751

Open Your Ears, O Faithful People

Scripture References

Confessions and Statements of Faith References

Further Reflections on Confessions and Statements of Faith References

This song emphasizes our need to listen well, and includes a call to ourselves and others to receive it as God’s truth. Such prayers and exhortations implement the convictions of Belgic Confession, Article 24 and Our World Belongs to God, paragraph 32: “The Bible is the Word of God, the record and tool of his redeeming work. It is the Word of truth, breath of God, fully reliable in leading us to know God and to walk with Jesus Christ in new life.”

751

Open Your Ears, O Faithful People

Additional Prayers

A Prayer to Be Attentive to God
Living God, you spoke the whole world into being.
Open our ears, Lord, to hear your Word.
 
You inspired poets, prophets, and apostles to speak for you.
Open our ears, Lord, to hear your Word.
 
You sent your Son to us, the Word made flesh.
Open our ears, Lord, to hear your Word named Jesus, in whom we pray.
Amen.
— Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
751

Open Your Ears, O Faithful People

Tune Information

Name
YISRAEL V'ORAITA
Key
a minor
Meter
9.8.9.5 refrain 8.4.8.4

Recordings

Musical Suggestion

This sung prayer for illumination hails from the Hasidic tradition. Make sure to sharp only the G to retain the tune’s unique character. It is effective to begin slowly, with a two-beat feel, accelerating until the refrain and then move to a four-beat feel.
— Global Songs for Worship
751

Open Your Ears, O Faithful People

Author Information

Jabusch received degrees from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois, and Loyola University, Chicago. He also earned a doctorate at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (1986), and studied music at the Chicago Conservatory and the University of London. A parish priest at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Chicago from 1956 to 1961, he taught at Niles College of Loyola University from 1963 to 1966 and at the Mundelein Seminary from 1968 to 1990. Since 1990 Jabusch has been director of Calvert House, the Roman Catholic student center at the University of Chicago. His theological publications include The Person in the Pulpit (1980), Walk Where Jesus Walked (1986), and The Spoken Christ (1990). He has written some forty tunes and one hundred hymn texts, often pairing them with eastern European and Israeli folk tunes. Many of his texts set to melodies from around the world were  included in his collection A Heritage of Hymns (1980).
— Bert Polman
Martin Tel is the C. F. Seabrook Director of Music at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. He conducts the seminary choirs, teaches courses in church music, and administers the music for the daily seminary worship services. He served as senior editor of Psalms for All Seasons: A Complete Psalter for Worship (2012). His love for music began in a dairy barn in rural Washington State, where he heard his father belt out psalms and hymns while milking the cows. Martin earned degrees in church music and theology from Dordt College, the University of Notre Dame, Calvin Theological Seminary, and the University of Kansas. He has served as minister of music in Christian Reformed, Reformed Church in America, and Presbyterian congregations. With his wife, Sharilyn, he is raising three children in Princeton.
— Bert Polman

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