August - All People That on Earth Do Dwell
Lyrics
All people that on earth do dwell
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice
Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell
Come ye before Him and rejoice
Know that the Lord is God indeed
Without our aid He did us make
We are His flock, He doth us feed
And for His sheep He doth us take
O enter then His gates with praise
Approach with joy His courts unto
Praise, laud, and bless His name always
For it is seemly so to do
Because the Lord our God is good
His mercy is forever sure
His truth at all times firmly stood
And shall from age to age endure
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Story Behind the Hymn
A Psalter is a song book of all the Psalms from the Bible. It organizes all the words into rhyming lyrics with simple melodies you can sing. In the 16th century, when the Reformer John Calvin (see note below) wanted to encourage people to know the Bible for themselves, he thought singing God’s Psalms would be an excellent way to do that! It was and still is! Jewish people have been singing them since they were first written.
Calvin asked a famous composer of the time, Louis Bourgeois, to write the melodies for his church Psalter. He asked the poet Clement Marot (and later Theodore de Bèze) to write French singing versions of the texts. This hymn is probably the most famous of them all, and is still widely sung today. It is called the Old 100th because it follows the thoughts of Psalm 100.
It was translated into English by William Kethe. The version we sing today includes the ‘Doxology’ as the final verse, which was written later by Thomas Ken (1637-1711).
‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.’
(And then the big ‘Amen’ at the end!)
English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams did a marvelous setting of the whole hymn for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (who recently passed away). We used this arrangement to open the Sing conference in Nashville in 2022 and have sung it each year we have had a conference!
*John Calvin note
John Calvin was an important leader of a movement called the Reformation. It began in Europe several hundred years ago. The word ‘reform’ means ‘change’ and at that time, many people wanted big changes! They were frustrated by the misreading of the Bible and dishonesty in the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation brought huge change to the Church but also to government, education, and culture.
It encouraged people to read and know and pray and sing the Scriptures for themselves. This was completely new! Congregational singing had not been allowed and most people could not hear or read the Bible in their own language.
There is so much to learn and understand here! This is just a starting point. We can see it was the beginning of how we sing as churches today. It is also a reminder of the precious gift it is to be able to sing together and to read our Bibles.