One of the songs on the new EMU Music CD ‘Music For Little Rooms’ is ‘Father’s World’, which features a new tune for Maltbie Babcock’s ‘This Is My Father’s World’.
After three or four listens my personal jury is still out regarding ‘Father’s World’ mostly because ‘Terra Beata’, the tune to which these words have been traditionally sung, is so appropriate and enduring. Franklin Sheppard’s adaption of an English folk tune gives it a timeless quality that only requires fresh arrangement to suit a variety of different settings.
Here are the lyrics:
1.
This is my Father’s world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.
2.
This is my Father’s world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
he shines in all that’s fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.
3.
This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!
The Rejoice Hymnbook of the Presbyterian Church of Australia inexplicably (to me) omits verse 2.
This YouTube features Fernando Ortega.
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