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. Today it’s the turn of the in-between hymns.
Today’s song is How Precious O Lord from 1982.
This one goes back to my early evangelical life when I was somewhere between being a conservative Reformed Baptist and a “happy clappy” charismatic. As the years went on, I moved towards the former, but I have delightful memories of all my experiences in the early 1980s. I don’t know if I sang this one much back then. It was on a Dales Bible Week 1984 tape that I bought in 1985. At that stage, I still took an interest in modern songs, but I soon started focusing solely on the old hymns, which I stuck with for about 30 years.
I do remember learning it on the guitar and singing it back around 2017, when I started reflecting of the soundtrack of my Christian life.
As with many of the charismatic songs of that era, it was based on Old Testament worship, particularly the Psalms.
Psalm 36:7–9
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8Â They feast on the abundance of your house;
    you give them drink from your river of delights.
9Â For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light.
With many of these 1970s and 1980s songs, it’s hard to find performances on YouTube. I even know a few that don’t appear on YouTube at all. But these songs often spread around the world, so what’s gone out of fashion here in Ireland and the UK might still be sung in other regions.
Anyway, here are some versions that I’ve managed to find. If interest in the old “new” songs diminishes completely, I’ll need to start singing them on YouTube myself. I don’t imagine that I’d do them justice though 😀.
Hibernia Gospel 