1. "Come we that love the Lord/ And let our joys be known/ Join in a song with sweet accord/ Join in a song with sweet accord/ And thus surround the throne/ And thus surround the throne. (Chor) 
  2. "Let those refuse to sing/ Who never knew our God/ But children of the Heavenly King/ But children of the Heavenly King/ May speak their joys abroad/ May speak their joys abroad. (Chor)
  3. "The hill of Zion yields/ A thousand sacred sweets/ Before we reach the heavenly fields/ Before we reach the heavenly fields/ Or walk the golden streets/Or walk the golden streets/.(Chor)
  4. "Then let our songs abound/ And every tear be dry/ We're marching through Immanuel's ground/ We're marching through Immanuel's ground/ To fairer worlds on high/ To fairer worlds on high.(Chor)
Chor) "We're marching to Zion/ Beautiful, beautiful Zion/ We're marcing upward to Zion/ The beautiful city of God."
(Words by Isaac Watts; Music by Robert Lowry)

This, too, is a classic hymn and has been sung for the better part of just over a century (under this arrangement). And considering it was written by two people who have become famous for their contributions to hymn writing (Isaac Watts and Robert Lowry), now may be a good time to start a sub-section in this series of commentaries denoting some of these famous writers.

Going to our Prime Directive "checkoff list" (and for future reference, I probably should create a "checkoff list" version of this), this seems to be a hymn that teaches us about God's willingness to bless us and thus reminding or admonishing us of such.

 The lyrics come from a song that was included in book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs written between 1707-1709 by Isaac Watts (who is considered the father of English hymnody [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637744/Isaac-Watts]) under the title "Heavenly Joy on Earth" (Book 2, incidentally was entitled Hymns. Composed on Heavenly Subjects).  The original version differs in a number of ways from the song we sing today.  First, the last two lines of each verse was only sung once (instead of repeating them, making each verse four lines instead of the six we have now).  Second, there is a total of ten verses with no chorus or refrain (versus the four that we sing today).  Lastly, some of the words from the verses that were retained were changed as well.
Interestingly enough, reading all ten of the original verses may shed some light on some of the verses we currently sing:
  1. Come, we that love the Lord,
    And let our joys be known;
    Join in a song with sweet accord,
    And thus surround the throne.
  2. The sorrows of the mind
    Be banish'd from the place!
    Religion never was design'd
    To make our pleasures less.
  3. Let those refuse to sing
    That never knew our God,
    But favourites of the heavenly King
    May speak their joys abroad. [emphasis added; not certain, but this seems to mark some Calvinist tenet as well, and it may have been good for Robert Lowry to substitute "children" instead.]
  4. The God that rules on high,
    And thunders when he please,
    That rides upon the stormy sky
    And manages the seas. [This reminds me of another verse from "O Worship the King" that we do not usually see or sing; as a second verse it reads "O tell of His might, o sing of His grace/ Whose robe is the light, Whose canopy space/ His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form/ And dark is His path on the wings of the storm"; I understand the writer of "O Worship the King" had his Bible open to the 104th Psalm when he penned those words; apparently Mr Watts had his Bible on a similar page.]
  5. This awful God is ours, [I'm pretty certain that Mr Watts meant "full of awe", as in "awesome" and as a term of reverence, as opposed to "awful" as we currently use to mean "horrible"]
    Our Father and our love,
    He shall send down his heavenly powers
    To carry us above.
  6. There we shall see his face,
    And never, never sin;
    There from the rivers of his grace
    Drink endless pleasures in. [allusions to 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 21 I do believe.]
  7. Yes, and before we rise
    To that immortal state,
    The thoughts of such amazing bliss
    Should constant joys create.
  8. The men of grace have found
    Glory begun below,
    Celestial fruits on earthly ground
    From faith and hope may grow. [This explains the next verse, currently our 3rd verse, where it talks about the "thousand sacred sweets" yielded by the hill of Zion "before we reach the heavenly fields...."]
  9. The hill of Sion yields
    A thousand sacred sweets,
    Before we reach the heavenly fields,
    Or walk the golden streets.
  10. Then let our songs abound,
    And every tear be dry;
    We're marching thro' Immanuel's ground
    To fairer worlds on high.
Apparently over the centuries, we have softened over time to where we tend not to sing songs that have more than three verses (sometimes we can have a fourth, maybe a fifth, highly infrequently will we tolerate a sixth verse).  But there is a wealth of information and praise that is included in the full ten verses of this hymn that it's a shame that the musical arranger winnowed it down to only four verses (but added a chorus!).  The fourth verse of this version, at least, would have made this work a psalm that gives high praise to Jehovah's character and power and not simply left it a hymn to remind us of His willingness to bless.
Speaking of the one who composed the music, perhaps my biggest complaint for this song stems from the musical arrangement for it (and this becomes the realm of opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions-- they're like noses: everybody has one and they usually smell).  It is written in a 6-8 time signature.  There is nothing wrong with that, in and of itself, since 6-8 time could be used for either a waltz beat or a marching beat.  However, we usually sing it at such a tempo that it seems more like we are waltzing to Zion.  And although it is possible to sing with a marching beat, some of the words may get slurred from singing so quickly.
Picture if you will singing the song AND marching; in the first verse, a foot would come down for "we", "that", "love", "Lord", "let", "joys", "known" (two steps), "in", "song", "sweet", "[ac-]cord" (foot would come down only for the second syllable), "in", "song", "sweet", "[ac-]cord", "thus" "sur-round" (one step for each syllable), "throne", "thus", "[sur-]round" (second syllable only), "throne" (two steps).  The chorus might be even worse: "march-ing" (one step for each syllable), "Zi-on" (one per syllable again), "Beau[-tiful]" (only for first syllable), "beau[-tiful] (ditto), "Zi-on" (one per), "march[-ing] (first syllable only), "up[-ward] (ditto), "Zi-on" (one per),   It may be that, having been singing it in waltz tempo for so many years, I find it disconcerting (at best) to try singing it in a march tempo.  If someone could make a new arrangement for this in a 4-4/"common" time march beat, we might have an improvement (in fact, if anyone knows about such a version in existence already, please let it be heard!)
Again, I welcome your thoughts…