Hail to the Lord's Anointed

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Hail to the Lord's anointed

Author: James Montgomery (1821)
Scripture Songs
Published in 837 hymnals

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Playable presentation: Lyrics only, lyrics + music
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FlexScore
	Hail to the Lord's Anointed

Piano/Organ
	Hail to the Lord's Anointed

Choral
	A Hymn to God: Creator

Representative Text

1. Hail to the Lord's Anointed,
great David's greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed,
his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,
to set the captive free;
to take away transgression,
and rule in equity.

2. He comes with succor speedy
to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy,
and bid the weak be strong;
to give them songs for sighing,
their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying,
are precious in his sight.

3. He shall come down like showers
upon the fruitful earth;
love, joy, and hope, like flowers,
spring in his path to birth.
Before him on the mountains,
shall peace, the herald, go,
and righteousness, in fountains,
from hill to valley flow.

4. To him shall prayer unceasing
and daily vows ascend;
his kingdom still increasing,
a kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never
his covenant remove;
his name shall stand forever;
that name to us is love.

The United Methodist Hymnal

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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Related Texts

First Line:	Hail to the Lord's anointed
Title:	Hail to the Lord's Anointed
Author:	James Montgomery (1821)
Meter:	7.6.7.6 D
Language:	English
Notes:	Spanish translation: See "Dad gloria al ungido" by J. Burghi
Copyright:	Public Domain
Liturgical Use:	Scripture Songs

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 #149 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year A, Advent, Second Sunday
Related to Psalm 72
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 #149 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year A, Epiphany season, Baptism of the Lord (First Sunday)
Related to Isaiah 42 and Matthew 3 (NPM)
Year A, Epiphany season, Second Sunday
Related to Isaiah 49 and John 1
Year A, Epiphany Season, Fifth Sunday
This is recommended for Year A, Epiphany Season, Fifth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year A, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
This is recommended for Year A, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 16 (21)
Year B, Advent, Fourth Sunday
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 #149 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year B, Epiphany Season, Transfiguration Sunday
Year B, Lent, First Sunday
Year B, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
This is recommended for Year B, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year B, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
Year B, Easter season, Fifth Sunday
Year B, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 11 (16)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 11 (16) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #149.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34) by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #149.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34)
Reign of Christ
Year B, Ordinary Time, Thanksgiving Day
Year C, Advent, Fourth Sunday
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 #149 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year C, Epiphany season, Third Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Epiphany season, Third Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year C, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
This is recommended for Year C, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #109.
Year C, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 25 (30)

English

10 shown out of 534

Spanish

Santo, Santo, Santo: cantos para el pueblo de Dios = Holy, Holy, Holy: songs for the people of God #112

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Notes

This is James Montgomery's best psalm rendering. It is based on Ps. 72 and was written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements, perhaps Fulneck, in the United Kingdom, Christmas, 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm (Tune: Culmstock)."

—The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal

I need not tell the intelligent reader that he has seized the spirit and exhibited some of the principal beauties of the Hebrew bard, though, to use his own words in letter to me, his "hand trembled to touch the harp of Zion." I take the liberty here to register a wish, which I have strongly expressed to himself, that he would favor the Church of God with a metrical version of the whole book.

—Dr. Adam Clarke: Exposition to "Commentary on Psalm 72"

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Tune

WEBB

George J. Webb (b. Rushmore Lodge, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, 1803; d. Orange, NJ, 1887) composed WEBB (also known as MORNING LIGHT) on a voyage from England to the United States. The tune was published in The Odeon, a collection of secular music compiled by Webb and Lowell Mason (PHH 96) i…

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CRÜGER

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For Leaders

Bulletin Blurb
Worship Notes
Scores

Psalm 72 is a well-known prophecy of the coming Messiah – foretelling the reign of the King and what the Kingdom of that Messiah will be like. But perhaps more than a prophecy, Psalm 72 is a prayer. In these verses the psalmist calls upon God to give justice and righteousness to the King, perhaps the newly crowned earthly king of Israel, but also the heavenly king. It is a cry for the deliverance of a broken people, for the realization of peace and light. James Montgomery’s hymn text from 1821 beautifully captures the essence of that prayer. Albert Bailey says, “His poem is more prayer than prophecy, or shall we say it is prophecy in large part unfulfilled but still capable of inspiring the Church to work for its fulfillment!” (Bailey, Gospel in Hymns). As we sing this beautiful hymn, we both declare our hope and our longing for the Kingdom of God, and for the coming of the one who will turn darkness to light, and whose “name to us is Love.”

Text:

Montgomery’s revised text of 1828 is most commonly used today, though there are multiple versions and verse combinations in today’s modern hymnals. The Episcopal Hymnal follows the original text most closely. The biggest change comes in The Psalter Hymnal, in which Bert Polman edited the text significantly to stay truer to the actual Psalm. It was not Montgomery’s intent, however, to write a direct paraphrase of the Psalm, but rather to absorb “from the Psalm the essential intent of the Psalmist as he saw it, then [proceed] to create his own imagery” (Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns). As Dr. Adam Clarke says in his Commentaries on the Poetical Parts of the Holy Bible, 1821, “I need not tell the intelligent reader that he [Montgomery] has seized the spirit, and exhibited some of the principal beauties, of the Hebrew bard; though (to use his own words in a letter to me) his ‘hand trembled to touch the harp of Zion.’” Too many changes of the original are thus unnecessary; rather, we should appreciate the spirit of Montgomery’s text.

Tune:

There is almost no consensus on what tune to use for this hymn, so here are some of the most popular options and some things to consider:

ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALVOGELEIN – shares the same opening motive and bar structure as LOBE DEN HERREN (Praise to the Lord, the Almighty), so when done in the same key, the two hymns effortlessly transitions into each other.
CRUGER – this isn’t a terribly obvious melody…I found it hard to catch even after a few verses.
ZOAN – don’t be surprised by the end that soundly breaks into half notes.
ELLACOMBE – my personal favorite, since it has a very regal lilt to it, and a simple AABA form that makes it easy to remember.
AURELIA – best known as the tune for “Jerusalem the Golden,” it might be hard to associate this tune with another text.

If you’re looking for something different, folk duo Welcome Wagon has a light folk version with banjo and soft vocals. Recording artist Sufjan Stevens, who produced this album, acknowledges that all the poetic lyricism and many roles of the Messiah given in Montgomery’s text can become vague and tedious, but with the light vocals and simple melody of Welcome Wagon’s version, one uncovers “luxurious epiphanies with such steadfast matter-of-factness that even the grandest of clichés begins to sound equitable, noble, and wise.”

When/Why/How:

This hymn is perfect for advent. Based off of a psalm that foretold the first coming of the Messiah, we now sing these words to look forward to the second coming. This hymn could be paired with another hymn, “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun,” written by Isaac Watts and also inspired by Psalm 72. To switch things up, you could also try reading verses from Watts’ hymn as a call to worship before singing Montgomery’s text.

Suggested music resources:

ES FLOG ENI KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN
- Thompson, Martha Lynn. Ring With 6: Year-Round - Handbells
- Callahan, Charles. The Art of Hymn Playing, Vol II-Introductions, Preludes, Free Accompaniments, and Alternate Harmonziations
ELLACOMBE:
- Mayfield, Larry. ELLACOMBE - Brass
- Festive Hymn Settings for Congregational Singing-Set 2: Easter/General Organ and Timpani
- Ingram, Bill. I Sing the Mighty Power of God/Hosanna, Loud Hosanna Handbells
AURELIA
- Keller, Mark. AURELIA - Brass
- Hobby, Robert A. The Church's One Foundation-(Suite on Aurelia) - Organ
- Shackley, Larry. Built on the Rock (A Reformation Celebration for Piano Solo

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

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The Cyber Hymnal #2103

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Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #72

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The United Methodist Hymnal #203

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Page Scans

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Psalms and Hymns to the Living God (2023), p.98

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Instances

Instances (201 - 300 of 837)

Hymns suited to the Feasts and Fasts of the Church and Other Occasions of Public Worship ... approved by the Convention of 1826 #d66

Hymns to the Living God #98

Hymns, Principles of Faith, Church Order, and Divine Services, or Occasional liturgy; for the use of Messiah's Church #63

Hymns, Selected and Original, for Public and Private Worship, published by General Synod for the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 68th ed. (8th rev. ed.) #d284

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Exclude 763 pre-1979 instances

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Piano/Organ Hail to the Lord's Anointed I Know Whom I Have Believed (Great Gospel Hymns for the Intermediate Pianist) Beautiful Savior (Hymns of Love and Adoration for Organ) More Piano/Organ...
Choral A Hymn to God: Creator More Choral...
Instrumental Worship the King Festive Hymn Settings for Congregational Singing - Set 2: Easter/General I Sing the Mighty Power of God More Instrumental...
Handbells SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS Hosanna! Hosanna! More Handbells...
PowerPoint Psalm 72 (Sing! A New Creation 120) HAIL TO THE LORD'S ANOINTED (Trinity Hymnal 311) HAIL TO THE LORD'S ANOINTED (United Methodist Hymnal 203) More PowerPoint...

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