This paraphrase by Isaac Watts (1674-1748; see Biographies), one of three he made of Psalm 136, appears in his Psalms of David, 171% and is listed as “Abridged.” There is also a note: “1 have maintained the chorus ‘For His mercy endureth forever’ in a double form, to be used alternately, i.e., In every other stanza.” This is made clear by the repetition in the odd stanzas of the last two lines and in the even stanzas of the third line only. It is interesting to compare another paraphrase of this same psalm by John Milton, SDAH 1 12, “Let Us With a Gladsome Mind. “

The tune name DUNEDIN is from the old name for Edinburgh. The tune was first composed to accompany a text by O. B. Frothingham (1822-1895), “Thou Lord of Hosts, Whose Guiding Hand.” The setting was intended for unison singing at the King Edward Technical College of Dunedin, New Zealand, and was used in this way for many years, beginning in 1935.

Vernon Griffiths was born June 22, 1894, in West Kirby, Cheshire, England. After serving in World War I, he graduated from Cambridge in music and arts. He went to New Zealand in 1927 to lecture in music at the Christchurch Teachers College. In 1933 he became music master at the King Edward Technical College in Dunedin. Here he pioneered school music techniques that won him and the school an international reputation for practical musicmaking and the involvement of the whole school as a part-singing choir. In 1942 he was appointed professor of music and department head at the University of Canterbury. Curriculum reform and the growth of the town-gown relationship through community choirs, orchestras, and bands were manifestations of his tenure. He negated the ivory tower concept of university education. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire and an honorary D. Mus. degree from the University of Canterbury. He died in Christchurch, New Zealand, in November 1985.

-from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White