The tune of this hymn in unusual meter was in extensive use in southern Germany before 1700. It appeared as a hymn tune in 1623, set to an Easter hymn, Lasst uns Erfreuen Herzlich Sehr (Let Us Most Heartily Rejoice). It was revived when set to these words by John Athelstan Laurie Riley and published in the English Hymnal, 1906, of which Riley was one of the editors. Of the original four stanzas, the third was omitted by SDAH because of unscriptural references to the state of the dead.

Riley was born in Paddington, London, on August 10, 1858. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, gaining his B.A. in 1881, and the M.A. two years later. He traveled extensively in the Middle East and published several pamphlets and articles on the Eastern Christian church. He was a great supporter of the Anglo-Catholic movement. He died on November 17, 1945, in the township of Trinity, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. (He had purchased the Manor of Trinity and thus had become virtually the owner of the Isle of Jersey and Seigneur [Lord] of La Trinité.) The opposition to the English Hymnal because of its High Church leanings was softened to a great extent by Riley’s lectures on the book, illustrated by a group of singers.

LASST UNS ERFREUEN (see SDAH 2) is also used for SDAH 228. It was arranged in a consistent 3/2 time by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958).