1810 - 1883 Person Name: Thomas R. Birks Topics: Church Year Lent; Church Year Passion/Palm Sunday; Conflict; Daily Prayer Midday Prayer; Daily Prayer Morning Prayer; Darkness; Discipleship; Elements of Worship Praise and Adoration; Elements of Worship Prayer for Illumination; Elements of Worship Preparation for Worship; God Light from; God Trust in; God as Refuge; God as Rock; God as Shield; God as Creator; God's Wisdom; God's Word; God's Armor; God's Glory; God's Justice; God's law; God's Strength; Grace; Healing; Hymns of Praise; Jesus Christ Mind of; Jesus Christ; Renewal; Salvation; Servants of God; Temptation And Trial; Ten Commandments 10th Commandment (do not covet); Ten Commandments Deuteronomy 6; The Creation; The Fall; Truth; Victory; Wisdom Psalms; Worship; Year A, B, C, Easter, Easter vigil; Year A, Ordinary Time after Pentecost, October 2-8; Year B, Lent, 3rd Sunday; Year B, Ordinary Time after Pentecost, September 25-October 1; Year B, Ordinary Time after Pentecost, September, 11-17; Year C, Ordinary Time after Epiphany, 3rd Sunday Author of "The Heavens Declare Your Glory" in Psalms for All Seasons Birks, Thomas Rawson, M.A., b. Sept. 1810, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1834, M.A. 1837), of which he subsequently became a Fellow. Having taken Holy Orders in 1837, he became Rector of Kelshall, Herts, 1844; Vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, 1866; Hon. Canon of Ely Cathedral, 1871; and Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge, 1872. He d. at Cambridge, July 21, 1883. His works, to the number of 25, include Biblical, Astronomical, Scientific, Prophetic, and other subjects. He also wrote the Memoirs of the Rev. E Bickersteth (his father-in-law), 2 vols., 1851. His hymns appeared in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody; 1833; and, together with Versions of the Psalms, in his Companion Psalter, 1874. They number upwards of 100. [Eng. Psalters, § xx.] Very few are in common use in Great Britain, but in America their use is extending. They include:—
1. Except the Lord do build the house. Ps. cxxvii.
2. O come, let us sing to the Lord. Ps. xcv.
3. O King of Mercy, from Thy throne on high. Ps. lxxx.
4. O taste and see that He is good. Ps. xxxiv.
5. O when from all the ends of earth. Psj xiv.
6. The heavens declare Thy glory. Ps. xix.
7. The Lord Himself my Portion is. Ps. liii.
8. The mighty God, the Lord hath spoken. Ps. l.
9. Thou art gone up on high, O Christ, &c. Ps. xlvii.
10. Whom have I [we] Lord in heaven, but Thee. Ps. lxxiii.
Of these versions of the Psalms, all of which date from 1874, the most popular is No. 3. Mr. Birks' compositions are worthy of greater attention than they have hitherto received.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
T. R. Birks