Death! 'tis a melancholy day. I. Watts. [Death of the Wicked.] Appeared in the 1st edition of his Hymns and Sacred Songs, 1707 (2nd edition 1709, Bk. ii. No. 52), in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. It is usually abbreviated as in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, N. Y., 1872. In the Presbyterian Psalms & Hymns for the Worship of God, Richmond, U.S.A., 1867, No. 631: "He is a God of sovereign love," is from this hymn.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)