203. Praise Him! Praise Him!

The Story Behind the Hymn

Fanny Crosby wrote this hymn’s text in 1869, relatively early within her enormously long hymn-writing career.

It stands out among her considerable body of work for how directly it addresses the biblical figure of Christ under three distinct titles in succession: Redeemer, Crucified, and finally Prophet, Priest, and King. It moves the singer through a structured progression, from Christ’s saving death to His ongoing threefold office as prophet, revealing God’s truth, priest, interceding for His people, and king, ruling with authority.

That threefold ‘prophet, priest, and king’ framework reflects a long-standing traditional Christian theological formula for describing the different dimensions of Christ’s work.

Crosby draws on it directly in the hymn’s third verse, rather than inventing an entirely new descriptive framework of her own.

Chester G. Allen, a relatively minor gospel song composer compared to some of Crosby’s more famous and prolific musical collaborators, composed the tune.

The hymn’s own sustained, unbroken focus on praise gives it an unusually consistent, single-minded tone, from its opening line straight through to its close. That is unlike many of Crosby’s better-known hymns, which often move through some form of personal testimony or narrative before arriving at praise.

The hymn’s repeated command structure addresses ‘earth,’ ‘archangels,’ and, by implication, the singing congregation itself — all urged jointly to ‘praise Him.’ That gives it a communal, almost liturgical quality, well suited to large congregational singing.

It remains one of the standard hymns of pure praise within Crosby’s vast individual body of work, composed among the earliest years of what would eventually become a body of thousands of hymns spanning the remaining decades of her long life.