God is my great desire

God is my great desire. Timothy Dudley-Smith* (1926-2024).  Based on Psalm 63, this hymn was written at Ruan Minor in August 1982 at the request of David Preston* for a collection of metrical psalms entitled The Book of Praises: 70 Psalms for singing today, which appeared in a words-only edition in 1986. The author noted a debt to Psalms 1-72: an introduction and commentary (1973) of his friend Derek Kidner, from which comes the threefold structure of desire, delight, and defence in line 1 of each stanza (A House of Praise, p. 376). The three stanzas were written in the metre of hymns sung to LEONI, the tune written by Meyer Leoni for the Hebrew Yigdal (see Daniel ben Judah*) and used by...

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