Every now and again I double check through my master file in bemusement that a song like Isaac Watt’s Jesus Shall Reign Where’er The Sun has not yet featured in this weekly series of posts.
Watt’s identification of the Lord Jesus into the themes of the seventy-second Psalm is at once both profoundly Biblical and Christian.
Though predominantly identified with the tune Duke Street, the tradition I’ve grown up with have always sung it to Warrington.
The notion that a generation or two of Christians are growing up without this heritage is a tremendous impoverishment, not simply because of the dislocation they’re experiencing from the last few centuries of the worshipping church, not simply because of their worship is being formed by disposable music, but because these lyrics are a demonstration of profoundly biblical song.
The lyrics.
1
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
does its successive journeys run,
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.
2
To him shall endless prayer be made,
and praises throng to crown his head.
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
with every morning sacrifice.
3
People and realms of every tongue
dwell on his love with sweetest song,
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.
4
Blessings abound where’er he reigns:
the prisoners leap to lose their chains,
the weary find eternal rest,
and all who suffer want are blest.
5
Let every creature rise and bring
the highest honors to our King,
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud amen.
I think this sounds about right.
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