24. The Earth and the Riches

Text Information
First Line: The earth and the riches with which is it stored
Title: The Earth and the Riches
Versifier: Marie J. Post (1982)
Meter: 11 11 11 11
Language: English
Publication Date: 1987
Scripture:
Topic: Ascension & Reign of Christ; King, God/Christ as; Songs for Children: Psalms (5 more...)
Copyright: Text © 1987, CRC Publications
Tune Information
Name: LANSING
Composer: Charles H. Gabriel, 1856-1932
Meter: 11 11 11 11
Key: A♭ Major


Text Information:

A congregational celebration of the LORD's triumphal entry into Zion.

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-2
st. 2 = vv. 3-4
st. 3 = vv. 5-6
st. 4 = vv. 7-8
st. 5 = vv. 9-10

Psalm 24 is a liturgy composed for use in one of Israel's annual religious festivals, perhaps the Feast of Tabernacles. In the post exilic liturgy of the temple, this psalm was sung at the time of the morning sacrifice on the first day of the week. The liturgy accompanied a procession that may have reenacted David's bringing of the ark (symbolic of God's throne) into Jerusalem and placing it there in its own tent sanctuary. In broader perspective the liturgy no doubt celebrated the final triumphal march of the King of Glory from Mount Sinai (Ps. 68), or even from Egypt (Ex. 15:1-18), into his royal resting place (1 Chron. 28:2) in the royal city of his kingdom. While the focus is on this triumphal entry (st. 4-5), we also join in the people's confession that the whole world belongs to God (st. 1), and the priestly reminder that only those pure in hand and heart may have fellowship with the LORD (st. 2-3). Marie J. Post (PHH 5) versified this psalm in 1982 for the Psalter Hymnal. See 163 for another setting of the last part of this psalm.

Liturgical Use:
As an entrance psalm for Advent, Palm Sunday, and especially Ascension Day, but also to many other worship occasions.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune Information:

LANSING is one of several tunes by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (b. Wilton, IA, 1856; d. Los Angeles, CA, 1932) included in the 1912 Psalter, where it was set to the second part of Psalm 24, "Ye Gates Lift Your Heads." The tune title refers to the Illinois city just south of Chicago near which Gabriel settled in 1895. This tune is a fine accompaniment to the psalm text and should be sung with confidence and enthusiasm. To bring out the structure of the current versification, try singing stanzas 2 and 3 antiphonally, with one group asking the questions in the first two lines and the other responding. Then sing stanzas 4 and 5 with full voice and majestic accompaniment, though there also the questions in line 3 could be sung by select voices.

For the first seventeen years of his life Gabriel lived on an Iowa farm, where friends and neighbors often gathered to sing. Gabriel accompanied them on the family reed organ he had taught himself to play. At the age of sixteen he began teaching singing in schools (following in his father's footsteps) and soon was acclaimed as a fine teacher and composer. He moved to California in 1887 and served as Sunday school music director at the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. After moving to Chicago in 1892, Gabriel edited numerous collections of anthems, cantatas, and a large number of songbooks for the Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell publishing companies. He composed hundreds of tunes and texts, at times using pseudonyms such as Charlotte G. Homer. The total number of his compositions is estimated at about seven thousand. Gabriel's gospel songs became widely circulated through the Billy Sunday-Homer Rodeheaver urban crusades.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook


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