Come, Thou Almighty King

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Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Thy name to sing

Author: Anonymous
Tune: ITALIAN HYMN
Published in 1793 hymnals

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	Come, Thou Almighty King

Piano/Organ
	For Love of Country

Choral
	Come, Thou Almighty King (A Hymn Concert…

Representative Text

1 Come, Thou Almighty King,
help us Thy name to sing;
help us to praise:
Father, all glorious,
o'er all victorious,
come, and reign over us,
Ancient of Days.

2 Come, Thou Incarnate Word,
gird on Thy mighty sword,
our pray'r attend:
come, and Thy people bless,
and give Thy Word success:
Spirit of holiness,
on us descend.

3 Come, Holy Comforter,
Thy sacred witness bear
in this glad hour:
Thou who almighty art,
now rule in every heart,
and ne'er from us depart,
Spirit of pow'r.

4 To Thee, great One in Three,
eternal praises be
hence, evermore.
His sov'reign majesty
may we in glory see,
and to eternity
love and adore!

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #158

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Author: Anonymous

In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries. Go to person page >

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Related Texts

First Line:	Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Thy name to sing
Title:	Come, Thou Almighty King
Author:	Anonymous
Meter:	6.6.4.6.6.6.4
Source:	English, before 1760; Source unknown, c. 1757, alt.
Language:	English
Notes:	Polish translation: See "Przyjdź, Królu wieczny nasz"
Copyright:	Public Domain; Public Domain

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 #492.
Year A, Easter season, Sixth Sunday
Related to John 14 (NPM)
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14)
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 16 (21)
Year B, Christmas season, Holy Name of Jesus (Mary, Mother of God)
Year B, Christmas season, New Year's Day
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 #492.
Year B, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
Year B, Easter season, Day of Pentecost
This is recommended for Year B, Easter season, Day of Pentecost by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #492.
Year B, Easter season, Day of Pentecost
Year B, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #2 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #492.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14)
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #492.
Year C, Christmas season, Holy Name of Jesus (Mary, Mother of God)
Year C, Christmas season, New Year's Day
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 #492.
Year C, Holy Week season, Monday of Holy Week
Year C, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year C, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday

English

10 shown out of 1195

Latin

The Book of Praise #273

Spanish

Welsh

Hymnau a thonau at wasanaeth amrywiol gyfarfodydd y cysegr #345

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Notes

Scripture References:
st.3 = John 15:26

The anonymous text dates from before 1757, when it was published in a leaflet and bound into the 1757 edition of George Whitefield's Collection of Hymns for Social Worship. The text appears to be patterned after the British national anthem, "God Save the King." Filled with names for members of the Godhead, this song exhibits a common trinitarian structure, addressing God the Father (st. 1), God the Son (st. 2), and God the Holy Spirit (st. 3), concluding with a doxology to the Trinity (st. 4).

The text has often been attributed to Charles Wesley, since the leaflet also included a hymn text from his pen (“Jesus, Let Thy Pitying Eye"); however, "Come, Thou Almighty King" was never printed in any of the Wesley hymnals, and no other Wesley text is written in such an unusual mete

Liturgical Use:
Beginning of worship; as a doxology (st.4)

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook
===================
Come, Thou Almighty King. [Holy Trinity.] The earliest form in which this hymn is found is in 5 stanzas of 7 lines, with the title, "An Hymn to the Trinity," on a tract of four pages, together with stanzas 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, and 12, of C. Wesley's hymn on "The Backslider," beginning "Jesus, let Thy pitying eye," &c, thus making up a tract of two hymns. The date of this tract is unknown. It is bound up with the British Museum copy of the 6th ed. of G. Whitefield's Collection, 1757, and again with the copies in the same library of the 8th ed., 1759, and the 9th, 1760. In subsequent editions beginning with the 10th, 1761, both hymns were incorporated in the body of the book. M. Madan included it in the Appendix to his Collection in 1763, No. cxcv., and through this channel, together with the WhitefieldCollection, it has descended to modern hymnals. The loss of the titlepage (if any) of the above tract renders the question of its authorship one of some doubt. The first hymn in the tract is compiled, as indicated, from C. Wesley's hymn, "Jesus, let Thy pitying eye," which appeared in his Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1749, some eight years before the abridged form was given in G. Whitefield’s Collection. The hymn, "Come, Thou Almighty King," however, cannot be found in any known publication of C. Wesley, and the assigning of the authorahip to him is pure conjecture. Seeing that it is given, together with another hymn, at the end of some copies of the 6th, 8th and 9th ed. of Whitefield's Collection (1757, 1759 and 1760), and was subsequently em¬bodied in that Collection, the most probable conclusion is that both hymns were printed by Whitefield as additions to those editions of his collection, and that, as in the one case, the hymn is compiled from one by C. Wesley, so in this we have probably the reprint of the production of an author to us as yet unknown. Much stress has been laid on the fact that the late D. Sedgwick always maintained the authorship of C. Wesley, and that from his decision there was no appeal. The "S. MSS." show clearly that (1) Sedgwick's correspondence respecting this hymn was very extensive; (2) that he knew nothing of the British Museum copies noted above; (3) that he had no authority for his statement but his own private opinion Based on what he regarded as internal evidence alone; (4) and that all the Wesleyan authorities with whom he corresponded, both in G. Britain and America, were against him. His authority is, therefore, of no value. The evidence to the present time will admit of no individual signature. It is "Anon.”
The use of this hymn, both in Great Britain, the Colonies, and America, is very extensive. It has also been rendered into various languages. Original text, Lyra Britannica, 18G7, p. 656; Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

ITALIAN HYMN

Felice de Giardini (b. Turin, Italy, 1716; d. Moscow, Russia, 1796) composed ITALIAN HYMN in three parts for this text at the request of Selina Shirley, the famous evangelically minded Countess of Huntingdon. Giardini was living in London at the time and contributed this tune and three others to Mar…

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For Leaders

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In his first letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul warns him that the Christian life is a constant war against evil. He commands Timothy to “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12, ESV). A few verses later, Paul describes the one for whose sake we fight: “he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15-16, ESV). In this hymn, we praise God as our King and Ruler, addressing each Person of the Trinity in turn, and end with a request that

“His Sovereign majesty
May we in glory see.”

Text:

“Come, Thou Almighty King” is an anonymous text that first appeared in print in a short pamphlet published by the Wesleys alongside one of Charles Wesley’s hymns. The British Museum contains a copy of this pamphlet bound with the 1757 edition of George Whitefield’s Collection of Hymns for Social Worship, as well as two later editions from 1759 and 1760. The fact that it appeared with Wesley’s hymn has led some to believe that Wesley wrote it, but this is doubtful. The hymn does not appear in any of the older Methodist hymnals, and Wesley never claimed it, nor did he write another hymn in the unusual meter of this one.

Similarities between “Come, Thou Almighty King” and the British national anthem “God Save the King” suggest that the hymn was written as a parody to that national anthem. There is a story that, during the American Revolution, some British soldiers surprised an American congregation on Long Island and ordered them to sing “God Save the King.” The Americans responded by singing the correct tune, but the words of “Come, Thou Almighty King.”

This text was written with five stanzas. The original second stanza, which addresses Jesus as our great military leader, is always omitted, but sometimes it is combined with the original third stanza. The four stanzas that remain contain other militaristic language, which is sometimes edited. Each of the first three stanzas is addressed to a member of the Trinity: God the Father (st. 1, fourth line), the Son (the “incarnate word,” opening line of st. 2), and the Holy Spirit (“holy comforter, opening line of st. 3). The fourth stanza concludes with a doxology to the Trinity.

Tune:

This text was originally sung to the tune of the British national anthem (known now in the U.S. as AMERICA). In 1769, a new tune was written especially for this text for Martin Madan’s A Collection of Psalm-Tunes never published before, a music book sold to benefit the Lock Hospital, a London charitable institution. One of the hospital’s patrons, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, had asked Felice de Giardini, a popular Italian composer living in London, to write a new tune for these words, and ITALIAN HYMN was the result. Madan, the hospital’s chaplain, included the tune in his collection, and it became popular.

ITALIAN HYMN is so named because its composer was an Italian living in England. It is also known as MOSCOW, after the city where Giardini died, or TRINITY, after the theme of the hymn. Other uncommon names include FAIRFORD, FLORENCE, GIARDINI'S, or HERMAN.

When/Why/How:

For general use, this hymn is suitable for the opening of worship, or as a doxology. A couple of Sundays where it is especially appropriate are Trinity Sunday and Pentecost (with the focus on stanza 4).

“Come, Thou Almighty King” for handbells by Kevin McChesney has an interesting rhythmic underpinning all the way through. Victor Johnson has written a majestic concertato setting of “Come, Thou Almighty King” for choir, congregation, and organ, with optional brass, timpani, and handbell parts. Another setting of “Come, Thou Almighty King” by Michael Burkhardt alternates between the fully orchestrated use of the popular tune ITALIAN HYMN and an a capella rendering of the lesser-known tune NEW HAVEN. Lloyd Larson’s piano suite “Jesus Shall Reign” contains a classical prelude setting of ITALIAN HYMN.

Tiffany Shomsky,
Hymnary.org

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Page Scans

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Psalms and Hymns to the Living God (2023), p.221

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Instances

Instances (1 - 94 of 94)

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