This week you can hear a hymn with words by writer Rudyard Kipling - Non Nobis Domine. Kipling wrote the poem for the 'Pageant of Parliament', an event held in the Royal Albert Hall London in 1934 to celebrate the history of Parliament and the British people over the 700 years since Magna Carta.
Holy Trinity Cathedral Photo: RNZ / Paul Bushnell
SONG: GOD BLESS OUR LAND
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: NON NOBIS DOMINE
Artist: Adolf Fredrik Boys’ Choir
Words/Music: Rudyard Kipling/Roger Quilter
Recording: Nosag 2010
Words from https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_non_nobis.htm
Non nobis Domine!
Not unto us, O Lord!
The Praise or Glory be
Of any deed or word;
For in Thy Judgment lies
To crown or bring to nought
All knowledge or device
That Man has reached or wrought.
And we confess our blame
How all too high we hold
That noise which men call Fame,
That dross which men call Gold.
For these we undergo
Our hot and godless days,
But in our hearts we know
Not unto us the Praise.
O Power by Whom we live
Creator, Judge, and Friend,
Upholdingly forgive
Nor fail us at the end:
But grant us well to see
In all our piteous ways
Non nobis Domine!
Not unto us the Praise!
SONG: MY GOD, HOW WONDERFUL THOU ART
Artist: Marlborough College Chapel Choir
Words/Music: Frederick Faber/Thomas Turton
Recording: Priory PRCD 702
My God, how wonderful thou art,
thy majesty how bright!
How beautiful thy mercy seat,
in depths of burning light!
How dread are Thine eternal years,
O everlasting Lord;
by prostrate spirits, day and night,
incessantly adored.
How wonderful, how beautiful,
the sight of Thee must be,
Thine endless wisdom, boundless pow'r,
and awful purity.
O how I fear Thee, Living God,
with deepest, tend'rest fears,
and worship Thee with trembling hope,
and penitential tears.
Yet I may love Thee too, O Lord,
Almighty as Thou art;
for Thou hast stooped to ask of me
the love of my poor heart.
No earthly father loves like Thee,
no mother e’er so mild,
bears and forbears, as Thou hast done
with me, Thy sinful child.
Father of Jesus, love's reward,
what rapture will it be,
prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
and ever gaze on Thee!
SONG: IN THE LORD IS OUR JOY AND SALVATION
Artist: St Thomas Music Group, Margaret Rizza (dir)
Words/Music: Margaret Rizza
Recording: Alliance Music 190892
In the Lord is my joy and salvation
He gives light to all his creation.
In the Lord is my joy and salvation,
He gives peace and true consolation.
SONG: THE PRESENT TENSE
Artist: Sue McHaffie
Words/Music: Sydney Carter
Recording: Reflection RL301
Your holy hearsay is not evidence.
Give me the good news in the present tense.
What happened nineteen hundred years ago
May not have happened.
How am I to know?
So shut your Bibles up and show me how
The Christ you talk about
Is living now.
SONG: THERE WERE NINETY AND NINE
Artist: Tennessee Ernie Ford
Words/Music: William Fullerton/Trad
Recording: Realgone 177223
There were ninety and nine that safely lay
in the shelter of the fold,
but one was out on the hills away,
far off from the gates of gold,
away on the mountains wild and bare,
away from the tender Shepherd's care,
away from the tender Shepherd's care.
"Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and nine:
are they not enough for thee?"
But the Shepherd made answer,
"This of mine has wandered away from me,
and although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find my sheep;
I go to the desert to find my sheep."
But none of the ransomed ever knew
how deep were the waters crossed,
nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through,
ere he found his sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert he heard its cry,
sick and helpless and ready to die,
sick and helpless and ready to die.
And all through the mountains, thunder-riven,
and up from the rocky steep,
there rose a glad cry to the gate of heaven,
"Rejoice! I have found my sheep!"
And the angels echoed around the throne,
"Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own;
rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own.
SONG: LET ALL THINGS NOW LIVING
Artist: The Redeemer Choir, Austin, Texas
Words/Music: Katherine Davis/Trad
Recording: Redeemer Choir
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 guides us and leads to the end of our days.
His banners fly o’er us;
His light goes before us,
a pillar of fire shining forth in the night,
till shadows have vanished
and darkness is banished,
as forward we travel from light into light.
His law he enforces, the stars in their courses
And sun in its 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
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving:
"To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!"
SONG: THE LORD’S MY SHEPHERD
Artist: Scottish Festival Singers, and Choir of the Independent Presbyterian Church Savannah
Words/Music: Psalm 23/Jessie Seymour Irvine
Recording: Records DK 2019
The Lord's my shepherd; I'll not want.
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
My soul He doth restore again;
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E'en for His own name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through death's dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.
My table Thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head Thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.
Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me;
And in God's house forevermore
My dwelling place shall be.
SONG: NOTHING NOW CAN SEPARATE US
Artist: Titahi Bay Gospel Chapel congregation
Words/Music: Romans Ch 8/Felicia Edgecombe
Recording: Private 2428
Nothing now can separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Not trouble, nor poverty, nor danger, nor death;
For in all these things
we can be conquerors through Jesus;
Nothing can separate us from his love.
Jesus you were human,
and you understand my weakness;
my disappointments, loneliness and fear.
And you’ve been there before me,
You have suffered all those hard things.
Please turn me around and lead me on.
When I look around me,
l see everyone has troubles,
and all of nature’s subject to decay.
So how I long for freedom
from its frailty and its bondage,
now living with Christ in full control.
Spirit comes to help us,
and he bears us up in weakness;
he pleads for us according to God’s will.
He gives us faith to see God
working in our lives for good
thus making us sons, setting us free.
