Isaac Watts (1674-1748; see Biographies) included this hymn in five stanzas in his Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, 1719. In this book, Psalm 118 is given in four parts; this is the first stanza of part four, entitled “Hosanna; The Lord’s Day: or, Christ’s Resurrection, and our Salvation.”

Watts appends a note as follows: “This is the day wherein Christ fulfilled His sufferings, and rose from the dead, has honored it with His own name. Rev. 1:10. The Lord’s Day. Note on st. 3, refer to Matt. 21:9. Hosanna save, we beseech.” Obviously Watts had Sunday, his regular day of worship, in mind, but the first stanza identifies the day as “His own,” which according to Mark 2:28 is, of course, the seventh-day Sabbath. The actual context of Psalm 118:24 does not specify any particular day of the week.

TWENTY FOURTH first appeared in John Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813, printed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was with the Isaac Watts text “Salvation! Oh the joyful sound.” Several Chapins were active in church music during this time, the most well-known of which were brothers, Amzi and Lucius. Both have been given credit for TWENTY FOURTH, but some scholars lean toward Lucius. SDAH uses the tune again in a higher key and in a unison setting, at No. 406, which see for further comment on Lucius Chapin (1760-1842).

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.