Thanks for being a Hymnary.org user. You are one of more than 10 million people from 200-plus countries around the world who have benefitted from the Hymnary website in 2024! If you feel moved to support our work today with a gift of any amount and a word of encouragement, we would be grateful.

You can donate online at our secure giving site.

Or, if you'd like to make a gift by check, please make it out to CCEL and mail it to:
Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
And may the promise of Advent be yours this day and always.

Give to Our God Immortal Praise

Representative Text

1 Give to our God immortal praise;
mercy and truth are all His ways;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies in your song.

2 Give to the LORD of lords renown,
the King of kings with glory crown;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when lords and kings are known no more.

3 He built the earth, He spread the sky,
and fixed the starry lights on high;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies in your song.

4 He fills the sun with morning light,
He bids the moon direct the night;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when suns and moons shall shine no more.

5 The Jews He freed from Pharaoh's hand
and brought them to the promised land;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies in your song.

6 He saw the Gentiles dead in sin
and felt His pity move within;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when death and sin shall reign no more.

7 He sent His Son with pow'r to save
from guilt, and darkness, and the grave;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies in your song.

8 Through this vain world He guides our feet
and leads us to His heav'nly seat;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when this vain world shall be no more.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #179

Author: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Give to our God immortal praise
Title: Give to Our God Immortal Praise
Author: Isaac Watts (1719)
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Give to our God immortal praise. I. Watts. [Ps. cxxxvi.] This L.M. version of Ps. 136 appeared in his Psalms of David in 1719, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. In modern collections we find it given thus:—
1. The original in the New Congregational Hymn Book, No. 227; Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, No. 136, and others; and in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858-80, No. 8, with stanza v., line 1, "Israel" for "The Jews" of the original.
2. A cento composed of stanzas i., iv., vii. and viii. This was given in Cotterill's Selection, 1810-19, and from thence has passed into numerous collections, including Windle, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Psalms & Hymns, and Stevenson's Hymns for Church & Home, amongst modern hymnals, with slight variations in the refrain. This is the most popular form of the hymn.
3. A cento combining stanzas i.-iv. and vii., viii. This appeared in Conyers's Collection, 1161, and amongst later hymnals the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, the Islington Psalms & Hymns, Kemble's New Church Hymn Book, and other collections. This form is also in use in America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

WARRINGTON

WARRINGTON was composed by Ralph Harrison (b. Chinley, Derbyshire, England, 1748; d. Manchester, Lancashire, England, 1810) and published in his collection of psalm tunes, Sacred Harmony (1784). The tune's rising inflections help to accent words such as erotic (probably the only time this word has b…

Go to tune page >


DUKE STREET

First published anonymously in Henry Boyd's Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1793), DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton (b. Warrington, England, c. 1710; d, St. Helen's, Lancaster, England, 1793) in William Dixon's Euphonia (1805). Virtually nothing is known about Hatton, its composer,…

Go to tune page >


LASST UNS ERFREUEN

LASST UNS ERFREUEN derives its opening line and several other melodic ideas from GENEVAN 68 (68). The tune was first published with the Easter text "Lasst uns erfreuen herzlich sehr" in the Jesuit hymnal Ausserlesene Catlwlische Geistliche Kirchengesänge (Cologne, 1623). LASST UNS ERFREUEN appeared…

Go to tune page >


Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 43 of 43)

Ambassador Hymnal #205

Text

Ancient and Modern #640a

Text

Ancient and Modern #640b

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #220a

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #220b

Church Hymnal, Fifth Edition #353

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #24

Text

Common Praise #434a

Text

Common Praise #434b

Text

Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New #203

Page Scan

Complete Mission Praise #171

TextPage Scan

CPWI Hymnal #368

TextAudio

Evangelical Lutheran Worship #848

Hymns and Psalms #22a

Hymns and Psalms #22b

Hymns for Today's Church (2nd ed.) #31a

Hymns for Today's Church (2nd ed.) #31b

Hymns of Grace #14

Hymns Old and New #155

TextPage Scan

Hymns to the Living God #35

TextPage Scan

In Melody and Songs #95

Text

In Melody and Songs #96

Praise! psalms hymns and songs for Christian worship #136

Praises We Sing (2nd ed.) #12

TextPage Scan

Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #179

TextPage Scan

Rejoice in the Lord #347

Text

Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship #255

TextPage Scan

Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #106

Sing Glory #83

Audio

Small Church Music #56

Audio

Small Church Music #685

Songs of Faith and Praise #28

Spurgeon's Own Hymn Book #136b

TextPage Scan

The Celebration Hymnal #112

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #1796

The Harmonia Sacra #63A

TextPage Scan

The Worshiping Church #16

Text

Together in Song #84

TextPage Scan

Trinity Hymnal (Rev. ed.) #3

TextPage Scan

Trinity Psalter Hymnal #215

TextScoreAudio

Worship and Rejoice #63

Worship Together #44

Text

生命聖詩 - Hymns of Life, 1986 #43

Include 277 pre-1979 instances
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.