"Thy Strong Word"

Last week, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 25 August.  The hymn was "Thy Strong Word," and while I've written about it twice before, I found two new points to note.

The hymn is sung to the tune "Ebenezer."  Here's the third musical phrase:

In the fourth verse, the text here is "From the cross forever beameth" (the subject is in the following line:  "All Thy bright redeeming light").  "Forever" is sung with a melisma (F G G Ab Bb), giving a sense of this extended duration.

In the fifth verse, the text is "[Give us] Throats that shout the hope that fills us."  Here, "fills" is sung with a melisma (Ab G), hinting at the abundance that the word implies.