Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun

• Exodus 15:18
  (hymns)
• Exodus 30:7
  (hymns)
• 2 Samuel 23:1-7
  (hymns)
• Job 3:17-18
  (hymns)
• Psalm 5:11-12
  (hymns)
• Psalm 8:2
  (hymns)
• Psalm 10:16
  (hymns)
• Psalm 19:4-9
  (hymns)
• Psalm 42
  (hymns)
• Psalm 45:6
  (hymns)
• Psalm 47:6-7
  (hymns)
• Psalm 67
  (hymns)
• Psalm 72
  (hymns)
• Psalm 86:8-13
  (hymns)
• Psalm 89:36-37
  (hymns)
• Psalm 98
  (hymns)
• Psalm 113:1-5
  (hymns)
• Psalm 117
  (hymns)
• Psalm 141:2
  (hymns)
• Psalm 146:5-9
  (hymns)
• Psalm 147:7-8
  (hymns)
• Song of Solomon 1:3
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 2:1-5
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 9:7
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 11:1-10
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 42:1-9
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 49:1-7
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 60:1-22
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 61
  (hymns)
• Jeremiah 23:1-6
  (hymns)
• Ezekiel 34:11-31
  (hymns)
• Daniel 4:3
  (hymns)
• Daniel 7:13-14
  (hymns)
• Zechariah 9:10
  (hymns)
• Zechariah 14:9
  (hymns)
• Malachi 1:11
  (hymns)
• Matthew 11:25-30
  (hymns)
• Matthew 21:12-16
  (hymns)
• Matthew 25:31
  (hymns)
• Luke 1:32-33
  (hymns)
• Luke 4:16-21
  (hymns)
• John 1:49-51
  (hymns)
• John 18:33-37
  (hymns)
• Acts 12:7
  (hymns)
• Romans 5:15
  (hymns)
• Romans 14:11
  (hymns)
• Romans 15:11
  (hymns)
• 1 Corinthians 15:12-28
  (hymns)
• Ephesians 1:10
  (hymns)
• Ephesians 1:15-23
  (hymns)
• Philippians 2:5-11
  (hymns)
• Colossians 1:17-19
  (hymns)
• Colossians 3:16
  (hymns)
• Hebrews 1:8
  (hymns)
• Hebrews 4:1-11
  (hymns)
• Revelation 1:4-8
  (hymns)
• Revelation 4:10
  (hymns)
• Revelation 5:6-14
  (hymns)
• Revelation 7:9-17
  (hymns)
• Revelation 11:15-18
  (hymns)
• Revelation 19:12
  (hymns)
• Revelation 22:21
  (hymns)

• Year A, Advent, Second Sunday
• Year A, Advent, Second Sunday
  This is recommended for Year A, Advent, Second Sunday by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year A, Epiphany season, Epiphany of the Lord
  This is recommended for Year A, Epiphany season, Epiphany of the Lord by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year A, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord
  Related to Ephesians 1 (NPM)
• Year A, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord
  This is recommended for Year A, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year A, Easter season, Seventh Sunday
  Related to John 17 (NPM)
• Year A, Easter season, Seventh Sunday
  This is recommended for Year A, Easter season, Seventh Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 22 (27)
  This is recommended for Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 22 (27) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 24 (29)
• Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34)
• Year B, Epiphany season, Epiphany of the Lord
  This is recommended for Year B, Epiphany season, Epiphany of the Lord by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year B, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord
  This is recommended for Year B, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year B, Easter season, Seventh Sunday
  This is recommended for Year B, Easter season, Seventh Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 25 (30)
• Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34)
  This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34) by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year C, Christmas Season, Second Sunday after Christmas Day
• Year C, Epiphany season, Epiphany of the Lord
  This is recommended for Year C, Epiphany season, Epiphany of the Lord by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year C, Epiphany season, Third Sunday
  This is recommended for Year C, Epiphany season, Third Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265.
• Year C, Easter season, Third Sunday
  This is recommended for Year C, Easter season, Third Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.
• Year C, Easter season, Fourth Sunday
• Year C, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord
  This is recommended for Year C, Easter season, Ascension of the Lord by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #265 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #219.

In 2007, author Sally Loyd-Jones released the Jesus Storybook Bible. This book for children (but loved by adults, too) tells forty-four Bible stories from the Old and New Testament in such a way that each story points to Jesus. It teaches all who read it that the story of Jesus is really the story of the entire Bible.

While Loyd-Jones’ book captured the hearts of millions, her message is not a new one. In 1719, Isaac Watts published a hymnal entitled The Psalms of David, Imitated. In this hymnal, he paraphrased many of the Psalms, but in a very different style than many of his predecessors. The order of the day was to keep any paraphrase as close to the text as possible. Watts decided to do otherwise, and his interpretations of the psalms are quite loose, in an effort to write something new while keeping the spirit of the Psalm. His versification of Psalm 72 is no different. He interprets the psalm using a Christological lens. The king referenced in the psalm is Christ, and could be no one else. Watts, like Loyd-Jones, understood that the Old Testament makes sense in light of the New, and vice versa. There are many different stories in the Bible, but they are all part of the one great Story.

Text:

Isaac Watts wrote this text for his 1719 publication, Psalms of David, Imitated. It originally had eight stanzas and was titled, “Christ’s Kingdom among the Gentiles.” The original second, third, and seventh stanzas are omitted from most modern hymnals. These verses have references to Europe, Persia, India, and “barbarous nations,” and are perhaps the reason Albert Bailey could write this about Watt’s text: Watts made “David speak like King William III; England and Scotland take the place of Israel and Judah. Thus the Psalmist became ‘an orthodox and patriotic English Christian of the early eighteenth century’” (The Gospel in Hymns, 49). It is laudable that Watts contemporized a psalm to fit the times, but his text goes much further than a nationalistic twist on a familiar text. With those three stanzas dropped, this text is much more a global hymn proclaiming Christ’s dominion over the whole world.

Tune:

The tune DUKE STREET is credited to John Hatton. There is a generic resemblance between this tune and TRURO, an anonymous tune to which the text is set in the Lutheran Hymnal Handbook. DUKE STREET has a long meter, which, according to Austin Lovelace, “lends itself readily to majestic subjects and stately treatment” (The Anatomy of Hymnody, 25). With Watts’ text, this is indeed a very majestic hymn, and should be sung in such a manner. Accompany with organ, trumpets, stately piano, or any other strong accompaniment.

When/Why/How:

This proclamation of Christ’s reign and assurance of our hope in the Kingdom can be sung at many times during the Liturgical year. It would be very comforting during the season of Advent, when we profess our longing for, and hope of, Christ’s eternal reign, and as a hymn of assurance on New Year’s Day. It can also be sung as a hymn of celebration during Epiphany or Ascension, or on Christ the King Sunday. It’s a beautiful opening hymn or processional. You could also sing the first three or four verses (depending on which hymnal you use), and sing the last verse as a doxology at the end of the service.

Choral Resource:

• Dobrinski, Cynthia. I Know That My Redeemer Lives (Jesus Shall Reign) includes both hymns, for Choir, organ and/or handbells or trumpet
• Hopson, Hal. Concertato on Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun

Organ resources:

• Burkhardt, Michael. As Though the Whole Creation Cried
• Alleluia! Alleluia! (Easy Organ Settings for Eastertide)

Piano resource:

• Sing It Simply (25 Congregational Hymn Accompaniments for Piano, with opt. Guitar, Bass, and Handbells

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

FlexScores are available in the Media section below.