As we have seen in many of these hymn studies, singing the 150 Psalms should be much more common than it has been in recent generations. It certainly was with our predecessors. The fact that God has inspired them and placed them at the center of our Bibles gives us not only the warrant for doing so, but it could even be successfully argued that He has commanded that we do so, especially when we see passages like Ephesians 5:19 where Paul instructed believers in the church there to speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
The benefits of psalm singing are numerous. Not only will we be doing what God intended and what He delights in. Since the Psalms teach us so much about God – His character, His promises, His work, His compassion, His righteousness, and His justice (to name just a few!) – becoming familiar with the Psalms will greatly increase our knowledge of and joy in the Lord. Remember the famous phrase from J. B. Phillips, “Your God is too small?” The Psalms are a great remedy for that common deficiency.
And we must add this to the list of benefits. The inspired Psalms give us inspired words to pray! Every situation in our life – those of joy as well as sadness, those of peace as well as distress, those of gratitude as well as longing, those of repentance as well as restoration, and yes, even those of anger at the occasions of injustice around us (the imprecatory Psalms) – can be found in the Psalms. If we know them well enough, our hearts will instinctively cry out to God with those words He has already provided for us to express the prayer of our hearts.
Often we will find ourselves praying directly from the pages of our Bibles. But shouldn’t we also be finding ourselves in worship (or at home) singing those Psalms? Metrical Psalms provide the closest translations to the original Hebrew texts. But if that’s the only way we sing the Psalms, we will never sing the name of Jesus, or sing specifically of His birth and resurrection and second coming. Yes, as Messianic prophecy, there are Psalms that point ahead to those key events, but they remain as shadows of the realities unveiled in the New Testament.
Those were some of the dynamics that led Isaac Watts, “The Father of English Hymnody,” to take Psalms that ultimately point to Jesus, and re-cast them in the clearer language of fulfillment. Though it sounds strange to describe them in this way, Watts was in essence “Christianizing” the Psalms. And so under his pen, Psalm 98, a Psalm about God’s marvelous works in creation, became “Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come.” Psalm 118, a Psalm about Lord’s Day worship, became “This Is the Day the Lord Has Made” (with specific references to Jesus bringing salvation). And Psalm 72, a Psalm about King Solomon’s coronation, became “Jesus Shall Reign.”
We should note here that Watts often wrote hymns based straight from the Old Testament Psalm text as with Psalm 90, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” But he also wrote entirely original New Testament themed hymns, completely apart from any reference to a Psalm. These include, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “I Sing the Almighty Power of God,” “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed,” “Join All the Glorious Names,” “Am I a Soldier of the Cross,” and “Not All the Blood of Beasts.”
What Watts did with the Psalms, “Christianizing” them, is no different from what Christian ministers do every time they preach from the Psalms (or from any Old Testament passage, for that matter). In Luke 24:27 we read that with the disciples Jesus met on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter Sunday afternoon, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” That must always be the hermeneutic principle that guides us in preaching redemptively from the Scriptures. A sermon that does not take us to Jesus is not a sermon that is fit to be preached. Charles Spurgeon, “the Prince of Preachers,” famously wrote, “No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.”
Though not from the pen of Isaac Watts, a great example of this “Christianizing” of a Psalm comes in the hymn, “Christ Shall Have Dominion,” a paraphrase of Psalm 72. The English text comes from the “Psalter, 1912.” In modern hymnals that have chosen to include it, this is usually found in the section of hymns about missions. And that is certainly an appropriate place to find it. The Psalm text speaks of the extension of the reign of the king till it reaches “from shore to shore.” Clearly the Holy Spirit intended that we apply this to Jesus, as this hymn does marvelously.
While we don’t have a modern author for the English text, since it was the work of the committee that produced that 1912 Psalter, the music which we use for the hymn today comes from the famous British composer, Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900). He was born and died in London, the younger of two children, the son of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster and professor of music. Young Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight. He entered the Chapel Royal as a chorister in 1854 and two years later was elected the first Mendelssohn scholar. He also studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1858-1861 and in 1866 was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He is best-known in church circles for his hymn tunes written between 1867 and 1874, which includes the music for “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” “Not What My Hands Have Done,” and “I’ve Found a Friend, O Such a Friend.” And who has not heard the perennially popular “The Lost Chord,” which he wrote in 1877 at the bedside of his brother, Fred’s, during Fred’s final five days.
Sullivan embarked on his composing career with a series of ambitious works, interspersed with hymns, numerous parlor songs and other light pieces in a more commercial vein. His compositions were not enough to support him financially, and between 1861 and 1872 he worked as a church organist, which he enjoyed; as a music teacher, which he hated and gave up as soon as he could, and as an arranger of vocal scores of popular operas. He took an early opportunity to compose several pieces for royalty in connection with the wedding of the Prince of Wales in 1863.
Most of Sullivan’s career was in other circles than church work. In his early years he composed oratorios and music for some Shakespeare plays. He is best known, however, for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert, which resulted in popular operettas such as “H.M.S. Pinafore” (1878), “The Pirates of Penzance” (1879), “The Mikado” (1884), and “Yeomen of the Guard” (1888). These satirized the court and everyday life in Victorian times. It is worth noting that Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in operettas! Sullivan’s infrequent serious pieces during the 1880s included two cantatas, “The Martyr of Antioch,” and “The Golden Legend,” his most popular choral work. Sullivan’s only grand opera, “Ivanhoe,” based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, though initially successful in 1891, has rarely been revived. On May 22, 1883 Sullivan was knighted by Queen Victoria for his “services … rendered to the promotion of the art of music” in Britain. In his last decade Sullivan continued to compose comic operas with various librettists and wrote other major and minor works. He died at the age of 58, regarded as Britain’s foremost composer. His comic opera style served as a model for generations of musical theatre composers that followed, and his music is still frequently performed, recorded and imitated.
Sullivan’s health was never robust. From his thirties his kidney disease often obliged him to conduct sitting down. He died of heart failure, following an attack of bronchitis, at his flat in London on November 22, 1900. His “Te Deum Laudamus,” written in expectation of victory in the Boer War, was performed posthumously. A monument in the composer’s memory featuring a weeping Muse was erected in the Victoria Embankment Gardens in London and is inscribed with Gilbert’s words from “The Yeomen of the Guard:” “Is life a boon? If so, it must befall that Death, whene’er he call, must call too soon.” Sullivan wished to be buried in Brompton Cemetery with his parents and brother, but by order of the Queen he was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The theme of missions should be the expectation of Jesus’ victory, and the glory given to Him when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). That is certainly the theme of this setting of Psalm 72, especially in the repeated refrain.
Refrain:
Christ shall have dominion over land and sea,
earth’s remotest regions shall His empire be.
Stanza 1 proclaims the dominion of our King that shall extend across the world. This is drawn from verses 8 and 11 of the Psalm: “May He have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth …. May all kings fall down before Him, all nations serve Him.” What a glorious day that will be!
Christ shall have dominion over land and sea,
earth’s remotest regions shall His empire be;
they that wilds inhabit shall their worship bring,
kings shall render tribute, nations serve our King. [Refrain]
Stanza 2 proclaims the benevolent nature of our King. His reign is not merely one of power, but equally so of mercy, pity, and compassion for the needy, weak and helpless. Here the sources are verses 12- 14 of the Psalm. “For He delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence He redeems their life, and precious is their blood in His sight.”
When the needy seek Him, He will mercy show;
yea, the weak and helpless shall His pity know;
He will surely save them from oppression’s might,
for their lives are precious in His holy sight. [Refrain]
Stanza 3 proclaims the permanence of His rule for eternity, and is an expression of the promise in verse 17 of the Psalm. “May His name endure forever, His fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in Him, all nations call Him blessed.”
Ever and forever shall His name endure;
long as suns continue it shall stand secure;
and in Him forever all men shall be blest,
and all nations hail Him King of kings confessed. [Refrain]
Stanza 4 concludes with the words of verses 18 and 19 of the Psalm, an ascription of praise, pronouncing blessing on the Lord. “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen and amen!” This draws to a close the second Book of the Psalms (numbers 42 – 72).
Unto God Almighty joyful Zion sings;
He alone is glorious, doing wondrous things.
Evermore, ye people, bless His glorious name,
His eternal glory through the earth proclaim. [Refrain]
Here is the hymn with which you can sing along.