise

The bold confession of Your praise

To silence all Your foes.

2. On moon and stars I meditate

And think of all You did create:

The wonders of Your hands.

So what is man that You pay heed,

For he is only dust indeed;

Why meet his great demands?

3. Man's honor nears the angel host's,

And of Your mindfulness he boasts.

With glory he is crowned.

And mighty grace have You displayed.

You name him lord of all You made.

To him all things are bound.

∆ 4. How excellent Your name, O Lord,

By all in heav'n and earth adored.

The people whom You claim

Will praise the God of whom we boast,

O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

All glory to Your name.

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KOMMT HER ZU MIR (LSB 666) or MERIBAH (LSB 698)

Psalm 8