David Hepburn is a retired minister-of-music, choir director, band director, missionary, teacher, and school president, and a fine tenor and trumpeter. His many compositions are a testament to the works of Jesus he has seen in the lives of others and in his own life.

Some time around 1977, David said, "I've been writing a lot more songs lately with scripture for lyrics, and it's been working very well. You know, God said 'My word shall not return void,' not, 'your lyrics shall not return void.' If you want to write music that changes people's hearts, why would you try to improve on scripture?"

This piece is a Mozart-like setting of Philippians 4:4, in which Paul urges Christians to "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice!" This song appears twice in the musical Philippians - A Love Letter. The full version of about one minute duration appears as song number 6, while an abbreviated version may be used as a prologue to the entire musical. Both are included in the pdf file. Rejoice in the Lord is also available packaged with another short anthem by David Hepburn.

MP3 sound sample: New Song Singers (1976).



REJOICE IN THE LORD by David Hepburn for unaccompanied SATB choir comes in a pdf file of 173K, with one four-page score one one two page score and a license page, seven pages in all. Performance time should be about one minute.