Isaac Watts, "Marching to Zion"

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) may not exactly be a household name. But in the academic study of church music, he is often referred to as “The Father of English Hymnody.” (How would you like that as your epitaph!?) This is not because he was the first to write hymns in English, but rather because his work began to deviate from earlier English writers. Watts did not feel “constrained to strictly follow the language of scripture but freed to communicate biblical truth with greater freedom of poetic expression.”[1] With over 750 hymns to his credit, Watts’ texts were published in several collections during his lifetime:

v  Horæ lyricæ (1705); translated “Lyric Poems”

v  Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707)

v  The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and apply’d to the Christian state and worship (1719)

His style was widely emulated during his time, and his hymn texts remain among the most prolific published in hymnals today. Indeed, Glory to God contains 14 of his hymns. [Side note: Have you stopped by the church to check out a copy of Glory to God yet? I bet some of Watts’ texts are very familiar to you!]

Our service this Sunday will open with a musical arrangement of a Watts text, now commonly referred to as “Marching to Zion.” It is found in the 1707 collection mentioned above under the title “Heavenly Joy on Earth.” Four of the most common verses (of the original 10!) are:

Come, we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord, and thus surround the throne.

Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God;
But children of the heav’nly King may speak their joys abroad.

The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields or walk the golden streets.

Children, we must let our songs abound ‘til every tear by dry;
We’re marching thro’ Emmanuel’s ground to fairer worlds on high.

So where did the title “Marching to Zion” come from? In 1867 (160 years after Watts originally wrote the text), Brooklyn, NY clergyman Robert Lowry (1826-1899) added a refrain to Watts’ text that stuck.

We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion,
We’re marching on upward to Zion, the beautiful City of God.

Likely owing to the growing popularity of African American spirituals (with their recurring refrains between stanzas), Lowry’s refrain has “stood the test of time” as a pairing with Watts’ text. Lowry also wrote the gospel-like tune that’s almost always now published with Watts’ words (and Lowry’s refrain).

Casey Tibbles and I recorded this piece a couple weeks back, and I felt compelled to include it in this week’s service for a couple of reasons. First, it foreshadows a line in the appointed Gospel lesson from Matthew. Jesus has sent his 12 disciples out, asking them to proclaim the good news: “The kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 10:7). This is the passage where he tells them to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (10:8).

And so, secondly, it struck me that perhaps this is what we are seeing in our society today, in cities all over the world: folks marching – literally – in seek of a more perfect Zion. In Watts’ words, “The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets.” Perhaps our earthly “thousand sacred sweets” will be made even more pleasing if we can ‘cure, raise, cleanse, and cast out’ the ‘sick, dead, lepers, and demons’ of racial injustice and police brutality.

May this arrangement (and Casey’s rousing interpretation of it) help you enter into a worshipful state. And may we ever continue to march onward in seek of a more perfect Heaven on Earth.

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[1] A Survey of Christian Hymnody, William J. Reynolds and Milburn Price.