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o happy day

O Happy Day

Words: Philip Doddridge (b. June 26, 1702; d. Oct. 26, 1751)
Music: Happy Day, by Edward Francis Rimbault (b. June 13, 1816; d. Sept. 26, 1876)

Note: Some resources suggest that the tune Happy Day came from Dr. Rimbault. He did write the music for the refrain. But the origin of the rest is obscure. It was adapted for use with John Cennick’s 1743 hymn Jesus, My All to Heaven Is Gone, and later for use with Doddridge’s hymn.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

We tend to think of happiness as arising from happenings–that is, from our circumstances, what has happened to us. While a sense of joy and blessedness may arise from such things, it may be rooted deeper in our awareness that God is at work, even when our present situation is difficult. The word “happy” has several shades of meaning in English. It can mean cheerful, delighted or enthusiastic. It can also mean satisfied and content (as in “I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished”), or blessed and highly favoured.

Blessed and highly favoured is closest to how the Bible uses the word. When Psalm 1 begins, “Blessed is the man…” it means he is enriched, contented, and fulfilled. And that is likely what Doddridge meant: “O what a blessed day that fixed [fastened or secured] my choice on Thee!” (1). “Happy [enriched, contented and fulfilled] are the people whose God is the Lord!” (Ps. 144:15).

And the response to God’s wonderful salvation will be twofold, as (1) indicates, rejoicing within that is aimed Godward, and that causes us to tell abroad to others what the Lord has done for us.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”

Isa. 61:10

Conversion certainly involves a personal choice or a vow to trust Christ as Saviour ((1) and (2)). But since the sin nature is spiritually dead, “there is none who seeks after God” (Rom. 3:11). We were only able to seek God after He sought us, and enabled us to turn to Him, by His Spirit. “We love Him because He first loved us” (I Jn. 4:19). In the words of Doddridge, “He drew me, and I followed on” (3). The sovereign action of God in the work of salvation is described by the Lord Jesus in this way:

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out….No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him….No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (Jn. 6:37, 44, 65).

Conversion can also be described as a “rest” (4), in which faith rests itself in the finished work of Christ. “We who have believed do enter that rest” (Heb. 4:3). When the Lord God finished the work of creation, He rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:1-2). That rest from work is used by the writer of Hebrews as a picture of the rest of saving faith. We trust only in the Saviour, not our own works, to gain God’s acceptance. “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10; cf. Rom. 4:4-5).

The fifth stanza of Philip Doddridge’s hymn is often omitted from our hymnals. In it, the author makes a lifelong commitment to continue following the Lord.

High heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear,
Till in life’s latest hour I bow
And bless in death a bond so dear.

Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away!
He taught me how to watch and pray,
And live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.

Questions:

  1. What are some of the blessings of God’s wonderful salvation?
  2. Why would any born again Christian fail to respond with joyful enthusiasm to what God has done for him?

Links:

Today in 1702 – Philip Doddridge Born

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Philip Doddridge was the youngest of 20 children. (Sadly, 18 of these died in infancy.) He was a pastor, and a man of great scholarship. Doddridge was a friend of Isaac Watts, and described himself as one of several lamps “kindled at Watts’s torch.” He died of tuberculosis at the age of 49, but he packed a lot in a few years!

Philip Doddridge entered  pastoral ministry at the age of 19, and at the urging of Isaac Watts, he also opened a theological school for training young pastors. During the years he taught there, he trained about 150 young men to serve Christ. In addition he wrote about 370 hymns. Several of these are still in use. It was Pastor Doddridge’s practice, after he had finished his sermon preparation, to write a hymn to suit the theme. Among the songs he has given us:

Great God, We Sing That Mighty Hand
How Gentle God’s Commands
How Rich Thy Bounty, King of Kings
My Gracious Lord, I Own Thy Right
O Happy Day
See Israel’s Gentle Shepherd Stand

The hymn My Gracious Lord, I Own Thy Right was headed in the original manuscript: “Christ’s Service, The Fruit of Our Labours on Earth.”  The hymn is a clear declaration of the sovereignty of God over our lives. That was the principle violated in Eden when our first parents disobeyed God’s command (Gen. 2:17; 3:6). They were asserting their independence, and we’ve been suffering from that ever since!

The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever” (Rom. 11:36). Therefore, “To God our Saviour, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:25). Doddridge’s hymn, a personal affirmation of these truths, begins:

My gracious Lord, I own Thy right
To every service I can pay,
And call it my supreme delight
To hear Thy dictates, and obey.

What is my being but for Thee,
Its sure support, its noblest end?
’Tis my delight Thy face to see,
And serve the cause of such a Friend.

Philip Doddridge’s hymn, O Happy Day, was written to accompany one of his sermons, and first appeared in 1755. (The refrain was added later.) His original title was “Rejoicing in our Covenant Engagements to God,” referring to the covenant the Israelites made with the Lord in II Chron. 15:12, 15. Dodderidge obviously applied this to the bond that is formed between the believer and Christ, at conversion.

O happy day, that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Saviour and my God!
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.

Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away!
He taught me how to watch and pray,
And live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.

O happy bond, that seals my vows
To Him Who merits all my love!
Let cheerful anthems fill His house,
While to that sacred shrine I move.

’Tis done: the great transaction’s done!
I am the Lord’s and He is mine;
He drew me, and I followed on;
Charmed to confess the voice divine.

Now for something completely different, 🙂 here is the Cathedral Quartet performing the tune for O Happy Day, but singing the Tonic Solfa (doh, ray, me) instead of words. It’s a novelty number, done just for fun.

Grace, ‘Tis a Charming Sound is a joint effort between Doddridge and Augustus Toplady, author of the hymn Rock of Ages. The hymn is based on Eph. 2:5, “By grace you have been saved,” and Pastor Doddridge’s original title was “Salvation by Grace.” Most hymnals today add a refrain, which was not part of the original.

Grace, ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to mine ear;
Heav’n with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Saved by grace alone!
This is all my plea;
Jesus died for all mankind,
And Jesus died for me.

‘Twas grace that wrote my name
In life’s eternal book;
’Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

Grace taught my wand’ring feet
To tread the heav’nly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.

O let Thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine
May all my powers to Thee aspire,
And all my days be Thine.