The Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee sent Post's text to various musicians and requested a tune. The tune selected was HELDER, composed by Brent Assink (b. Bellingham, WA, 1955) in St. Paul, Minnesota, in December 1984. The following year the Dordt College Alumni Choir, of which Assink was a member, sang the hymn in Sioux Center, Iowa (the choir's conductor, Dale Grotenhuis, was a Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee member). The tune was named in honor of Assink's childhood piano teacher, Martha Helder.
HELDER features some striking melodic and rhythmic motives. For the first three stanzas, consider having a soloist or choir sing the question with the congregation on the response. Then sing all together in unison on stanzas 4 and 5.
Educated in music and business administration at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Assink received a master's degree in musicology from the University of Minnesota. He served the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra first as assistant manager and then as artistic operations manager (1981-1990). From 1984 to 1990 he was also minister of music at Calvary Christian Reformed Church in Bloomington, Minnesota. Assink became general manager of the San Francisco Symphony in 1990 but returned to the twin cities in 1994 to take the position of president and managing director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook