O God, Our Help in Ages Past

The story of this hymn

Isaac Watts turned Psalm 90 into English verse for his 1719 collection 'The Psalms of David Imitated', writing in uneasy times for England's Dissenters — which is why every line holds so steady. John Wesley later altered Watts's opening 'Our God' to 'O God', the form now sung everywhere. Carried by William Croft's tune 'St Anne', it anchors Remembrance services and state funerals — it was sung at Winston Churchill's in 1965 — and no hymn steadies a large congregation better.

Where it sits in the service

A natural opening hymn — firm, familiar, and easy for a large congregation to carry — which is why it anchors civic and military funerals as well as family ones; it can equally close a service. Watts wrote more verses than anyone now sings: the four given here are the usual funeral selection, so print them in full rather than pointing mourners to a hymnal.

In the programme, list it in the order of service as “Hymn — O God, Our Help in Ages Past” with the leader or choir named beside it.

How it is actually sung

Isaac Watts on time and mortality, and one of the great funeral hymns for a long life. Congregations know the tune (St Anne) even where they do not know the words. Four verses of the original nine is the usual selection, and the hymn is stately rather than slow — it should not drag.

Printing the words

Public domain. Four verses is right; printing all nine is a mistake families occasionally make and no congregation has ever sung them at a funeral.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Reproduction rights vary by territory, by hymnal edition and by the licence your church holds — the church office is the right place to ask, and they answer this question often.