Hail to the Lord's Anointed

• Exodus 15:1-21
  (hymns)
• 1 Samuel 2:10
  (hymns)
• 1 Samuel 16:1-13
  (hymns)
• 2 Samuel 7:12-13
  (hymns)
• 1 Kings 3:9
  (hymns)
• Psalm 2
  (hymns)
• Psalm 18:1-20
  (hymns)
• Psalm 45:6
  (hymns)
• Psalm 68
  (hymns)
• Psalm 72
  (hymns)
• Psalm 74
  (hymns)
• Psalm 89:1-37
  (hymns)
• Psalm 98:9
  (hymns)
• Psalm 103:12
  (hymns)
• Psalm 110:1
  (hymns)
• Psalm 122
  (hymns)
• Psalm 132
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 9:6-7
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 42:7
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 42:16
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 52:7
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 54:10
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 58:10
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 60:1-6
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 61:1-11
  (hymns)
• Jeremiah 23:5-6
  (hymns)
• Jeremiah 33:10-21
  (hymns)
• Daniel 6:26
  (hymns)
• Daniel 9:24
  (hymns)
• Hosea 6:1-3
  (hymns)
• Amos 5:24
  (hymns)
• Habakkuk 2:14
  (hymns)
• Matthew 1:1-17
  (hymns)
• Matthew 1:23
  (hymns)
• Matthew 2:1-12
  (hymns)
• Matthew 9:27-31
  (hymns)
• Matthew 12:15-21
  (hymns)
• Matthew 20:29-34
  (hymns)
• Matthew 21:1-11
  (hymns)
• Matthew 22:34-46
  (hymns)
• Mark 10:46-52
  (hymns)
• Mark 11:1-10
  (hymns)
• Mark 12:35
  (hymns)
• Mark 12:37
  (hymns)
• Luke 1:33
  (hymns)
• Luke 1:68-79
  (hymns)
• Luke 2:1-20
  (hymns)
• Luke 2:22-40
  (hymns)
• Luke 4:14-30
  (hymns)
• Luke 19:28-40
  (hymns)
• Luke 20:41-44
  (hymns)
• Acts 8:26-39
  (hymns)
• Acts 10:34-43
  (hymns)
• Acts 26:18
  (hymns)
• Romans 1:1-7
  (hymns)
• Philippians 2:9
  (hymns)
• Philippians 4:4-7
  (hymns)
• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
  (hymns)
• Hebrews 1:1-12
  (hymns)
• 1 John 4:8
  (hymns)
• 1 John 4:16
  (hymns)
• Revelation 7:9-17
  (hymns)

• 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)

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

FlexScores are available in the Media section below.