The tune for “O bless the Lord, my soul” is really just one-fourth of a sixteen-line tune which the composer had written for “Soldiers of Christ, arise,” a hymn by Charles Wesley (1707-1788). The long tune is named HOLBORN, and the short version is the second of four sections. Aaron Williams (1731-1776) is most likely the composer. The shorter tune is known as ST. THOMAS, although there is no explanation why that name was chosen.
Aaron Williams was born and died in London. He was publisher of several books of music for psalm singing and worked also as a music engraver and teacher. He geared his music toward what he called “country choirs.” Maybe that explains why the tune for “O bless the Lord, my soul” is so simple and singable.
The ST. THOMAS tune first appeared in Williams’s
New Universal Psalmodist
(London, 1770). An American edition of that collection was published in 1771 under the title
The American Harmony
by Newburyport’s own Daniel Bayley (1729-1792). Bayley was one of the most productive publishers of early American church music and tunebooks. He was also an organist and a gifted potter, lived across the street from St. Paul’s, and had a shop on High Street. Some valuable mugs attributed to him are for sale by Skinner. Daniel Bayley was probably a chorister at St. Paul’s, and he is buried in our churchyard. A descendant of his, George Bayley, gave an organ recital at St. Paul’s in 2011 as part of our 300th anniversary celebration.
O bless the Lord, my soul! His grace to thee proclaim!
And all that is within me join to bless his holy Name!
O bless the Lord, my soul! His mercies bear in mind!
Forget not all his benefits! The Lord to thee is kind.
He will not always chide; he will with patience wait;
His wrath is ever slow to rise and ready to abate.
He pardons all thy sins, prolongs thy feeble breath;
He healeth thine infirmities and ransoms thee from death.
He clothes thee with his love, upholds thee with his truth;
And like the eagle he renews the vigor of thy youth.
Then bless his holy Name, whose grace hath made thee whole,
Whose loving-kindness crowns thy days: O bless the Lord, my soul!
