As usual these past 88 Sundays, today I add another entry in my series, Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth. This week we peer back 265 years to find the origin of the current selection. At that time, Charles Wesley wanted to encourage early Methodists enduring hardship. Wanting them to be a singing, joyful people to avoid discouragement and loss of hope, he wrote this poem in 1744 using text from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice, the Lord Is King.” Philippians is known as being characterized by joy, despite being written from prison, so the situation matched will with Wesley’s objectives for the verse, which was set to music as a hymn in 1746.
Rejoice, the Lord is King
Rejoice, the Lord is King: your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks and sing, and triumph evermore.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!Jesus the Savior reigns, the God of truth and love;
when he had purged our stains, he took his seat above.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!His kingdom cannot fail, he rules o’er earth and heav’n;
the keys of death and hell are to our Jesus giv’n.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!He sits at God’s right hand till all his foes submit,
and bow to his command, and fall beneath his feet.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!Rejoice in glorious hope! Our Lord, the Judge, shall come,
and take his servants up to their eternal home.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Recent Comments