Alternate
Opening Hymn Story
"O
GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST"
(CH
81; SDAH 103)
This paraphrase
of the first part of Psalm 90, a psalm attributed to Moses, appears in Watts's
Psalms of David, 1719, in nine stanzas. Isaac Watts (1674-1748) titled
it, "Man Frail and God Eternal." He wrote it at a time when the Dissenters,
that is, those who did not conform to the established Church of England, were
in danger of severe persecution and of having their schools and academies closed.
However, the death of Queen Anne on the very day that the Schism Bill of 1714
was due to go into effect, and the coming to the throne of George I, brought
them relief. Since the inclusion of this text and tune in the 1961 Hymns
Ancient and Modern, it has served the British Commonwealth almost as a second
national anthem.
ST. ANNE
was composed by William Croft to commemorate the 12 years he was organist at
St. Anne's Church in Soho, London. Croft was born at Nether Ettington in Warwickshire,
near Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1678. He became a chorister in the Chapel Royal,
and then organist at St. Anne's, Soho, in London from 1700-1712. He was also
joint organist with Jeremiah Clarke at the Chapel Royal from 1704, and in 1708
organist at Westminster Abbey. The University of Oxford granted him the degree
of D.Mus. in 1713. At first, Croft wrote songs and odes for the theater, but
later composed music for harpsichord and violin, and hymn tunes for the church.
He wrote 30 anthems and psalm tunes. He died at Bath, Somerset, on August 14,
1727.
The 1908
Christ in Song was the first Adventist hymnal to include this hymn.
--Condensed
from Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist
Hymnal, 1988, pp. 153-154.