The Hosanna of the Children; or, Infants praising God

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Almighty Ruler of the skies

Paraphraser: Isaac Watts
Published in 78 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

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Representative Text

Almighty Ruler of the skies,
Through the wide earth thy name is spread;
And thine eternal glories rise
O'er all the heav'ns thy hands have made.

To thee the voices of the young
A monument of honor raise;
And babes, with uninstructed tongue,
Declare the wonders of thy praise.

Thy power assists their tender age
To bring proud rebels to the ground,
To still the bold blasphemer's rage,
And all their policies confound.

Children amidst thy temple throng
To see their great Redeemer's face;
The Son of David is their song,
And young hosannas fill the place.

The frowning scribes and angry priests
In vain their impious cavils bring;
Revenge sits silent in their breasts,
While Jewish babes proclaim their King.

Source: Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, The #Ps.17

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Paraphraser: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Almighty Ruler of the skies
Title:	The Hosanna of the Children; or, Infants praising God
Paraphraser:	Isaac Watts
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Almighty Ruler of the skies. I. Watts. [Ps. viii.] His L. M. paraphrase of v. 1, 2, of Ps. viii., first published in his Psalms of David, 1719, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The Hosanna of the Children; or, Infants praising God." His explanation of the opening stanzas is given in a note thus:—"These two first verses are here paraphrased and explained by the history of the Children crying Hosanna to Christ, Matt. xxi. 15,16, where our Saviour cites and applies those words of the Psalmist."
Although not of the first importance, it might be utilized as a hymn for Palm Sunday. Its use is limited. The New Congregational Hymn Book, copying from the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, omits st. iii. and v.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

BROOKFIELD (Southgate)

TRURO (Williams)

TRURO is an anonymous tune, first published in Thomas Williams's Psalmodia Evangelica, (second vol., 1789) as a setting for Isaac Watts' "Now to the Lord a noble song." Virtually nothing is known about this eighteenth-century British editor of the two-volume Psalmodia Evangelica, a collection of thr…

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