How Lovely Is Your House, O LORD

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How lovely is your house, O LORD

Versifier: Ada Roeper-Boulogne (1979)
Tune: GENEVAN 84
Published in 1 hymnal

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative text cannot be shown for this hymn due to copyright.

Versifier: Ada Roeper-Boulogne

Ada Roeper-Boulogne (b. Haarlem, the Netherlands, 1931) received her elementary education at the Dutch-Chinese Christian School in Central Java, Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies), where her father, an organist and rebuilder of organs, served as a missionary and teacher. After Japan conquered Indonesia during World War II (1942), Roeper-Boulogne's family was placed in a concentration camp and remained there until 1945. Because a teacher organized a children's choir in the camp, even there Roeper-Boulogne was not totally devoid of music. In 1946 the family returned to the Netherlands and in 1951 immigrated to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Roeper-Boulogne has translated several Dutch songs and is the author of "Little Children Be Happy… Go to person page >

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First Line:	How lovely is your house, O LORD
Title:	How Lovely Is Your House, O LORD
Versifier:	Ada Roeper-Boulogne (1979)
Meter:	8.8.9.8.8.9.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Text and harmonization © 1987, CRC Publications

Psalm 84
(hymns)

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Notes

The prayer of a yearning heart asking to be restored to the house of God.

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-4
st. 2 = vv. 5-7
st. 3 = vv. 8-10
st. 4 = vv. 11-12

Psalm 84 expresses the longing of an outcast believer or a pilgrim for sweet communion with God at the temple (see also 42 and 63). Faint with longing, the psalmist yearns "for the courts of the LORD" (v. 2), where faithful worshipers of all times and places are blessed and even birds find safe haven (st. 1). Just the thought of being in God's presence invigorates those who are on pilgrimage to God's holy place (st. 2; other songs of Zion are 46, 48, 76, 87, 122, 125, and 137). Pleading to be restored to the temple–if only to a humble place of service (st. 3)–the psalmist confidently declares that God is gracious to those who trust and serve the LORD (st. 4).

Ada Roeper-Boulogne (PHH 18) versified this psalm in 1979 for the Psalter Hymnal. Another setting of Psalm 84 is at 243.

Liturgical Use:
Beginning of worship; expressions of longing for the new Jerusalem.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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Tune

GENEVAN 84

GENEVAN 84 first appeared in the 1562 edition of the Genevan Psalter; Howard Slenk (PHH 3) harmonized it in 1985. The rhythm of the first phrase is altered to match that of the second and final phrase. (The original first phrase began with two half notes followed by four quarter notes.) This loved G…

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