5 July 2026

As well as the metrical Psalms, the Kirk has had its own love affair with the ‘Scottish Paraphrases’ which were published in 1781, barely forty years after the Second Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The collection was quite innovative. Scots were singing Scripture which was not psalmody.

They were called the paraphrases because they were essentially paraphrases of Scripture. In one respect, it is surprising that it took over two hundred years for this change from paraphrases of the Psalms to paraphrases of Scripture to take place. The process was essentially the same.

There are 67 paraphrases altogether. Not every book of the Bible is featured in this collection. Some books appear more frequently than others. There are 11 from the book of Isaiah including, ‘Behold the mountain of the Lord’, ‘The race that long in darkness pin’d’ and ‘Art thou afraid his pow’r shall fail’.

Amazingly, there are 7 from the book of Job but none of them appear in our Church Hymnary. Of the other Old Testament books, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes feature more strongly than Lamentations, Micah and the beautiful, ‘Come, let us to the Lord, our God/ with contrite hearts  return’ from Hosea.

There are a dozen paraphrases of passages from the Gospels including the ever-popular, ‘While humble shepherds watched their flocks’ and ‘Twas on that night’ which includes the beautiful line,  ‘heaven’s eternal grace revealed’. Of the rest, Hebrews and Revelation are the most popular.

19 appear in  CH4. In the section, ‘Oneness with the Church in Heaven’, there are 11 hymns of which three are Scottish Paraphrases. It seems extraordinary that  a denomination which rejected  the saints should sing such gems as ‘Behold what witnesses unseen’, ‘Hark how the adoring hosts’ and ‘How bright these glorious spirits shine’in 1781!