Peter Masters (Compiler)
This collection of metrical psalms and hymns was inspired by the spiritual riches of Our Own Hymn Book, compiled by C.H. Spurgeon in 1866, and once widely used among Particular Baptist Churches – especially causes pastored by Spurgeon’s numerous students. Although this is an entirely new hymnal, the link with Our Own Hymn Book is emphasised because the ethos and design of that outstanding collection has been keenly imitated, though in modern context.
This book begins with an evangelical psalter – ‘Spirit of the Psalms’ (the first 150 hymn numbers correspond to the 150 psalms of the Bible) – followed by 591 carefully selected hymns.
Sample hymns
42(2)
Psalm 42
CM
AS pants the deer for streams of life,
So thirsts my soul for Thee,
O Lord, to feel, and taste, and know,
Thy presence near to me.
Though trials should night and day endure,
And press me to despair,
And scornful, unbelieving minds
Surround me everywhere . . .
Before my God will I recall
The joy of blessings past,
And ask my soul—‘Why such despair?
My Saviour’s love must last!’
I’ll call to mind His mighty deeds,
Those times of answered prayer,
When lost in failure and defeat
My Saviour met me there.
As surging waves, desponding thoughts
Still break across my way,
Yet Jesus will command His love
And keep me day by day.
O why, my soul, let dark despair
Make Satan’s lies seem real?
Trust all your God has done and said,
And all His kindness feel!
Evangelical Psalter
© The Wakeman Trust
501
88.88.88
THOU hidden source of calm repose,
Thou all-sufficient love divine;
My help and refuge from my foes,
Secure I am if Thou art mine;
And lo! from sin, and grief, and shame,
I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name.
Thy mighty name salvation is,
And keeps my happy soul above;
Comfort it brings, and power, and peace,
And joy, and everlasting love;
To me, with Thy dear name, are given
Pardon, and holiness, and Heaven.
Jesus, my All-in-all Thou art—
My rest in toil, my ease in pain,
The medicine of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain;
My smile beneath the tyrant’s frown;
In shame, my glory and my crown;
In want, my plentiful supply;
In weakness, my almighty power;
In bonds, my perfect liberty;
My light in Satan’s darkest hour;
My help and stay whene’er I call;
My life in death, my Heaven, my all.
Charles Wesley, 1707-88
