Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
A powerful hymn of praise, written as a paraphrase of Psalm 103 by the same man who wrote Abide With Me. What a great hymn!
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. This is my first one of 2024. I took a nice break over Christmas and New Year. I hope you're all well and ready to go deeper into the hymns this year. I've already done all the ones that I know, so each one I'm now having to learn.
I learned this one last week for a memorial service that I conducted here at a local retirement home. I learned it a few days before the service, and when the time came to sing the song, I asked the people to stand. I said, "I don't really know the song. I've just learned it, so please, you're going to have to help me out." Afterwards, my friend Steve came to me and said, "What church did you grow up in that you don't know 'Praise My Soul the King of Heaven'?" I said, "Well, I grew up singing 'Shout to the Lord' and all the modern worship songs. We didn't do any hymns." Evidently this is one that I've missed out on because it seems as if it's very popular.
Do you know "Praise My Soul the King of Heaven"? Do you remember singing this in a particular church? Do you have any memories associated with the song, or does it mean something to you? As always, please share that in the comments below. It's always great for us to share in each other's joys and hear each other's stories.
The Story Behind "Praise My Soul the King of Heaven"
This song was written by Henry Francis Lyte, who also wrote "Abide with Me," which is actually the first Friday Classic Hymn that I did. Go and have a look at that—I'll put a link in the description below. It was not quite as in-depth as I'm doing them now, but I told his story a bit in that song.
Lyte studied in Dublin and became a minister at a young age. But much like John Wesley, whom I often speak about being in that theological family, Lyte had a conversion experience after becoming a minister. It became personal for him in a new way when a friend of his had an amazing experience with God Himself. This friend of his was also a clergyman, and in this man, Lyte saw something special—a closeness with God that he didn't have.
He says this about the whole experience: "He died happy under the belief that though he had deeply erred, there was One whose death and sufferings would atone for his delinquencies and be accepted for all that he had incurred."
He goes on to say, "I was greatly affected by the whole matter and brought to look at life and its issue with a different eye than before. I began to study my Bible and preach in another manner than I had previously done."
He saw this man die with absolute assurance of his sins being forgiven. He saw then in the Bible, as he went on to study it, that that's how it works—that it's not earning God's grace, but that it is a gift given to you regardless of your sin if you place your faith in Him. This changed his life. His ministry changed after that, and he wrote a whole bunch of poems. His most famous one is most likely "Abide with Me," but this one is up there as one that really is well known and has endured over the years.
Lyte became more and more sick. Eventually he preached a farewell sermon to his congregation and moved out to France, where he was going to settle down and retire. But he died a few weeks after reaching there. It is thought that he may have written "Abide with Me" in those last moments, although other people think it was before. Go check out that video for more on that.
"Praise My Soul the King of Heaven" was his attempt to rewrite Psalm 103 using some different language and putting it into a singable form. Let's have a look at the words he wrote, and I want to compare them to the words of Psalm 103, which is what it was based on.
What Do the Lyrics of "Praise My Soul the King of Heaven" Mean?
Verse 1: Ransomed, Healed, Restored, Forgiven
Look at the beginning of Psalm 103: "Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Now verse one has a bunch of that in it. Have a look at verse one:
"Praise My Soul the king of heaven."
That's just like the beginning of the song—bless the Lord, or praise the Lord.
"To His feet your tribute bring."
Then here are those benefits that the psalm mentioned:
"Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven."
Those are the wonderful gifts that God brings to those who come to Him. He ransoms us—in other words, He buys us back from slavery to sin. He heals us in many ways, not always physically, but always spiritually. He restores us back into relationship with Him and forgives us, wipes away our stains.
"Who like me His praise should sing?"
How can it be that I am singing His praise? It's amazing that He would give these amazing things to me, and so I'll sing His praise in return.
"Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him."
Some modern translators change that to "Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia." Same thing—it's a proclamation of worship for what He's done.
"Praise the Everlasting King."
Beautiful verse, just thanking God and praising Him for what He does in our lives.
Verse 2: Slow to Chide and Swift to Bless
Verse two is based on the next few verses of Psalm 103. Let's read those verses. Verses 6 to 8 say: "The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love."
Look for how he paraphrases this whole thing in verse two:
"Praise Him for His grace and favour to His people in distress."
That verse spoke about Moses and the people of Israel, who were oppressed. But God showed them grace and favour by freeing them and sending them across the desert to the promised land. He looked out for them in that way.
"Praise Him still the same as ever."
I like that line—never changing.
"Slow to chide and swift to bless."
That's a beautiful line to sing. Did you hear it there in that psalm? The psalm said that He's slow to anger and abounding in love, and so this is his reworking of that. Slow to chide—He's not going to just whack you every time you step out of place. That's not God's way. He is patient and longing to bless us and give us more grace.
"Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him."
It says again.
"Glorious in His faithfulness."
Yes, we praise Him because He's faithful, and that makes Him glorious, unlike anybody else.
Verse 3: Father-Like He Tends and Spares Us
Verse three is his verse about the father-like tendencies of God. Have a look at the scripture first. Psalm 103:13–14 says: "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust."
Now the song goes like this:
"Father-like He tends and spares us; well our feeble frame He knows."
God knows that we are tender and frail and that we are just human beings.
"In His hands He gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes."
He tends and spares us. This is a beautiful verse about how loving and gentle and kind God is to us.
"Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him. Widely yet His mercy flows."
God's mercy is so wide. It comes down in such a great quantity, and so we praise Him for loving us in such a wonderful way.
Verse 4: Frail as Summer's Flower We Flourish
Now verse four is the forgotten verse. It's been left out of many hymnals, so maybe you've never sung it—or maybe you have. Maybe this was in the hymnal that you grew up singing this with. If that's the case, please share below if you know this verse or not.
It comes from the next few verses of Psalm 103, which says: "The life of mortals is like grass; they flourish like a flower in the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children's children—with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all."
Now the verse in the song goes like this:
"Frail as summer's flower we flourish."
That's a nice paraphrase of what he said. He spoke about how we are frail and mortal like grass flourishing, but then blown over by the wind, which is what the next line says:
"Blows the wind and it is gone."
"But while mortals rise and perish, God endures unchanging on."
Lovely paraphrase of that scripture. While human beings will die in the flesh, God endures unchanging on.
"Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him. Praise the high Eternal One."
He's truly unlike us. Again, this makes Jesus's death an amazing thing. The fact that God became flesh and took on the form of one who was frail like the grass that blows over in the wind and died on the cross in our place—amazing, amazing—that God would do that. Because He's the immortal one and the unchanging one, but He died. Of course, He rose again, and though we die, we can still live on in the next life if our faith is in Him.
Verse 5: Angels, Help Us to Adore Him
Let's go to verse five, which is pretty well known. Let's read the scripture first. Again, this is verses 20 and 22, where the psalmist now asks the angels to get involved: "Praise the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will. Praise the Lord, all His works everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul."
So the psalmist is calling on the angels to sing, and Lyte in his song does the same.
"Angels, help us to adore Him."
That's a cool thought. As the angels are singing, as we've read in the psalm, that helps us. We join in with them as we sing.
"Ye behold Him face to face."
We don't—we are still only seeing Him as a shadow—but we see Him face to face one day.
"Sun and moon, bow down before Him, dwellers all in time and space."
To all of creation who are still in time and space, not up in heaven with the angels, bow down and worship Him too.
"Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him. Praise with us the God of grace."
The end there is calling all of creation: praise with us this God who we love so much.
Conclusion
Isn't this an amazing song? It was sung at Queen Elizabeth's wedding in 1947—interestingly enough, on the date of Henry Lyte's death, 100 years in fact after he had died. What a wonderful song and what a great call to praise.
Maybe I should bring this one to our church. I'm thinking of doing it. Please share your comments and your thoughts below. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, I'd love for you to do that. For those of you who are able to support the ministry I do, that would be wonderful. I already appreciate every donation. It gives me the opportunity to sit and do this and spend time doing it. You can support through Patreon or PayPal. Thank you very much.
Let's sing the song together, and I hope that this will be a moment of great worship for us as we praise God for all these wonderful things that He does.
References
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
Ian Bradley. The Penguin Book of Great Hymns. 1989. Penguin Group: London
