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Listen while you read: "While Shepherds Watched"1 (Lyrics) |
Psalm 104:33 – I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. (NKJV)
Psalm 9:2 – I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. (NKJV)
Two Christmases ago, I wrote a devotional about a song that I had written (Sing a Song of Praise). Many of our readers responded, asking me if there was a tune for it. Unfortunately, I had a tune only in my head, and I had no idea how to get it onto paper. One reader, however, kindly suggested a couple of possible tunes to which I could set the words. I went to our hymn book and found several others using the same metre and came up with one that I liked, Ellacombe. After several hours, I was able to get the words onto paper along with the music.
I then remembered that I had written another Christmas song several years earlier, in 2004, that I had attempted to put to the music in my head. I decided to check out the hymn book again and chose for this song the tune Winchester Old, to which "While shepherds watched" is often sung. Here are the words:
- Sing glory to His name
On Christmas morning long ago
Our Saviour Jesus came
The gift of love from God above
Sing glory to His name
The angels sang that holy night
When Christ the Lord was born
On earth be peace – our Saviour reigns
Sing glory to His name
All praise to Him our God and King
Come, worship and adore
For all eternity be praise
Sing glory to His name
Let's sing, oh sing, His glory now
He's Christ the newborn King
The gift of love from God above
Sing glory to His name
– Dee Renaud
As we remember the birth of Jesus, our Saviour, at Christmas, may our hearts be filled with songs of praise to God's most precious gift to each and every one of us.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NKJV)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank You that You sent Your only Son to earth at Christmas in the form of a newborn Babe. We sing glory to His name today and always. We give all of our praise to Him for all eternity — Christ the newborn King — the gift of love from God above. We pray in His holy name. Amen.
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Beautiful words Dee.
Love it!! Thanks for sharing!
A wonderful song.
Thank You!
What a wonderful gift the Lord has given you, Dee. Thank you for sharing.
(Texas)
Thank you, Dee, for sharing your song with us. Praising God for your writing gifts. Blessings.
Dee:
I hope our Praise Team will can sing this song this year.
Dee, Cherished Child of God!
Thank you for writing to us and writing to help us “Sing Glory to His Name”!
Thank you, Dee, for this message and for sharing your beautiful poem (lyrics). Your words were a blessing to me this morning. Blessings.
Dee – thank you for blessing us with the words of this beautiful song at this Christmas time. May God continue to bless your creativity as you share the gifts he has given you with others.
Thank you Dee. Very Beautiful. To Quote Dolly Parton … “Our talent is God’s gift to us. What we do with that talent is our gift to God”. I think he will be very thankful for your gift of words to this new hymn… to honour him.
May you have a very Peaceful Christmas.
Dear Dee Renaud,
Thank you for the devotional. I appreciate that, when we people know our Creator, His creativity is brought out in us, His people.
Thank you for sharing.
Dee
So good to hear from you and to be able to sing along with you.
Thanks to a friend of years that I was able to get your devotional as It has faded in to space since we changed our server (Rogers)?? Another thing since I have an apple computer I was never able to get music—this time I got it all.
Amen.
Thanks for sharing this. I too have written songs and I had a collaborator who set them to music.
We were part of a contemporary worship group, one of the earliest such groups in the Presbyterian Church. A couple of my songs were published in a contemporary song book the church published, called Praiseways, and a few found their way into hymnbooks elsewhere. I haven’t written one in years.
So good for you and bless you and your work.
Hi Dee,
I really enjoyed reading the songs you wrote. That is one thing I have not tried yet and I doubts I would be able to.
Blessings.
Thank you, this is beautiful! Thank you for taking the time to share this beautiful word during this holiday season.
(NY)