“God Is the Singer’s Friend”
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by The Leupold Foundation will be posted on the home page of the website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month. The Hymn of the Month will often be thematically appropriate for a particular season of the church year or it may be related to a more general theme about the church’s mission in contemporary society. Thus, pastors and/or musicians may wish to have the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then invite the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn on each of the remaining Sundays. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday in the church year or for annual commemorations, such as the liturgies of Holy Week; such hymns may only be appropriate on the designated day, or they might be used as a Hymn of the Month in anticipation of or in response to the particular day observed on the church calendar.
The Hymn of the Month for September 2024, “God Is the Singer’s Friend”, was subtitled “A Hymn to Celebrate Congregational Song” by author John A. Dalles (1951-2017). This trinitarian hymn devotes a stanza to each person of the Trinity (“God Is the singer’s friend,” “Christ is the singer’s friend,” God’s own breath is the singer’s friend”) to emphasize the role of each in inspiring congregational song, before concluding with a fourth stanza drawing imagery from Psalm 150. Although this hymn could be used on most any Sunday in the church year and would be particularly apt for Trinity Sunday, it could certainly be introduced in Sept. as many churches celebrate the beginning of a new program year for their various music ministries. Either suggested tune, FOREST GREEN or ELLACOMBE would work well with this text, and, both are familiar to most congregations.
John A. Dalles was a retired Presbyterian pastor who served as Interim Senior Minister for Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. A graduate of Penn State Uni. (BS), Lancaster Theological Seminary (MDiv), and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (DMin), Dalles was previously pastor for churches in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Two volumes of his collected hymns, We Turn to God (2010) and God Is the Singer’s Friend (2013), appear in the catalog of The LeupoldFoundation.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.