Paraverse 2 — Movement 1: The God Who Is
This song sits in the doctrine of God (theology proper), but at a different angle than Paraverse 1 (None like You). Paraverse 1 confesses the divine nature in stacked attribute form (the Belgic Article 1 / Athanasian register); this song confesses the same divine nature in exhortative, doxological form — first-person singular extolling outward, the King adored by name, the gathered church and "all flesh" called to join. It is the Psalter register of Movement 1: God adored not by being catalogued but by being praised.
The structural template is Psalm 145, the only psalm titled tehillah ("praise") in its Hebrew superscription. The song versifies Psalm 145 directly, in the lineage of the Scottish Metrical Psalter (1650) and the GKSA Psalmboek — Scripture-bound, regulative-principle-secure, no novel devotional invention.
Five stanzas in Common Metre (CM 8.6.8.6), no refrain. The form choice is deliberate (see §4): Common Metre is the Psalter's English-language metre.
Psalm 145 is the entire scriptural spine. The song compresses the psalm's natural beats into five stanzas; Exodus 34:6 stands behind stanza 4 as the source of the self-disclosure Psalm 145:8 quotes.
Stanza 1 — extolling intent, the King addressed, the Name blessed - Psalm 145:1 — I will extol You, my God and King, and bless Your name forever and ever (L1–2) - Psalm 145:2 — Every day I will bless You and praise Your name forever and ever (L3) - Psalm 145:7 — they shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness (L4, the fame word seeded here for S3 to take up)
Stanza 2 — greatness unsearchable, majesty meditated upon - Psalm 145:3 — Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable (L1–2) - Romans 11:33 — how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways (L2, carrying the same Hebrew cheqer through Pauline doxology) - Psalm 145:5 — On the glorious splendour of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works, I will meditate (L3–4)
Stanza 3 — generation to generation tells - Psalm 145:4 — One generation shall commend Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts (L1–2) - Psalm 145:6 — they shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds (L3) - Psalm 145:7 — they shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness (L3–4)
Stanza 4 — gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love; good to all - Psalm 145:8 — The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (L1–2) - Exodus 34:6 — The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (L1–2, the original self-disclosure that Ps 145:8 carries) - Psalm 145:9 — The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made (L3) - Psalm 103:19 — The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all (L4, foreshadowing S5)
Stanza 5 — everlasting kingdom; let all flesh bless - Psalm 145:13 — Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations (L1–2) - Daniel 4:3 — His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endures from generation to generation (L2, the same confession on the lips of Nebuchadnezzar) - Psalm 145:21 — My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever (L3–4)
Psalm 145, not Psalm 103. Psalm 103 is the other strong Psalter-adoration option, but Psalm 103 leans on God's forgiveness and healing (v3) — those motions belong to Verlossing, not to Movement 1. Psalm 145 stays cleanly inside who God is (great, gracious, merciful, good, near, everlasting) without making redemptive history the topic. Movement 1's mandate is honoured: the divine nature before the story begins.
A call-to-praise complement to Paraverse 1. None like You is confessional ("There is no one besides You, Lord") — the gathered congregation confessing. My God and King is exhortative ("I will extol You, my God and King") — the worshipper inviting the congregation. Movement 1 needs both shapes to be a body of adoration songs, not a single register repeated seven times.
Common Metre, not Long Metre. Paraverse 1 was LM (8.8.8.8) — the contemplative-doctrinal metre. CM (8.6.8.6) is the Psalter metre in English: the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter, Watts's Psalms of David Imitated, the Scots Paraphrases of 1781. Versifying a Psalm in CM is the tradition-anchored move (see §5).
Five stanzas, ABCB rhyme. Five CM stanzas matches Paraverse 1's five-stanza shape (canon consistency across Movement 1) while leaving room for Psalm 145's natural beats: opening declaration / greatness / generations / character / kingdom-and-acclamation. ABCB rhyme (L2 with L4; L1 and L3 free) is the Scottish Psalter's most common rhyme scheme and the convention Paraverse 1's S1–S4 already use.
No refrain. Paraverse 1's Sanctus refrain was defended as a recovery of an older Reformed-and-catholic practice (Te Deum, Heber). For a Psalm-paraphrase, the Skrifberyming-Psalter and Scots-Psalter convention is stanzas only. The psalm is sung whole, not punctuated by a hook. A refrain here would impose a non-Psalter shape on a Psalter text.
The Ex 34:6 self-disclosure as the song's hinge. Stanza 4 takes Psalm 145:8 — itself a citation of Exodus 34:6 — and makes it the centre-of-gravity stanza. The Exodus 34 self-disclosure ("merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love") is the most-quoted divine self-disclosure in the Old Testament — re-spoken in Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Psalms 86:15, 103:8, 145:8. It is, in effect, the Name of God expounded. Placing it at S4 confesses that mercy and grace are not what God does (that comes later in the arc) but who God is. Movement 1 register exactly.
The everlasting-kingdom + universal-acclamation closing. S5 lifts from Psalm 145:13 (the everlasting kingdom — which is who God is, His eternal reign) to Psalm 145:21 (all flesh bless His holy Name — the universal call). The song lands on outward acclamation rather than inward confession. This is the Psalter's characteristic closing move ("Praise the LORD! ... Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!" — Ps 150). It also closes the Name thread opened in S1L2.
The personal-corporate-universal arc. S1: I will extol. S3: one generation tells another. S5: all flesh bless His Name. The song widens deliberately — from the individual worshipper, to the catechetical community, to the cosmic acclamation. This is Psalm 145's own movement; the song honours it as a structural argument, not as a sentimental crescendo.
Voice shifts mirror the psalm. Psalm 145 shifts between second-person address ("Your kingdom") and third-person confession ("The LORD is gracious") line by line. The song honours those shifts — S1 and S3 and S5L1–2 second-person; S2 and S4 and S5L3–4 third-person — rather than smoothing them away. The shifts are the Psalter's, not the song's invention.
Inside the Skrifberyming and Scots Psalter tradition directly. Versifying Psalm 145 in CM is the most lineage-anchored move available to Paraverses: both traditions versify Psalms, and Psalm 145 has been versified in both. The GKSA Psalmboek Psalm 145 and the Scots Psalter's Psalm 145 are direct precedents — and this song honours them by not borrowing a single line, phrase, or rhyme. The form, discipline, and Scripture-bound intent is inherited; the words are new.
CM is the Scottish Psalter's home metre. The 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter's default is Common Metre. Choosing CM for a Psalm-paraphrase places this song inside the English-language Reformed psalmodic mainstream — the same mainstream the Scots Paraphrases of 1781 supplemented from.
ABCB rhyme matches the Scots Psalter's convention. The Psalter's stanzas typically rhyme L2 with L4 only; L1 and L3 are free. The discipline of weak-position rhyme (rather than tight ABAB) is itself part of the Psalter aesthetic — it lets the unstressed lines breathe rather than turn the stanza into a quatrain epigram.
No borrowed text. The Scots Psalter's Psalm 145 begins "I will extol Thee, my God, O King." This song's S1L1 is "My God and King, I will extol" — identical scripture, different word order, different stress placement. The Skrifberyming Psalm 145 opens differently again. The lineage is form-and-intent; the words are original to Paraverses.
No phrase, rhyme, or syntactic shape is borrowed from any existing Skrifberyming, Scots Paraphrase, or English-language Psalm 145 paraphrase. Cross-checked against the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter, the GKSA Psalmboek, Watts's Psalms of David Imitated (Psalm 145), and the Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland) Psalter.
"Why versify a Psalm when the Psalter already does it?" — Paraverses is not a replacement Psalter; it is a body of newly composed songs in the lineage of Skrifberyming and Paraphrase. The Skrifberymings themselves include both Psalms (Psalmboek) and non-Psalm Scripture (Skrifberymings proper). The Scots Paraphrases of 1781 versified non-Psalm Scripture as a supplement to the metrical Psalter. Paraverses versifies Scripture without dividing it: a Psalm is fair material because every Psalm is Scripture. Doing Psalm 145 here honours the Psalter's discipline rather than competing with it — every line is traceable to the source.
"Is this a hymn-of-praise import in Reformed clothes?" — No. The text is Psalm 145, end to end. Every phrase is traceable. There is no novel devotional invention, no extra-canonical motif, no contemporary-worship affective gesture. The "I will extol" opening is not personal-affective in the contemporary-worship sense; it is Psalm 145:1's exact intent — the singer declaring intent before the congregation, as the Psalmist does.
"Is the call-to-praise shape Regulative-Principle compliant?" — Yes. The Psalter is the church's school of praise; call to praise is the Psalter's most characteristic shape (Pss 95, 96, 98, 100, 103, 113, 117, 145–150). The song's exhortative voice is the Psalmist's exhortative voice. The Regulative Principle defends the singing of Scripture-words; this song sings Scripture-words in CM, with disciplined fidelity to the source. The personal "I" of S1 is Psalm 145's own "I" (v1, aromimkha), not the worshipper's personal claim.
"Does Movement 1 need a second adoration song? Wasn't None like You sufficient?" — No single song in Movement 1 is sufficient: the divine nature is too rich to confess in one song, which is why the movement targets seven. Paraverse 1 stacked the attributes; Paraverse 2 sings the King. The mode differs (confession vs exhortation), the metre differs (LM vs CM), the source differs (Athanasian + multiple anchor passages vs Psalm 145 alone), the personal voice differs (corporate we vs personal I widening to all flesh). The two songs complement; they do not repeat.
"Is the everlasting-kingdom motif in S5 too eschatological for Movement 1?" — No. Psalm 145:13 names the kingdom as God's present attribute — His dominion endures because He is everlasting, not because the kingdom is yet to come (that is Movement 9). The eternal-kingdom-as-attribute confession is Movement 1 territory and is named that way by Heidelberg Q&A 26 ("the eternal Father... still upholds and governs"). The song does not anticipate consummation; it confesses present everlasting reign.
"Could His mercy is over all that He has made (S4L3) be read as soteriological universalism?" — No, and the line guards against the reading. Psalm 145:9 names creation-mercy, not redemption-mercy: God's goodness is over all His works (the made order). The song uses "good to all His hands have made" — explicitly anchoring the universality in creation, not in salvation. The Reformed audience reads this as Belgic Article 1's "overflowing fountain of all good" — common grace and providential goodness — not as elective scope. Soteriological scope is Movements 6–7, not here.
"Why English?" — Paraverses is an English extension of the lineage. See Paraverse 1, §6.
The lyric will be approved when it satisfies:
Words and music by Attie Retief.
My God and King, I will extol, and bless Your holy Name; each day my praise shall rise to You — forever be Your fame.
How great the Lord, how great His praise — unsearchable His ways; on splendour of His majesty my meditation stays.
From age to age Your works are told, Your mighty acts proclaimed; they pour forth songs of all Your good — Your righteousness acclaimed.
The Lord is grace, is slow to wrath, abounds in steadfast love; and good to all His hands have made — His mercy throned above.
Your kingdom stands through every age, Your reign through endless days; let all flesh bless His holy Name — my mouth shall speak His praise.
| Stanza | Warrant |
|---|---|
| S1 L1 — My God and King, I will extol, L2 — and bless Your holy Name; L3 — each day my praise shall rise to You — L4 — forever be Your fame. |
L1 — Ps 145:1 (I will extol You, my God and King). L2 — Ps 145:1–2 (bless Your name forever and ever); Heidelberg Q&A 122 (the Name hallowed). L3 — Ps 145:2 (Every day I will bless You and praise Your name). L4 — Ps 145:7 (they shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness — fame seeded for S3); Ps 145:1–2 (forever and ever). Confessional: Heidelberg Q&A 26 (my God and my Father); Q&A 122. |
| S2 L1 — How great the Lord, how great His praise — L2 — unsearchable His ways; L3 — on splendour of His majesty L4 — my meditation stays. |
L1 — Ps 145:3 (Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised). L2 — Ps 145:3 (His greatness is unsearchable); Rom 11:33 (how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways — same cheqer through Pauline doxology). L3 — Ps 145:5 (on the glorious splendour of Your majesty... I will meditate). L4 — Ps 145:5 (the abiding meditation; cf. Ps 1:2, on His law he meditates day and night). Confessional: Belgic Art. 1 (incomprehensible, infinite); WCF 2.1. |
| S3 L1 — From age to age Your works are told, L2 — Your mighty acts proclaimed; L3 — they pour forth songs of all Your good — L4 — Your righteousness acclaimed. |
L1 — Ps 145:4 (One generation shall commend Your works to another); Deut 6:7 (you shall teach them diligently to your children). L2 — Ps 145:4 (and shall declare Your mighty acts). L3 — Ps 145:6–7 (they shall speak of Your awesome deeds... they shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness). L4 — Ps 145:7 (and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness). Confessional: Heidelberg Q&A 21 (true faith taught from the gospel — the catechetical impulse). |
| S4 L1 — The Lord is grace, is slow to wrath, L2 — abounds in steadfast love; L3 — and good to all His hands have made — L4 — His mercy throned above. |
L1 — Ps 145:8 (The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger); Ex 34:6 (merciful and gracious, slow to anger — the original self-disclosure of the Name). L2 — Ps 145:8 (and abounding in steadfast love); Ex 34:6 (and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness). L3 — Ps 145:9 (The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made — all His hands have made anchors the universality in creation, not salvation). L4 — Ps 103:19 (The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all — the throne foreshadowing S5); Ps 145:9 (mercy over all). Confessional: Belgic Art. 1 (overflowing fountain of all good); WCF 2.1 (most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth). |
| S5 L1 — Your kingdom stands through every age, L2 — Your reign through endless days; L3 — let all flesh bless His holy Name — L4 — my mouth shall speak His praise. |
L1 — Ps 145:13 (Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom). L2 — Ps 145:13 (and Your dominion endures throughout all generations); Dan 4:3 (His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endures from generation to generation — the same confession on the lips of Nebuchadnezzar, sealing the universal scope). L3 — Ps 145:21 (let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever). L4 — Ps 145:21 (My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD); Ps 150:6 (let everything that has breath praise the LORD). Confessional: Heidelberg Q&A 26 (the eternal Father... still upholds and governs by His eternal counsel and providence); Q&A 123 (the kingdom catechetically confessed). |