Lyrics
This is the day the Lord hath made;
He calls the hours His own.
Let heav'n rejoice, let earth be glad,
And praise surround the throne.
Today He rose and left the dead,
And Satan's empire fell;
Today the saints His triumphs spread
And all His wonders tell.
Hosanna to th' anointed King,
To David's holy Son!
Help us, O Lord, descend and bring
Salvation from the throne.
Hosanna in the highest strains
The church on earth can raise!
The highest heav'ns in which He reigns,
Shall give Him nobler praise.
Public domain hymn text (1719). Words by Isaac Watts, from Psalm 118.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Isaac Watts wrote 'This Is the Day the Lord Hath Made' as part of his 1719 collection paraphrasing the Psalms in explicitly Christian language, drawing this text from Psalm 118:24, 'This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.'
Watts's opening line stays remarkably close to the psalm's own wording, a departure from his usual practice of expanding psalm texts considerably, suggesting he saw the verse's plain declarative claim as needing little embellishment to carry its full force.
The hymn's second verse shifts from the psalm's more general declaration into specifically Christian territory, tying the 'day the Lord hath made' to Christ's resurrection, 'today He rose and left the dead,' a reading consistent with the New Testament church's practice of gathering specifically to commemorate the resurrection.
Its closing verse borrows the crowd's own 'Hosanna' from the Gospel accounts of Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, directly quoting Psalm 118's own words, 'Hosanna… Blessed is he that cometh,' a passage the Gospel writers themselves understood as pointing toward Christ.
That layering, an Old Testament psalm about a single sacred day, read by Watts through the lens of Christ's resurrection and celebrated with the crowd's own words from Palm Sunday, is characteristic of Watts's broader method of finding Christ throughout the Psalter rather than treating the Old and New Testaments as separate books of praise.
The hymn's brief, direct structure, only three short verses, made it especially useful as an opening hymn for worship services, its declaration that 'this' particular day belongs to God functioning as a fitting first word for a congregation just beginning to gather.
It remained a standard opening or call-to-worship hymn across English-speaking Protestant hymnals for generations, valued for stating, in the plainest possible terms, that a specific day has been set apart and claimed by God rather than left as ordinary, undesignated time.
