Awake, my soul, in joyful lays

Awake, my soul, in joyful lays. Samuel Medley. [Love of God.] This widely loved hymn celebrating the lovingkindness of Christ was written by Samuel Medley. It first appeared in J. H. Meyer's Collection of Hymns for Lady Huntingdon's Chapel, Cumberland Street, Shoreditch, in 1782. Medley subsequently included the poem in his own collection, Hymns (Bristol and Bradford, 1785), where it consisted of 8 stanzas of 4 lines, each ending with the distinctive refrain celebrating God's lovingkindness.

In 1787, Dr. John Rippon selected seven stanzas for his influential Baptist Selection (No. 13), omitting one of Medley's original verses. Medley revised the text again for his collected Hymns (1800), inserting a new fourth stanza and transposing stanzas v and vi. The standard versions adopted in public worship throughout Great Britain and America derive primarily from Rippon's seven-stanza arrangement or a further abridged five-stanza selection. The full original text of 1782 was later reprinted for historical reference in Charles Rogers's Lyra Britannica (1867).