Leslie Norman Garrett

Leslie Norman “Les” Garrett was born at Matamata on New Zealand's North Island on July 15, 1943. He trained at the New Life Word of Faith Bible School in Tauranga and later moved to Western Australia. Sources place him in pastoral ministry at the Christian Family Centre in Maddington, Perth, and identify him as a lecturer at Hebron Bible College. He also traveled internationally as an evangelist and convention speaker.

Garrett promoted the congregational singing of short biblical texts. In Brisbane in 1967 he adapted Psalm 118:24 into This Is the Day, a compact Scripture chorus designed for immediate participation. Later oral and hymnal traditions added anonymous material for Easter and Pentecost, but Garrett's documented textual contribution is the original Psalm-based stanza. He also produced song collections and wrote and lectured about Bible translation, becoming known for his advocacy of the King James Version.

Garrett's church background is better described as Pentecostal or charismatic than Methodist. He later served in additional church ministry in Western Australia and continued traveling to preach and teach. He died on December 26, 2017, aged seventy-four. His most durable contribution to congregational song remains this brief Psalm setting, whose circulation extended far beyond the movement in which it began.