CHRISTIAN LIFE >> Thankfulness
SDAH 560
Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the Creator triumphantly raise,
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who guideth us on to the end of our days.
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For Worship Leaders
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Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
This text was first written for this tune by Katherine K. Davis (1892-1980; see SDAH 129) in the 1920s under her nom de plans of John Cowley. It was published by E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Boston, in 1939, as anthem No. 1770. Her creative arrangement and the descant have made it a universal favorite of church choirs everywhere.
THE ASH GROVE is an engaging Welsh melody that uses the separate notes of the three major chords almost in arpeggio form, producing a result that is enjoyable and easy to sing. As her source of the tune, Katherine Davis credits a pamphlet titled Book of National Songs, published by Novello. It is an old Welsh song of two stanzas that tells of the lament (although the melody sounds like a cheerful one!) of a lover for his sweetheart who “sleeps neath the green turf down by the ash grove.” The tune has four long double phrases of 23 syllables each, the first, second, and fourth being identical, and the third phrase ending with a change of key to the dominant. This is not an unusual pattern, and with the frequent four-note scale passages, both ascending and descending, the melody is very easy to learn and sing, even after a first hearing.
The present arrangement in four-part harmony is by Wayne Hooper (1920-; see Biographies).
For a unison setting of the same tune, see SDAH 407, “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing.”
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the Creator triumphantly raise,
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who guideth us on to the end of our days.
His banners are o’er us, His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night,
‘Til shadows have vanished and darkness is banished,
as forward we travel from light into light.
2
His law He enforces: the stars in their courses,
The sun in His orbit, obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,
The deeps of the ocean proclaim Him divine,
We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing,
With glad adoration a song let us raise,
‘Til all things now living unite in thanksgiving
To God in the highest, hosanna and praise.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
1 Chron 16:23 (a) Ps 150:6; Gen 1:21, 25; Ps 48:14, 20:5; Ex 13:21 (b) Judg 5:20; Isa 40:26; Ps 148:9,7,12
Author
Katherine K. Davis (1892-1980)
Copyright
Words used with permission of E.C. Schirmer Music Co., copyright owner. Arrangement copyright 1984 by Wayne Hooper.
Hymn Tune
THE ASH GROVE
Metrical Number
12.11.12.11.D.
Arranged
Wayne Hooper, 1984 (1920-)
Tune Source
Traditional Welsh Melody
Alternate Setting
SDAH 407
