2 Feb 2020

Hymns on Sunday, 2 February 2020

From Hymns on Sunday, 2:30 am on 2 February 2020

This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.

Kapiti Island

Kapiti Island Photo: 123RF

SONG: GOD BLESS OUR LAND

Shirley Erena Murray

Shirley Erena Murray Photo: NZ Hymnbook Trust

Artist: Viva Voce, John Rosser (dir), Michael Bell (organ)
Words/Music: Shirley Murray/Barry Brinson
Recording: NZ Hymnbook Trust 941300

God bless our land, in every generation,
God bless our people, growing as one nation,
God bless our islands, home and whenua,
Aotearoa, Aotearoa

God give us hope in common cause and caring,
each bringing treasures, baskets for the sharing,
grieving the wrongs of history no more –
Aotearoa, Aotearoa

God bless our land, its beauty and its blending
into communities of warm befriending,
proud in the cultures settled on our shore –
Aotearoa, Aotearoa

God bless the child whose feet are firmly planted
here in our place of freedoms daily granted,
seedbed and soil for peace and aroha –
Aotearoa, Aotearoa

SONG: OUR LIFE HAS ITS SEASONS

Artist: Festival Singers, Guy Jansen (dir)
Words/Music: Shirley Murray/Colin Gibson
Label: Festivity Productions FPCD 2007

Our life has its seasons, and God has the reasons
why spring follows winter, and new leaves grow,
for there's a connection with our resurrection
that flowers will bud after frost and snow.

Refrain:
So there's never a time to stop believing,
there's never a time for hope to die,
there's never a time to stop loving,
these three things go on.


There's a time to be planting, a time to be plucking,
a time to be laughing, a time to weep,
a time to be building, a time to be breaking,
a time to be waking, a time to sleep.
Refrain:

There's a time to be hurting, a time to be healing,
a time to be saving, a time to spend,
a time to be grieving, a time to be dancing,
a time for beginning, a time to end.
Refrain:

SONG: THE GOD OF LOVE MY SHEPHERD IS

Artist: Choir of Truro Cathedral, Andrew Nethsingha (dir), Christopher Gray (organ)
Words/Music: Psalm 23 paraphrased Herbert/attrib Collignon
Recording: Priory PRCD 710

The God of love my Shepherd is,
And He that doth me feed;
While He is mine and I am His,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass:
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, He doth convert,
And bring my mind in frame,
And all this not for my desert,
But for His holy name.

Yea, in death’s shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
To guard, Thy staff to bear.

Surely Thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove
So neither shall my praise.

SONG: SUN OF MY SOUL, MY SAVIOUR DEAR

Artist: Choir of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland
Words/Music: Keble/Oakeley
Recording: Private CD 805

Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
it is not night if Thou be near;
O, may no earth-born cloud arise,
to hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes.

When the soft dews of kindly sleep
my weary eyelids gently steep,
be my last thought - how sweet to rest
forever on my Saviour's breast!

Abide with me from morn till eve,
for without Thee I cannot live;
abide with me when night is nigh,
for without Thee I dare not die.

If some poor wandering child of Thine
have spurned today the voice divine,
now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
let him no more lie down in sin.

Watch by the sick; enrich the poor
with blessings from Thy boundless store;
be every mourner’s sleep tonight,
like infant’s slumbers, pure and light.

Come near and bless us when we wake,
ere through the world our way we take;
till in the ocean of Thy love
we lose ourselves in heaven above.

SONG: BY COOL SILOAM’S SHADY RILL

Artist: Kenneth McKellar (tenor), Choir of Paisley Abbey
Words/Music: Heber/Gardiner
Recording: Decca 448683

By cool Siloam's shady rill
how sweet the lily grows!
How sweet the breath beneath the hill
of Sharon's dewy rose!

O thou, whose infant feet were found
within thy Father's shrine,
whose years, with changeless virtue crowned,
were all alike divine,

Dependent on thy bounteous breath
we seek thy grace alone,
through every stage of life, and death,
to keep us still thine own.

SONG: THINE BE THE GLORY

Artist: Choir of Portsmouth Cathedral
Words/Music: Budry/Handel
Recording: Herald HAVPCD 205

Thine be the glory,
risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory,
thou o'er death hast won;
angels in bright raiment
rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave clothes
where thy body lay.

Refrain:
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son,
Endless is the vict'ry, thou o'er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us,
risen from the tomb;
Lovingly he greets us,
scatters fear and gloom;
let the church with gladness,
hymns of triumph sing;
for her Lord now liveth,
death hath lost its sting.
Refrain:

No more we doubt thee,
glorious prince of life;
life is naught without thee;
aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors,
through thy deathless love:
bring us safe through Jordan
to thy home above.
Refrain:

SONG: COME AND FIND THE QUIET CENTRE

Artist: Sings Harry
Words/Music: Shirley Murray/
Recording: Private CD 799

Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, touches base,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we're shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.

In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other's pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there's a place for deepest dreaming,
there's a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit's lively scheming
there is always room to spare!

SONG: LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES EXCELLING

Artist: Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, London Musici, Howard Goodall (piano)
Words/Music: C Wesley/Howard Goodall
Recording: EMI 2 15047

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling;
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion;
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast;
let us all in thee inherit;
let us find the promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty, to deliver;
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.

Finish then thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee:
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.

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