Come, Sound His Praise Abroad
Come, Sound His Praise Abroad
Come, sound His praise abroad
And hymns of glory sing:
Jehovah is the sovereign God,
The universal King.
He formed the deeps unknown;
He gave the seas their bound;
The watery worlds are all His own,
And all the solid ground.
Come, worship at His throne;
Come, bow before the Lord:
We are His works and not our own;
He formed us by His Word.
Today attend His voice,
Nor dare provoke His rod;
Come, like the people of His choice,
And own your gracious God.
EVEN AS A CHILD, Isaac Watts liked to make rhymes. Once when he was scolded by his father for making rhymes in ordinary conversation, he responded, “Oh, Father, do some pity take, and I will no more verses make.” But Isaac Watts continued to write poems. As an older teenager, he complained about the ponderous psalms the church was singing. His exasperated father told Isaac that if he was dissatisfied he should write something better. So he did. For the next two years the young Watts wrote a new hymn every week.
Many of the hymns, like “Come, Sound His Praise Abroad,” were paraphrases of the psalms. Later in life, Watts said, “My design was not to exalt myself to the rank and glory of poets, but I was ambitious to be a servant to the churches, and a helper to the joy of the [lowliest] Christian.”
Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him.For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3
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