This is the day the Lord has made

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice! Be glad!

Save us, O Lord; let all our lives be in your armor clad. 

 

Blessed is the one who comes to us, who comes in God's own name.

Let us give blessing from God's house, his honor to proclaim.

 

God is the Lord, who shows us light; God shows us life and light.

Now let our offering be raised up, upon the altar's height.

 

God is our Lord, and only God; to God we lift our praise.

God is our Lord! Now let us all exalt him all our days.

 

Now we give thanks unto the Lord; for God alone is good. 

God's mercy is forevermore and has for ages stood.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2022, after Psalm 118:24-29 and Isaac Watts's "This Is the Day the Lord Hath Made."

MUSIC: Tune NUN DANKET ALL' UND BRINGET EHR', Johann Crüger, c.1647.

 

 

I had chosen the Watts hymn for a service this coming Sunday (10/9/22), and also for a hymn devotional lesson during the week. Delving into the hymn and its origins, and wondering at some of Watts's choices, somehow turned into writing a version of my own from the source psalm verses, staying away from Watts's Christianizing impulse and trying to let the psalm speak on its own terms. Make of it what you will.