All Hail the Pow’r of Jesus’ Name
Edward Perronet, an early Methodist and later independent minister, wrote one of the great praise hymns of all time. His original 8 verses are filled with biblical imagery that "crown Him Lord of All"!
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. Once again, I'm doing a famous hymn that I've never sung before in my life. Some of you will be appalled to know that I've never sung "All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name". I just don't remember it, so I've had to learn it this week. I've really enjoyed getting to know this powerful song.
Where do you know it from? Do you have memories of the song? Does it mean something special to you in your Christian journey? I'd love for you to share that in the comments below.
By the way, my Classic Hymn Volume 1 album is now out on all the streaming platforms. I've just taken a bunch of the performances from these Friday classic videos that I do and stuck them all onto one album, so it's 25 songs—just me on the piano singing the hymns. I hope you'll enjoy that. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel, I hope you do. If you enjoy these old hymns and singing songs that glorify God, I'm sure you'll enjoy the content I put out here.
Let me tell you the story behind this classic hymn, "All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name".
The Story Behind "All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name"
This great song was written by an English clergyman named Edward Perronet. The Perronets were descendants of French Huguenots who had actually come to England to escape some religious persecution that was going on in France. Edward's father, Vincent Perronet, was actually a good friend of John Wesley.
Remember, the Wesleys were Anglicans—they were Methodists, but Methodism wasn't a denomination yet. It was just an order of the Anglican church. So this was an Anglican family, close friends with the Wesleys. Edward, they say, was one of John Wesley's young converts. Wesley led him to the Lord, and Edward subsequently became an Anglican minister himself.
Of course, the Methodists in those days were quite severely persecuted in their land for preaching what they were preaching. Wesley actually puts this in one of his diaries—John Wesley, that is: "From Rochdale, we went to Bolton and soon found that the Rochdale lions were lambs in comparison with those of Bolton. Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken."
So he was part of that crowd of fiery Methodists being persecuted for preaching the Good News.
There's another story that's told in Kenneth Osbeck's book 101 Hymn Stories: young Perronet was asked by John Wesley to preach, but he kept refusing because he didn't want to preach in the presence of the great man. He felt himself the younger man, not really wanting to step on toes. But eventually, Wesley kind of pushed him into the pulpit one day and said, "You're preaching." Not wanting to preach because he didn't want to blow his own trumpet or anything, he said, "Okay, I'm not prepared, and so I will deliver the greatest sermon that was ever preached on Earth"—and he proceeded to read the Sermon on the Mount.
However, Perronet's relationship with the Wesleys soured in the 1750s when he released a publication just absolutely ripping apart the Anglican Church. He'd become very disillusioned with the Anglicans, whereas the Wesleys wanted to stay Anglican—they didn't want to break away. So he ended up stepping away from the Anglican church and becoming an independent minister for the rest of his life.
He wrote many hymns, and one of them was this one. This is the only one that really has survived. "All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name" has been called "the national anthem of Christendom". It became such a powerful song and such a popular song, because it's just such a wonderful statement of worship. It was published in 1779 by Augustus Toplady, who famously wrote "Rock of Ages", in a gospel magazine.
Perronet would die in his 60s, and his last words are some of the most beautiful ones you can find, because on his deathbed he is said to have said the following: "Glory to God in the height of His divinity. Glory to God in the depth of His humanity. Glory to God in His all-sufficiency. Into His hands I commend my spirit."
Special man and some special words that he wrote. Let's look at the original eight verses that were published in Toplady's magazine.
What Do the Lyrics of "All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name" Mean?
Verse 1
All hail the pow'r of Jesu's name—that was a common way of saying the name of Jesus in those days, "Jesu"—or, "All hail the power of Jesus' name", we would say.
Let Angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the Royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all (or "to crown Him Lord of all" was the original).
So he's saying even the angels will fall on their faces in worship as they hear Jesus' name. Jesus' name has got such power that the angels themselves fall prostrate—in other words, paralysed down before Him. So we must bring forth the royal diadem. Now that's a crown, of course, and this is a picture from actually the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 62, the prophet is talking about the end, when all the people are redeemed completely by God. He talks about them—the people of God—as a royal diadem, as a crown that God Himself wears. So Jesus is crowned with the glory of His people, of His bride, in all their purity, because He has saved them.
That's an interesting way to look at those words. But I think for many of us, it's just a picture of us placing a crown on Jesus' head to proclaim that He is royal, and He is worthy, and He is our God and our King.
Verse 2
Let high-born seraphs tune the lyre, and as they tune it, fall before His face who tunes their choir and crown Him Lord of all.
So even the seraphs—those heavenly creatures that are worshipping God—as they tune their instruments to sing His praise and to play music to His praise, they fall down because He is so great and overwhelming. God is the one who is busy tuning the choir to sing. I love this picture: He's the one who tunes our voices to sing and crown Him Lord of all.
Of course, not everybody can sing in tune on Earth. Mum always said God must be tone-deaf because He loves the praises of even people who can't sing in tune. But all creation sings, and God tunes all the voices to His liking as we crown Him from the heart. Beautiful.
Verse 3
Crown Him, ye morning stars of light, who fixed this floating ball.
So the morning stars are now called on to crown Him who fixed the Earth in place and the universe in place. He's the one who is so great that the whole universe was placed by Him. Let them crown Him and worship Him.
Now hail the strength of Israel's might and crown Him Lord of all.
So not only is He the God of the universe, but He's God of His people, Israel, here on Earth.
Verse 4
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.
There's a lot of good biblical imagery here. The martyrs—especially in the Book of Revelation, we read about martyrs who died for the faith and are waiting for God to bring vengeance and do justice to those who did such evil.
This is another picture from the Old Testament, a picture of Jesus from Isaiah 11, where He is called a shoot that will come up from Jesse. Jesse was David's father, and so in the line of David, in other words, will come the Messiah who will bear fruit. So here he's calling us to recognise Him as the one who carried on David's royal line and carries on forever, extending the covenant as the descendant of David.
Verse 5
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.
So I think he's saying here, the seed of Israel's chosen race—so Israel was the chosen race of God in the Old Testament. They were God's people simply by virtue of their race.
When Jesus came, this changed. The New Covenant brought about God's blessing on anybody who is saved by grace. Anybody who calls on the name of the Lord and believes in Jesus as Saviour is saved. So it's not just a certain race any more—anybody, any race, can be saved if they are saved by grace.
We're ransomed of the fall—that's what it means to be saved. Instead of the effects of the fall separating us from God, we've been ransomed by Jesus. In other words, He paid the price for us to go free. So now the effects of the fall are broken, and we are saved. So all of these people—those who were by race part of God's chosen people and those who weren't—may now be saved by God's grace alone and crown Him Lord of all. Beautiful.
Verse 6
Hail Him, ye heirs of David's line—so that's all of us. All of us who are saved by grace, Jew or Gentile, if we are covered in the blood of Christ and our faith is in Him, then we are now heirs of David's line.
Hail Him, ye heirs of David's line, whom David Lord did call.
Now this is a reference to Psalm 110, which is the famous messianic psalm where David proclaims that the Messiah is his Lord. Later on in the Gospels, Jesus even took on the scribes and the teachers of the law about this and sort of challenged them and said, "What do you understand by this? How can the Messiah be called the son of David when David calls Him Lord?" He kind of gives them a hard time about this.
But here we are called by the writer of the song to hail the one that David called Lord, and that's the Messiah—that's Jesus. The next line explains it:
The God incarnate, Man divine.
He's the one who was God incarnate—in other words, God in the flesh—and then, "Man divine". I love that: man and divine, human and divine. So we crown Him Lord of all because He is the one, the chosen Messiah, who was God incarnate, man divine.
Verse 7
Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget the wormwood and the gall.
Now what does that mean? Well, Deuteronomy 29 talks about wormwood and gall being kind of an effect of sin, a bitterness that comes out of sin, if you can think of it that way. So I think what he's saying here—and maybe you can chip in if you see it differently, you can write this in the comments—but I think he's saying: sinners (that's all of us) whose love can never forget the wormwood and the gall. In other words, we've always got this wormwood and gall—we always remember what we're saved from. That's what I think it means. We never forget what Jesus has pulled us out of: the wormwood and the gall, the bitterness of our sin. We always remember how He has saved us from this.
Go spread your trophies at His feet and crown Him Lord of all.
So now we're saved, and we've got trophies instead of wormwood and gall. But even that, we just lay it at His feet, spread them down, and crown Him the Lord of all—and count Him as our greatest trophy and worthy of it all.
Verse 8
Let every tribe and every tongue that hear the Saviour's call, now shout in universal song, the crowned Lord of all.
So this is real biblical language. John, especially in Revelation, would talk about how every tribe and tongue and nation are singing the song of the Lamb up in heaven. So now the songwriter is calling us—whatever tribe or tongue we're part of—to hear the Saviour's call for salvation and shout in universal song, shout His praise with all the believers universally, and crown Him the Lord of all.
Beautiful.
Conclusion
What a powerful song. What words meant something to you today as you read through these words with me? Was there a particular verse that just spoke to you and lifted your spirits? I'd love for you to share that in the comments below.
We're going to sing two versions, but instead of singing the whole song through twice, I'm going to do a bit of a medley—four verses, four verses. One is the more famous American one, and the other is the more famous British one. This song is sung in various different tunes—maybe you're going to have heard it in a different tune to one of these two that I sing. I hope you'll sing it with me.
Just a big thank you to those who donate towards the online work I do on top of running the church. This is really a big part of my every week, so your kind donations really help me—whether it's on PayPal or Patreon. Whatever, I am grateful. So let's sing it, and I hope that together we'll just crown Him the Lord of all as we sing.
References
Ian Bradley. The Penguin Book of Hymns. 1989. Penguin Group: London
Frank Colquhoun. Sing to the Lord: A Fresh Look at Great Hymns on Praise. 1988. Hodder & Stoughton: London
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
