Come, Thou Almighty King

A detachment of British soldiers surprised worshipers in a church service on Long Island one Sunday morning during the American Revolution. A British officer ordered the startled congregation to stand and sing “God Save The King.” The congregation obeyed by singing heartily the right tune but substituting the words of “Come, Thou Almighty King.”

The writer of “Come, Thou Almighty King” is unknown. In the form of a prayer, the hymn addresses the Holy Trinity using in the four stanzas eight names for the Deity. The tune we sing to the hymn has been associated with it for more than two hundred years.