Let Us With a Gladsome Mind
John Milton · 1623 · tune MONKLAND
Key of F · public domain
Words
Verse 1Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for He is kind:
For His mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 2Let us blaze His name abroad,
For of gods He is the God:
For His mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 3He with all-commanding might
Filled the new-made world with light:
For His mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 4All things living He doth feed;
His full hand supplies their need:
For His mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 5Let us then with gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for He is kind:
For His mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
The story
Milton wrote this at fifteen, a schoolboy exercise at St Paul's, and it is the only hymn by the author of Paradise Lost that churches still sing. The thing he got right is the shape. Psalm 136 has twenty-six verses and every single one of them ends with the same line: for his mercy endureth for ever. It is the most repetitive psalm in the book, deliberately, because it was sung antiphonally with the congregation answering. Milton kept that. The couplet comes back after every verse, unchanged, and the effect is the same as the psalm's: the facts about God change from verse to verse and the mercy does not.
Chords in F
Verse 1
F Bb C
Let us with a gladsome mind
F C F
Praise the Lord, for He is kind:
Bb F C
For His mercies aye endure,
F C F
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 2
F Bb C
Let us blaze His name abroad,
F C F
For of gods He is the God:
Bb F C
For His mercies aye endure,
F C F
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 3
F Bb C
He with all-commanding might
F C F
Filled the new-made world with light:
Bb F C
For His mercies aye endure,
F C F
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 4
F Bb C
All things living He doth feed;
F C F
His full hand supplies their need:
Bb F C
For His mercies aye endure,
F C F
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Verse 5
F Bb C
Let us then with gladsome mind
F C F
Praise the Lord, for He is kind:
Bb F C
For His mercies aye endure,
F C F
Ever faithful, ever sure.
In the app you can move this to any key and it works out the capo for you.
Common questions
Who wrote Let Us With a Gladsome Mind? John Milton wrote the words in 1623.
What tune is it sung to? MONKLAND, set here in the key of F.
What scripture is it built on? Psalm 136.
Is Let Us With a Gladsome Mind free to use in church? Yes. The words are public domain, which means any church may sing them, print them in a bulletin, put them on a screen or record them, without asking permission and without paying anyone.
The psalm it came from
Let Us With a Gladsome Mind is Psalm 136 set to a tune. The psalm itself is here in full — King James, Berean Standard and Reina-Valera side by side, with a note on what it is doing and where it sits in the book.
Themes
Psalms · Mercy · Creation
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