A paraphrase in rhyming verse of Psalm 100, a song of praise from all Creation.
In the King James Bible, Psalm 100 begins ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands’. The hymn All People that on Earth do Dwell, written by Scottish minister William Kethe in 1561, is a well-known metrical paraphrase of Psalm 100; Isaac Watts made his own in 1719.
A summary in rhyming verse of Psalm 146, one of two psalms sung at every communion service in the East.
Psalm 146[145] is sung as the second of two psalms to open every communion service in the Russian church. The psalmist calls on us to put our trust in God, acknowledging that it is he who turns our hearts to care for the poor and needy, and to praise him until our latest breath.
A meditation on the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
Some Christians of Galatia, to avoid State persecution as Christians, tried to get their fellows to be circumcised so all could claim to be Jews. Isaac Watts shared St Paul’s conviction that to exchange the cross for any other badge of identity, however socially respectable, would be the saddest of bargains.