#865: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven

This and 864 are like 858 and 859; one member of each pair is just a slightly modified set of lyrics of the other, to be less sexist in referring to God. There's no need to reprint the music because it follows immediately from the other version. Again, I choose to believe the committee sat around and argued about this for way too long. "Well which one gets to go with the music? If we give the sexist one priority, you owe me a veto over some weird old-timey verse in another section." And so on.

Some of the changes are quite minor: "Praise him for his..."/"God be praised for..." And if you're going to rhyme "bring" and "sing" as in verse one, you might as well throw in "King," although "ring" in the alternate text flows fine as well.

I mentioned last time that the revised text has "adoration"/'creation." This version has "adore him" and "before him" in the corresponding spots. I like the change because if you're going to talk about the sun and moon, you might as well include "all creation!"

Also, this version's verse three is completely different from 864's, which was about flowers that "flourish" and "perish." This one is about how Jesus "spares us"/"bears us" in his arms. I guess the use of "he"/"his" was repetitive enough that the editor of 864 got sick of it, but I feel like this could have been tweaked slightly along the lines of the other verses.