"All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" (Trinity Hymnal 296)

Hymn of the Month, August 2018
Researched and written by Rev. Nicholas Davelaar

According to Hymnary.org, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” appears in more hymnals and songbooks than any other song in its giant database of 210,279 songs. Out of 5,820 hymnals and songbooks—representing more than three hundred years of Christian publishing worldwide—this hymn is printed in 2,928 of them. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” is quite popular!
 
Many people played a role in making this hymn what it is. To begin with, Edward Perronet penned the original words, publishing them in 1779. Born in 1726, Perronet belonged to a family of French Huguenots who had fled to England to escape religious persecution. His father was an Anglican priest and was sympathetic to the ministry of the John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and others in the Methodist movement. In that light, it is no surprise that Edward himself later worked alongside John and Charles Wesley for a time. In fact, according to one famous story, John Wesley once called the reluctant Perronet to get up and speak before a large crowd. Perronet got up and announced, “I will now deliver the greatest sermon ever preached to the earth.” He then read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and sat down. In time he got over his reluctance to speak and became a minister. He also wrote a number of poems in his lifetime, but for the most part only “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” continues to be sung today. 
 
Perronet may have penned the original words, but hardly was the ink dry before they were altered significantly by John Rippon, an English Baptist minister some twenty years younger than Perronet. Rippon not only altered Perronet’s hymn, but even rewrote the sixth verse entirely. He published his revision in 1787, and it quickly overtook Perronet’s original in popularity.
 
There are three tunes commonly associated with “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” today. Some hymnals, such as ours, even include more than one of them! The tune used in Trinity Hymnal #296 was composed by Oliver Holden (1765-1844), an American carpenter who became a teacher and music-seller.
 
As the title suggests, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” is a song of praise to Jesus, in which we repeat some of the Bible’s many calls to praise him. In this hymn we call ourselves and fellow believers especially to praise Jesus for who he is and what he has done and is doing according to God’s Word. Jesus is truly worthy of all praise, and we want to be among the multitude of those who heed God’s call to crown him Lord of all!
 
All hail the pow'r of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all.
 
Our hymn opens with an unmistakable call to all people everywhere to praise Jesus: All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Why would we sing such a call? We would sing such a call because it is no less than the call of God’s Word, veiled but present already in Genesis and increasing all the way to a clear and mighty roar in Revelation! For instance, in Philippians 2:9-11 we hear that “God has highly exalted [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Here in this opening verse we take that call on our own lips, calling all people to hail the power of Jesus’ name and welcoming the adoration of the angels as well (Rev 7:11). 

We then bring this verse to an end with a repeated cry to bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. What does that mean? Simply put, it is to acknowledge his kingship (“diadem” more or less means “crown”). That noted, there may be more the hymnwriter meant when he penned these words. According to Isaiah 62:3, God’s redeemed people are his crown, “a royal diadem in the hand of [their] God.” In that light, we are not merely calling for all creation to acknowledge Jesus’ kingship, but also for us and our neighbors to become and live as part of his crown! Are you? 
  
Crown him, ye martyrs of your God,
who from his altar call;
extol the Stem of Jesse's rod, 
and crown him Lord of all;
extol the Stem of Jesse's rod, 
and crown him Lord of all.

This second verse of our hymn of the month takes its cue from Revelation 6:9-11, where we hear of “those who had been slain for the word of God” crying out from under the altar. In a loud voice they cried out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” We then hear that “they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete….” Here we expand on that instruction to wait, calling them to wait with hope in their Lord and ours. The Stem of Jesse’s rod has come, and that changes everything, even if not as quickly as we might sometimes desire (Is 11:1-10).
 
Ye seed of Israel's chosen race,
ye ransomed of the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace, 
and crown him Lord of all;
hail him who saves you by his grace, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
Now we turn from martyrs to us and our fellow believers more broadly. We are children/seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel (Gal 3:7). We are those who have been ransomed from the fall (1 Pet 1:17). In that light, we can and must hail/praise him who saves us by his grace, and crown him Lord of all!
  
Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
go, spread your trophies at his feet, 
and crown him Lord of all;
go, spread your trophies at his feet, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
What are the wormwood and the gall mentioned here at the start of verse 4? What do these words mean? Wormwood is a woody, bitter-tasting shrub that was sometimes used in medicine. Similarly, gall is a bitter and poisonous herb. Here and in the Bible both words are often used as synonyms for suffering. In Lamentations 3:19 we find both of them in a single verse: “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!” 

That noted, whose suffering are we singing about in this verse? Whose suffering can we sinners ne’er forget? Our suffering or someone else’s? As unforgettable as our suffering might sometimes seem, we’re singing of the suffering of someone else, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. Our love can ne’er forget his suffering, a life of suffering culminating in a painful, God-forsaken death on a Roman cross. He suffered and eventually was crucified to deliver us from our sin and the misery that accompanies it. Thus we call ourselves and one another, spread your trophies at his feet and crown him Lord of all! Do you? Will you?
 
Let ev'ry kindred, ev'ry tribe,
on this terrestrial ball,
to him all majesty ascribe, 
and crown him Lord of all;
to him all majesty ascribe, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
In Revelation 7:9-10 we hear John recount, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” As we begin to bring this month’s hymn to a close, we add our amen to that vision. Amen! Let it be so!
 
O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall!
we'll join the everlasting song, 
and crown him Lord of all;
we'll join the everlasting song, 
and crown him Lord of all.
 
We close by looking ahead, prayerfully and expectantly to the day when we personally join the great multitude of Revelation 7:9-10 and crown Jesus Lord of all. Is this your heart-felt hope? Is seeing and savoring Christ Jesus forever your desire and prayer?