Sing to the Lord a joyful song

Sing to the Lord a joyful song. John Samuel Bewley Monsell* (1811-1875). This is a good example of Monsell’s belief that hymn singing should be ‘fervent and joyous’ (ODNB). It is from Monsell’s Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church’s Year (1863), and was then in his Spiritual Songs (1869) and The Parish Hymnal after the Order of The Book of Common Prayer (1873), each time with slight alterations. It came into general use in the SPCK Church Hymns (1871), using the 1863 text. It is based on the opening of Psalm 145. The hymn was in five 8-line stanzas, but the second half of each verse is the same until the final verse. In Church Hymns it was: For He’s the Lord of heaven and earth, Whom...