Customer Reviews

Come, Let Us Worship: The Korean-English Presbyterian Hymnal and Service Book

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I don't read Korean (I can laboriously sound it out if I need to, but I don't know the language so the results rarely merit the labor). I say this off the top so you'll know that my review is based on the hymnal's English content, for the most part.

This is a wonderfully diverse collection of hymns (334 of them counting praise songs and service music items) and also has 58 pages of liturgical matter in the front and 144 pages of psalms (with antiphons) and canticles in the back. And although the Amazon description may lead one to think that this is a Korean-language hymnal (and it certainly was designed with Korean-American congregations in mind), it is actually completely bilingual, indeed, the most thoroughgoingly bilingual hymnal I have ever seen. It has by far the largest number of singable English versions of hymns originally written in Korean that I have ever seen, and some of them, at least, are not only singable but worth singing. The only items I have found that are not really bilingual are the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (pp. 536-537, where I don't see how the English texts can be sung to the tunes provided, which are fitted to the Korean texts.

The book was produced jointly by the Presbyterians (PCUSA) and the United Methodists, with the latter apparently responsible for the selection and editing of hymns. I gather each denomination published a separate edition containing the same hymns and psalms, but church-specific liturgical matter.

If you like hymns, I recommend it, even if you know no Korean.