Houd mij in leven = Hold me in life, 1967 - 2009

In the early years of working with Huub Oosterhuis, who was now no longer a student at the Amsterdam Ignatius but was studying linguistics in Groningen, Huijbers developed a liturgical form which he called the frame song, both for his own work with the Studentenekklesia at the Ignatius but also for Oosterhuis’ campus ministry work up north. A frame song was the skeletal structure, the framework, of an entire liturgy. Verses from a particular psalm were chosen as the gathering song, the intermezzo between word and table, and the closing song. This particular fragment from Psalm 25 was intended as the song to close the an Advent liturgy.

Inspired by Gelineau's reintroduction of vernacular psalms into the Liturgy, working with the poetic genius of Oosterhuis, Huijbers evolved the psalm form far from Gelineau’s simple yet effective model of model of the chanted verse with a pulsed response, while honoring Gelineau’s restoration of the trilogue form of cantor, choir (schola) and assembly. He went on to pioneer many innovative ways of singing the palms, often integrating the refrain(s) into the body of the text rather than at the end of the couplet, thus breaking apart the text for greater assembly ownership of the piece. However, in this model of the psalm from his earlier days, he envisaged it in the derivative Protestant form of a choral, but with assembly participating via the melody line.

Though associated with Advent, Psalm, 25 is appropriate for the entire liturgical year. The nature of liturgy is to draw attention to the immanent presence of the Promised One among us. The text is from late Judaism, in the period of post-Exilic spiritual rediscovery and renewal, It is an embodiment of the Wisdom tradition, and as a didactic tool has an artificial acrostic structure imposed on it, as a catechism about One Who is to be trusted,

In this, the third section of Psalm 25, which sings of trust in the One Who is always among us, Huijbers not only draws the Advent liturgy to a close, but inspired a global adoption of a song which is now used during times of national disasters and on the more intimate vulnerable occasions, especially at funerals. To encourage this, a guitar score was added, a frequent practice of Huijbers during the Beatlemania years of the '60s.

Companion settings includee the Advent gathering song, All My Longing Goes Out To You [JM 827] and the intermezzo,My Desire Goes Out To You [JM 828]. - Tony Barr