God's School of Prayer, Second Semester, No. 4, Part One: The Power of Praise

I will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: And I will glorify Thy name forevermore. Psalm 86:12

The four lines of the Doxology have been the most frequently sung words of any known song for more than three hundred years. Even today nearly every English-speaking Protestant congregation still unites at least once each Sunday in this noble ascription of praise. It has been said that the doxology has done more to teach the doctrine of the Trinity than all the theological books ever written. It has often been called "the Protestant Te Deum Laudamus."

Bishop Thomas Ken wrote a number of hymns, and it was always his desire that Christians be allowed to express their praise to God without being limited only to Psalmody and the Bible canticles. He was one of the first English writers to produce hymns that were not merely versifications of the Psalms.

In 1673 Thomas Ken wrote a book entitled A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College. In one of the editions of this manual, Ken included three of his hymns that he wanted the students to sing each day as part of their devotions. These hymns were called "Morning Hymn," "Evening Hymn," and "Midnight Hymn." Each of these hymns closed with the familiar four lines we now know as the Doxology. The text of his "Morning Hymn" became especially popular. Two of the verses from this hymn are as follows:

"Awake, my soul, and with the sun Thy daily course of duty run, Shake off dull sloth, and early rise, To pay thy morning sacrifice. Direct, control, suggest, this day, All I design, or do, or say; That all my powers, with all their might, In Thy sole glory may unite." It is said that after Bishop Ken had written this hymn, he sang it to his own accompaniment on the lute every morning as part of his private devotions.

The tune for Bishop Ken's text, "Old Hundredth," is said to be the most famous of all Christian hymn tunes. It was composed or adapted by Louis Bourgeois, born in Paris, France, c. 1510. In 1541 Bourgeois moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he became an ardent follower of John Calvin and the Reformed Reformation Movement. Here he was given the responsibility to provide the tunes for the new metrical psalms which were being prepared at that time. Bourgeois was largely responsible for the Genevan Psalter, a monumental musical publication, completed and published in 1562. The tune was prepared originally for the French version of Psalm 134 and was included in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1551. The first English words to which it was wedded were William Kethe's version of Psalm 100, "All People That on Earth Do Dwell;" accordingly, the tune became known as "The Hundredth."