Psalter Hymnal (Gray) ‎#256

256. Out of the Depths I Cry

1 Out of the depths I cry to you on high;
Lord, hear my call.
Bend down your ear and listen to my sigh,
forgiving all.
If you should mark our sins, who then could stand?
But grace and mercy dwell at your right hand.

2 I wait for God, I trust his holy word;
he hears my sighs.
My soul still waits and looks unto the Lord;
my prayers arise.
I look for him to drive away my night–
yes, more than those who watch for morning light.

3 Hope in the Lord: unfailing is his love;
in him confide.
Mercy and full redemption from above
he does provide.
From sin and evil, mighty though they seem,
his arm almighty will his saints redeem.

Text Information

• First Line: Out of the depths I cry to you on high
• Title: Out of the Depths I Cry
• Meter: 10 4 10 4 10 10
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1987
• Scripture:
  Psalm 130
• Topic: Deliverance; Love: God's Love to Us; Return of Christ; Confession and Forgiveness; Advent; Confession of Sin; Forgiveness; Grace; Hope; Mercy; Prayer; Redemption
• Source: Psalter, 1912, alt.

Tune Information

• Name: SANDON
• Composer: Charles H. Purday (1860)
• Meter: 10 4 10 4 10 10
• Key: F Major

Text Information:

Scripture References:
st.1 = Ps. 130:1-4
st.2 = Ps. 130:5-6

Psalm 130, from which this hymn derives, is one of the traditional penitential psalms. The versification (altered) is from the 1912 Psalter. See PHH 130 for further commentary on Psalm 130.

Liturgical Use:
Advent; Lent; service of confession and forgiveness; other occasions of penitence. See also PHH 130.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune Information:

Charles H. Purday (b. Folkestone, Kent, England, 1799; d. Kensington, London, England, 1885) composed SANDON for John Henry Newman's text "Lead, Kindly Light, amid the Encircling Gloom." Other hymnals use the tune for John D. S. Campbell's paraphrase of Psalm 121, "Unto the Hills Around Do I Lift Up," a setting much loved in Canada.

Respected and loved by many, SANDON is a bar-form tune (AABC) with a fine sense of climax in its fourth line. Try antiphonal singing on stanzas 1 and 2, and ask everyone to join in on stanza 3.

A publisher, composer, lecturer, and writer, Purday had a special interest in church music. He published Crown Court Psalmody (1854), Church and Home Metrical Psalter and Hymnal (1860), which included SANDON, and, with Frances Havergal (PHH 288), Songs of Peace and Joy (1879). A precentor in the Scottish Church in Crown Court, London, Purday sang at the coronation of Queen Victoria. In the publishing field he is known as a strong proponent of better copyright laws to protect the works of authors and publishers.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook