Back in the 1970s, ASCAP composer Roger Lee Hall came across a hymn text written about concern for the environment. He was much taken with it and over the years has set it in four different versions:
(1) For SATB chorus with organ (Op. 25a)
(2) For SATB chorus and Amen with organ (Op. 25b)
(3) For soloist and piano (Op. 35a)
(4) For soloist, SATB chorus and piano (Op. 35b)
This is the complete text:
1. Creator God, we give You thanks
For all the glories You have made.
Help us to see You in your work,
The Artist in the art displayed.
2. As we survey your handiwork,
Restrain our minds from petty greed.
Respect before your great design
Is reverence paid to You indeed.
3. What you have given us in trust
Is only ours to rightly use.
Deliver us from thoughtless deeds
That plunder, pillage and abuse.
4. Help us to see your draftsman's hand
In every blade of grass, each flower,
That we may stand in awe before
The work of your creative power.
--by Betty Anne J. Arner
This hymn (Op. 25b) for SATB chorus and organ
was performed in memory of choir director,
John D. Herr, by
the Plymouth Church Choir,
Shaker Heights, Ohio
and recorded on this CD:
Creator God - Sacred music by Roger Lee Hall