O happy day, that fixed my choice

O happy day, that fixed my choice. Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751). Published posthumously as no. 23 in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755), edited by Job Orton, and no. 29 in Scriptural Hymns (1839), edited by John Doddridge Humphreys. The 1839 edition corrected the 1755 misprint in the biblical reference from 1 Chronicles 15: 15 to the more appropriate 2 Chronicles 15: 15. The original title, ‘Rejoicing in our Covenant Engagements to GOD’, adequately summarizes the hymn, which conveys the Puritan Covenant theology and personal conversion experience that were typical of British nonconformity. In marked contrast with the strict Calvinist doctrine of predestination...