A Glorious Paean of Praise Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation! O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation! All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near, Join me in glad adoration. Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee! Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee; Ponder anew What the Almighty can do, If with His love He befriend thee! Praise thou the Lord, who with marvelous wisdom hath made thee, Decked thee with health, and with loving hand guided and stayed thee. How oft in grief Hath not He brought thee relief, Spreading His wings to o'ershade thee! Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him! All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him! Let the Amen Sound from His people again; Gladly for aye we adore Him. Joachim Neander, 1680. JOACHIM NEANDER, THE PAUL GERHARDT OF THE CALVINISTS While all Germany during the latter half of the seventeenth century was singing the sublime lyrics of Paul Gerhardt, prince of Lutheran hymnists, the spirit of hymnody was beginning to stir in the soul of another German poet--Joachim Neander. This man, whose name will always be remembered as the author of one of the most glorious hymns of praise of the Christian Church, was the first hymn-writer produced by the Reformed, or Calvinistic, branch of the Protestant Church. Hymnody in the Reformed Church had been seriously retarded by the iconoclastic views of Calvin and Zwingli. These Reformers at first frowned on church choirs, organs, and every form of ecclesiastical art. Even hymns, such as those used by the Lutherans, were prohibited because they were the production of men. God could be worshiped in a worthy manner, according to Calvin's principles, only by hymns which were divinely inspired, namely, the Psalms of the Old Testament Psaltery. This gave rise to the practice of versifying the Psalms. Calvin's insistence that there should be the strictest adherence to the original text often resulted in crude paraphrases. The exclusive use of the Psalms explains the development of so-called "psalmody" in the Reformed Church as over against "hymnody" in the Lutheran Church. Psalmody had its inception in France, where Clement Marot, court poet to King Francis I, rendered a number of the Psalms into metrical form. Marot was a gifted and versatile genius, but not inclined to piety or serious-mindedness. However, his versified Psalms became immensely popular with the French Huguenots and exerted a great influence in the struggle between the Protestants and the papal party. When Marot was compelled to flee to Geneva because of Roman persecution, he collaborated with Calvin in publishing the famous Genevan Psalter, which appeared in 1543.