Hymns: Be Exalted

I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise.

So, todays song is Be Exalted or I Will Give Thanks to Thee. It became popular in churches during the late 20th century, especially in charismatic, evangelical, and Pentecostal worship settings. Because it circulated widely before digital copyright tracking, attribution varies between hymnals and songbooks.

Back when I was young, in the early 1980s, I attended Cork Baptist Church, but I had many friends in some of the modern charismatic fellowships. Some had no hymn books or no overhead projectors. Yet we managed to learn all the songs by simply joining in with what others sang 😀. It was a little like the folk music scene, in that different versions of songs would evolve both lyrically and musically. I didn’t really get familiar with this one until recent years. I spent the year 2017 trying to learn every song in Mission Praise. It was great fun. For many years I steered clear of the “modern” songs, but it was nice to see what I could find on YouTube and play the ones that I missed out on back in the 1980s. And now, I’m trying to get to know some of the very modern worship songs. I like to familiarize myself with really old hymns too. I love them all.

Anyway, let’s get back to “Be Exalted”.

It’s one of several hymns based on Psalm 57:

Psalm 57:5 and 9-10
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
    let your glory be over all the earth.
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing of you among the peoples.
¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

And here are another few songs based on that passage, both classical and modern:

And here are a few nice versions of today’s song. Because worship music in Europe and the US has moved on from all the 20th Century “modern” songs, I sometimes need to look far and wide to find them. And it’s always a delight to discover them.

You can also find them embedded in old worship albums on YouTube, such as the Maranatha series. Perhaps they’re on Spotify etc. too. I found many old songs on Spotify when I was researching some years ago.

In my younger days, much of the newer songs originated in Dales and Downs Bible weeks in the UK. I found this site with the old worship tapes – VintageWorshipTapes.com. As with 21st music, I’m more interested in the music than the movements that create the music. But I am so grateful for all these songs, whatever their source. Some people in my circles would steer clear of all things modern, and I did in the past, but now I’m interested in all worship music.