A Song of Praise

The "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" is a religious song based on Joachim Neander's German song of praise "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren", produced in 1680. John Julian in his "A Dictionary of Hymnology" calls the German genuine "a magnificent song of praise to God, possibly the outstanding creation of its author, and of the first rank in its class."

The melody used by Neander, first produced in 1665, has been in many versions and is presumably based on a folk tune. It is categorized as Zahn number 1912c with several variants. The written work paraphrases Psalm 103 and Psalm 150. Catherine Winkworth produced her English translation of Neander's song of praise in 1863.

The usual name given to this melody is "Lobe den Herren". A number of variants were produced with various secular texts between 1665 and 1680, when Joachim Neander produced his German song of praise Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, using its meter.

It was the favorite song of praise of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who first heard it in 1800.

A number of other notable composers used the tune in chorale preludes for organ, including Johann Gottfried Walther and Johann Philipp Kirnberger.

The German choral composer Hugo Distler produced a well-liked arrangement of the song of praise for a cappella chorus, as part of his Drei Kleine Choralmotetten. A modern hardstyle remix was formally distributed by DJ Flubbel via Ecovata in 2015.

John Julian's A Dictionary of Hymnology records more than ten English translations of "Lobe den Herren" printed in different 19th-century hymnals.

Although he compliments other translations by Winkworth and illustrates this one as a twentieth-century "classic," he critiques her changes to the sense of Neander's text as an example of "muscular Christianity tinged with Philistinism."