596. O thou my soul bless God the Lord
Psalm CIII
Scottish Psalter, 1650
Psalm 103:1-5. The Goodness of God.
The psalm sets forth with exquisite beauty and tenderness the enduring goodness and mercy of God. It is a song of thanksgiving to God for his many benefits and blessings.
It was the custom in Scotland to sing the opening verses of this psalm as a song of thanksgiving and praise after the communicants had received the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. The people poured evangelical content into the words, thinking as they sang, of the great redemption through Jesus Christ: “who doth redeem thy life, etc.”
MUSIC. ST. PAUL. The origin of this tune is unknown. It appeared first in A Collection of Twenty Church Tunes, 1749, published by James Chalmers, c. 1700-64, Aberdeen, Scotland, who was printer to the Town Council and publisher of The Aberdeen Journal. Only one copy of this small book is known to survive.