SNAP! 12

Psalm 24

From river-borne silt and from sea's wave-tossed sand
God fashions the earth and lays down the land.
He lays it all out for his people to have:
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

So who shall ascend upon God's holy hill
with clean hands and hearts, obeying his will;
who will not, no, cannot deceitfully swear
but stand without falsehood to worship him there?

While seeking the face of Israel's God
and blessing receiving from salvation's Lord
our justification through faith we will claim;
the new generation that calls on his name.

Lift your heads up, you gates,
open up, ancient doors
that the King may come in
who's the greatest of lords.
Strong and mighty is he
bearing victory rewards.
Lift your heads up, you gates,
open up, ancient doors.

tune: Light up the Fire

SNAP! 11

Psalm 21

Lord, in your strength how the King rejoices,
you grant requests made with kingly voices.
In your salvation his heart is leaping;
his exultation safe in your keeping.

In this encounter rich blessings giving,
he asks for life and you grant the living.
Of crowning mercies you are the giver,
of length of days and of life forever.

Great is his glory through your salvation;
majestic splendour in celebration,
for you make him the most blessed forever,
glad in the union that none can sever.

All buried hatred your hand exhuming,
its burning wrath in your fire consuming
and from your arrows its children flying;
its plans frustrated, its mischief dying.

The Lord is faithful, the King believing;
God's love is steadfast, his King unmoving.
In heaven exalted with praises ringing;
on earth, your strength, Lord, your people singing.

Tune: An t-Eilean Muileach (The Isle of Mull)

SNAP! 10

An Echo for Psalm 20
for Callum Hall

I called in the day of my trouble,
I called on his Holy Name,
got answering help from his temple
for God-my-deliverer came.
The torchlight I held was engulfed by
the Spirit who answers with fire,
my wrong way gave way to the high road,
he gave me my heart's own desire.

With banners and shouts of 'Salvation,'
rejoicing in answers to prayer —
God's saving might reaches from heaven,
he saves his Anointed from there —
we trust in the triumph of Jesus,
before him all kingdoms shall fall,
we'll rise and stand upright to bless him
'Salvation' shall echo our call.

Tune: Crugybar

Selah 8

Psalm 9:20
Put them in fear, O LORD!
Let the nations know that they are but men!
Selah.

"With our firstborn sons our honour
and our strength set in our horses
it was double our disaster then
to find ourselves with none;
sons slain of a night's fever
and the cavalry all gone
to perdition in the space of just one hour
and our king reduced to merely-human curses."

"Who'd have thought that when we'd won
the battle that we'd live to rue it?
Their 'god-box' toppled Dagon
when we took it to his house,
then (a toss-up for the worse thing)
plagues of haemorrhoid and mouse.
Now the new cart's trip is done,
they've got it back and welcome to it."

"The instruction was, as always, pretty clear,
'Make sure he's really dead!' — I tell it from the blood,
it's the living ones are bleeders
for it don't flow when they're dead —
This one looked dead already
so I had them spear his side
and I saw the sun go dark and I heard the curtain tear
and I knew this dead man was the son of God."

Selah 50

Psalm 76:9
when God arose to establish judgment,
to save all the humble of the earth.
Selah.

We made a night-raid of it.
When dawn broke we were on our way
back, with victory in the bag,
the hostages in tow and all the booty.
The plunderers slept as we robbed them of their prey;
we're long gone and they're still feeling for their hands.

It was the arrogance of it;
secure in their lair, no sentry
stood. They, supine as a log,
for all their early start failed in their duty,
sunk in death's sleep as we freed our families.
Oppression ends as we reunify our band.

They made a meal out of it.
Light swallowed. Darkness in the day
time joined them. Hidden in the fog,
the tables overturned, the Victor, muted,
binds the strong man in his house with his own keys.
Resurgent, Just Deliverer occupies the stand.

Selah 49

Psalm 76:3
There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.
Selah.

Melchizedek brought bread and wine
and stopped the triumph in its track;
'Shalom' (for now) extends to Sodom's plain;
divinely blessed, Abram refuses gain;
the garland hangs on Mamre's Oak;
sons are not cursed near Eshcol's Vine.

When David's pride was overcome
and God's wrath halted on the height,
an altar built upon the threshing floor
— Moriah's Mound the testing place once more;
the oxen paid for, as was right —
sufficed to cancel out the sum.

When God's Anointed left his throne
and incognito came to Zion
at him were shot the arrows of the bow,
he, bleeding, broke them, broken, overthrew,
— Lamb's silence of a roaring lion —
for thus in Judah God is known.

SNAP! 9

Psalm 126

The Lord turned around the
captivity of Zion.
We found ourselves like
those who awake still dreaming;
our mouths filled with laughter,
shouting rejoicing,
nations report the news:
‘The Lord who does great things
has done so for them!’
We gladly say, ‘Amen.’

Turn round now our capture
like rivers return to deserts.
Precious seed's sown therefore
soon we shall reap with shouting.
He who goes out weeping,
doubtless, returning,
will come again with joy —
The Lord who does great things
has done so for us —
with sheaves at harvest home.

The tune that this is written to fit is from Brahms Symphony No. 1 In C minor; the first principal theme from the fourth movement, marked 'Allegro non troppo, ma con brio' and ranging from bars 61-76 (with the last two notes back to the tonic chord and not as Brahms wrote it replacing bar 77.) I would transpose the tune to G.

SNAP! 8

Psalm 76

People who live in Jerusalem know their God,
in Israel’s land his great name is renowned,
his house is built and he lives in Jerusalem,
on Zion’s mountain height his home is found.

Just there and then he broke arrows within their flight
destroying all of the weapons of war.
Glorious majesty, outshining wild hills,
sends empty-handed wild men home once more.

Lethargy letting go what they had seized before,
soldiering skills taken out of their hands,
cavalry stunned by a word of rebuke from you.
Who, God of Jacob, before you can stand?

As in the past you for ever are reverenced,
now, when your anger is roused for the fight
out of the heavens you utter your ordinance,
shaken, the earth fears your voice and is quiet.

Rising, establishing those you ordained to save;
all humble people who on earth have dwelt;
even humanity’s anger gives praise to you;
remnants of wrath you’ll put on like a belt.

Make to the LORD your God vows and perform them;
let all around him bring gifts for his birth;
see how he severs the spirit of dominance;
kings’ reverence give to the King of the earth!

This paraphrase of Psalm 76 has an interpolation in the 2nd line of the last verse that is hardly in the original. I couldn’t resist it but anyone who believes that Psalm versions should be devoid of interpretation should change that line of mine, if, that is they are interested in using it at all. The only tune I know that will fit these words is Sanctissimus by W H Cooke 1820-1912.

Selah 7

Psalm 9:15f.
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid their own foot has been caught.
(16) The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

Looking back from the cave’s mouth
he can remember (his) Lot’s wife looking back
and him not looking back at her while
escaping for his life, then, even unto Zoar —

And now, he can’t remember how he came
to have two incestuously begotten sons
or why, after he skirted round the tar pits, he didn’t just go back
to live in his Uncle Abram’s tents once more.

—•—

Looking forward even from the grave’s mouth
he can scarcely remember Potiphar’s wife
and him not looking back at her while
escaping for his life, to the prison, to the throne —

And now he brings to remembrance
his two significantly born-in-Egypt sons
and why it was written even as he passed Shechem to go to Dothan
that one day all his bones would there return.

—•—

Looking out from the cliff-edge of Mount Nebo
he can remember Zipporah circumcising Gershom
as though he’d been there, as though they’d all been there
escaping with their lives, without a hoof left there —

And now he maps his remembrance out
of two significantly not-born-in-Egypt sons
and why his firstborn’s circumcision links back to a body in the sand
and on to that mountain over there — just there!

SNAP! 7

Three times he left the sleeping three,
three times he stumbled to the ground,
three times he prayed for respite
but none found.

Three trials were made upon his life,
three judges sat upon his case,
three verdicts; justice vanquished
without trace.

Three hours of darkness lay upon the earth,
three hours he hung and suffered on that tree,
three hours Godhead self-estrangement knew
for me.

This song was printed in Symphony 1992 vol. 1. under the title ‘Symmetry’ and without the ‘but’ in the fourth line. I have a tune in my head to fit the words but I’ve never quite managed to garner the score-writing skills to get it down on paper. Any tune has to cope with the extra beats in the last verse.
I do know that the crucifixion took longer than three hours but the hours of darkness were specifically three hours and I believe that to be significant both for the nature of Christ’s suffering at that time and the work of the reconciliation.

Selah 6

Psalm 7:5
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

Must Shimei then have lost his mind
to ambush David as he trod
his ruin’s road to Mahanaim?
No Abigail to plead for him
but David, reaping what he’d sowed,
forbad to pay him back in kind.

His accusation in the wind
of cuckoldry and regicide;
suppression of Saul’s family’s claim.
Discount for now his family name,
was Nathan’s charge unjustified
and just as if I’d never sinned?

A fusillade of sticks and stones —
His supplication could have had
judgment delivered from the throne
but now dethroned he stands alone
to leave alone a man gone mad —
The rattling of his cupboard’s bones.

—•—

And all the bones are shuddered out of joint;
no judgment falls on those who mocking wait;
though patently he has done nothing wrong
(his accusation puts him on the throne!)
Magdaline need not fret for God of late
his risen, conquering, glorious Son anoints.

SNAP! 6

The Freedom-giver’s story
turned the world upside down
for it changed the lives of people
as it spread from town to town.
And, shinning through the darkness,
see the message plain today
written large so he that runs may read
that ‘Jesus is the Way.’

He said:
‘I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life,
no one comes to the Father but by me.
The Spirit will lead you into all truth,
you shall know the truth,
and the Truth shall set you free.’

The freedom that he gave up
was the freedom that he gave.
See those nail-pierced hands of Jesus
still stretched out with power to save.
And the life he gave a ransom
is the life he gives to men.
See him, through the clouds, ascending:
‘This same Jesus will come again.’

The darkness that he passed through
brought our souls into his light,
by submission and subjection,
Jesus won the freedom-fight,
as the fruit of his rejection,
to our God we’re reconciled,
in the silence of the victim,
hear the cry of a new-born child!

CODA:
‘And if the Son shall free you, you shall be free indeed.’

Selah 5

Psalm 4:4

Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah.

A city in the valley, lit and warm and barred
to me because of principle. And Esau with two wives
belonging to these people! My heart, cold
as this stone, clutches emptiness to hold.

Me in this place, within constraint, between two lives
and if and when? … and then you’ll be my God.

The woman of my longing — morning dawns to dread!
No Rachel here. A cousin, yes! But facing me this ‘Leah.’
A custom of these people! Exile hope; lies; toiled-
for, lack-love marriage; grasped-at vision; spoiled.

Me for a servant’s bonds and bound for all to see
the ladder’s in the round and round and round I tread.

This valley of decision, cleared of mine, until
there’s only me to fret about, an exile coming home,
the father of these people. Come the day
here comes the other man, some ghost to lay.

Me down to sleep at last. When sinew shrunk on bone
reminds me to remember, I’ll remember and be still.

SNAP! 5

Shadrach, Meshach, Abed Nego were stoked into the fire,
the old king took a look in just to watch the flames climb higher.
Those three wise men in the fire stood
accompanied by the Son of God;
the fire couldn't touch them for the Lord was on their side.

He was the:
fourth man in the fiery furnace,
third man going to Emmaus,
second man to represent us,
God's only Son.

Cleopas and a friend of his were walking home by night,
a stranger came and talked with them and showed them what was right.
How their hearts did burn within
as he showed how the Scriptures spoke of him,
their fears and doubts were banished as the Lord walked by their side.

Adam was the founder of the dying human race,
condemned to crucify until the Saviour took his place.
Adam's sin meant the fall of man,
salvation was God's rescue plan,
the love of Jesus bought it for the Lord is on our side.

Selah 4

Psalm 4:2

O men, how long shall my honour be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah.

Pseudo-conjoined but stranger fraternals from long before birth;
from womb-battering struggle to ‘Grasper’ and ‘Red-as-the-Earth’.
One, patience subverted to stirring a savoury snare,
to hunt hunter, exhausted; the other, the elder, the heir,
thus prizing the bounty.

Exchange the birthright for a bowl of lentil stew,
a cheat-the-belly, filling up of you
to leave you empty.


Primogenitured choice, designated receiver of blessing to come.
Self-destructing intent: bless and die when the hunter gets home.
The mother usurps, instigating the turn of the tide.
Her son, pliant, and, blindness (the father’s) a good place to hide
playacting the story.

Extract the blessing in a sweat of purloined suit:-
• Taste,
• touch
• and smell all tally,
• though hearing is out.
Skin, smothering glory.

Proto-generic — specifically waiting to claim back the lot.
In two groups advancing — appeasement the heart of the plot.
A meeting of brothers; (a cleansing? a healing? a break
with disjointed experience?) — for family-value, a wake
cements the division.

Accept the bribe for now and let your brother go
or take this chance of cleaving to him — No!
Abandoned the vision.

SNAP! 4

I feel the warmth of your presence and my flowing tears can’t drown
your joyous welcome for a prodigal come home.
There’s a mountain ridge below me even when I’ve fallen down
and every everlasting reason to go on.

Where I go, you’ve been before me so you know the way ahead,
at its sunrise know the ending of each day;
leading me out of temptation, you supply my daily bread,
and into life you are in truth the living way.

In the midst of my confusion you give order to my life,
in the middle of the night you give a song;
for my thirst you gave me water, for my loneliness a wife,
in the measure of my weakness made me strong.

—•—

This song was published in Symphony in 1993 which means that it cuts it as poetry but that doesn't mean that I should presume that anyone could sing it as a hymn. For a start there is its second-last line which is a bit ‘for married men only.’ Maybe a solution would be to make the second verse a chorus? More likely someone else will be able to asset-strip usable lines out of it, in which case it would be good to be informed. The most likely scenario is that nobody will write music for it and it will never be heard. That's maybe why I hardly write songs any more.

Selah 3

Psa 3:8

Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah.

Sunshine in the placid sky,
fresh-plucked olive leaf in mouth,
the rocks' jaws' gaping teeth are worn flat,
the sea's mouth robbed; landfall on Ararat.
East, West, spreading, North and South;
rainbow colours; 'Multiply!'

Sound of victory — a sigh,
shoot of life from sapling death.
The counsel of the wise to silence brought,
the bite of lion's whelp amounts to nought.
Wind of change is dying breath.
Life is hard and then you die.

Risen at the break of day
and still, 'The Way,' 'The Life,' 'The Truth.'
The unchewed cud is bursting from its gut
the ungnawed bone has not had time to rot.
Eagle's flight renews his youth,
counterpoint of 'Gone away.'

I suspect that I ought to give my friend Guy Davies the credit for the last line in the second verse since I think that that's the outline for a sermon he gave while a student 16 years ago. That's how I remember it anyway. The middle lines of the last verse are just about the most vivid I've ever written and I hope they are not thought to be inappropriate descriptions of the resurrection.

SNAP! 3

At ten in the morning with their duties all done
and the crowd standing round for the kill
they sat on the ground and just looked at the man
they were putting to death on the hill.

His private effects they had claimed as their own,
they divided them up on the ground
but they had to cast lots for his coat
for it seems that no seam in that robe could be found.

The seamless robe that the Master had on
was considered too good to be torn
but the Servant who wore it to Calvary Hill
was torn in the place of his own.

Our first parents sewed fig leaves to cover their shame
but the wind blew their cover apart
and God made them clothing of animal skin
for humanity, naked at heart.

The seamless robe that the Master had on
was considered too good to be torn
but God’s Lamb was led to be nailed to the tree,
to be shorn for the sins of his own.

All heaven must have marvelled as the Son of God said,
"Here I am, send me out in their place."
Swaddled at birth, he was stripped at the death
and to cover the church with his grace.

The sinless life that the Master took on
is eternally part of our race
and you can’t get to God till you go to the Man
on the cross wearing God’s human face.

The seamless robe that the Master had on
was considered too good to be torn
but the Son took upon him the form of a man
and he died in the place of his own.

I don't think that this song would have found a place in Praise! but then SNAP!'s Not Another Praise!

Selah 2

Psalm 3:4

I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah.

A roof to protect from the rain,
three decks below, teeming with life.
Up! up from the depths once again
and three sons secure in the Ark.

Far away from the battle and strife,
from the bite at the heels and the bark;
self-condemned of the theft of a wife;
now the third son is spiked to the pain.

And the glory concealed in the dark,
God’s exalted regalia and train;
Name; raised to most excellent mark —
The Son-of-the-Three takes the knife.

A Paraphrase for SNAP!

Amos 9:11-15 "In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, (12) that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name," declares the LORD who does this. (13) "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (14) I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. (15) I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them," says the LORD your God.

Raised, the fallen booth of David
stands as in the days of old,
Edom’s remnant now possessing,
Gentiles brought into the fold,
ploughman overtaking reaper,
vintage, planting of the vine,
hills with bounty overflowing,
mountains dripping with sweet wine.

Exiles home to build, returning,
planting at the Lord’s command,
planted, not to be uprooted
anymore from Canaan’s land.
David’s Son was once abandoned,
through his wounds the River ran,
cut off from the land of living,
rootless, drained, demolished man.

Raised and desolate no longer,
to the world his bounty flows,
on the throne of God established,
increased, endless kingdom grows.
Raised, the fallen booth of David
stands as in the days of old,
Edom’s remnant now possessing,
Gentiles brought into the fold.

I can't imagine this appearing in SNAP! to any other tune than Ode to Joy but maybe you have better ideas. Do let me know. The very real and useful Praise! hymnbook is too full already but there is always room for new songs