Let Us With a Joyful Mind

One of the lectionary readings for this coming Sunday is Colossians 3:1-11; and one of the related lectionary hymns is "Let Us With a Joyful Mind," 2012, in The Faith We Sing. The hymn was written by John Milton (1608-1674), one of England's great poets and political writers. Milton was the author of the epic poem Paradise Lost, which was composed late in his life while he was blind.

As a student at Christ's College at Cambridge around 1629, Milton wrote a number of poems in Latin and "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," an ode celebrating Christ's birth. But Milton showed promise as a poet even earlier than that, having written "Let Us With a Joyful Mind" as a 15-year-old adolescent in 1623. The six stanzas in The Faith We Sing are only part of the original twenty-four stanzas.

The hymn is only eight measures long, four for the verses and four for the refrain. Each short verse contains a rhymed couplet in praise of God as creator and provider:

• Verse 1: Calls us to joyful praise
• Verse 2: God created the earth and made the light
• Verse 3: God rules the sun but shines even brighter
• Verse 4: God made the moon and stars to shine at night
• Verse 5: God provides for all land and sea creatures
• Verse 6: let us praise God who is kind, merciful, enduring, faithful, and sure.

This short, nearly 400-year-old hymn by Milton, with its easy and singable melody, is probably not one of the most used in The Faith We Sing. Its key of D Major and simple chord structure also make it very friendly for guitar players and praise teams. Chords are available in the accompaniment or guitar editions of The Faith We Sing.