Sing to the Lord with joyful voice. I. Watts. (Ps. 100) 1st published in his Psalms of David, & c., 1719, p. 256, in 6 st. of 4 l. In this form its use in modern collections is limited; that which has attained to the greatest popularity being "Before Jehovah's awful throne." This arrangement is by J. Wesley, and was 1st published in his Psalms & Hymns at Charlestown, U.S.A., in 1736-7, p. 5, and repeated in J. & C. Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, 1741, p. 74; the Wesleyan Hymn Book in 1797, as the first of the "Additional Hymns," and the revised ed. of 1875. Modern collections of the Church of England have received it through Madan's Psalms & Hymns, 1760, Toplady's Psalms & Hymns, 1776, and others of the last century. It consists of Watts, as follows, with alterations thus: st. i., Watts' st. ii altered, by J. Wesley, to: "Before Jehovah's awful throne, Ye nations bow with sacred joy."
—Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)