Isaac Watts - Works - Hymns

Hymns

Some of Watts' hymns include:

  • Joy to the world (based on Psalm 98, arranged by Lowell Mason to an older melody originating from Handel)
  • Come ye that love the Lord (often sung with the chorus "We’re marching to Zion")
  • Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove
  • Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (based on Psalm 72)
  • O God, Our Help in Ages Past (based on Psalm 90)
  • When I survey the wondrous cross
  • Alas! and did my Saviour bleed
  • This is the day the Lord has made
  • 'Tis by Thy strength the mountains stand
  • I sing the mighty power of God (originally entitled "Praise for Creation and Providence" from Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children)
  • My shepherd will supply my need (based on Psalm 23)

Many of his hymns are included in the Baptist Hymnal, the Presbyterian Trinity Hymnal, and the Methodist Hymns and Psalms. Many of his texts are also used in the American hymnal The Sacred Harp, using what is known as the shape note singing technique. Several of his hymns are used in the hymnals of the Church of Christ, Scientist and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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Famous quotes containing the word hymns:

    The form of act or thought mattered nothing. The hymns of David, the plays of Shakespeare, the metaphysics of Descartes, the crimes of Borgia, the virtues of Antonine, the atheism of yesterday and the materialism of to-day, were all emanation of divine thought, doing their appointed work. It was the duty of the church to deal with them all, not as though they existed through a power hostile to the deity, but as instruments of the deity to work out his unrevealed ends.
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    So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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    Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,
    You can endure the livery of a nun,
    For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,
    To live a barren sister all your life,
    Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
    Thrice blessed they that master so their blood
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