272. Before Jehovah’s awful throne
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
A paraphrase of Psalm 100, revised by John Wesley.
The original text by Watts began:
Sing to the Lord with joyful voice;
Let every land his name adore;
The British Isles shall sound the noise
Across the ocean to the shore.
Wesley, considering this an unpromising initial stanza, omitted it, and changed the second stanza, lines 1 and 2, from
Nations attend before his throne
With solemn fear, with sacred joy
to
Before Jehovah’s awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred joy.
Wesley severely condemned the practice of changing another’s hymns, but in this case his own “transgression” resulted in a greatly improved hymn.
The word “awful” in the first line is spelled “awe-full” in some hymnals in order to convey more nearly its original meaning.
For comments on Isaac Watts, see [Hymn 11].
MUSIC. PARK STREET was composed by Frederick M. A. Venua, 1788-1872, an eminent French organist, a native of Paris. It is a favorite tune in America where it is invariably associated with this hymn by Watts.