Serve Him with mirth

Ray Ortlund wishes hymnal editors would let well enough alone — or, actually, let something very good alone.

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice,
Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell,
Come ye before him and rejoice.

The venerable Scottish Psalter paraphrased Psalm 100 that way. It is true to the meaning of the Hebrew.

My modern hymnal changed it:

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice,
Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell,
Come ye before him and rejoice.

"Mirth" was changed to "fear." "Him serve [not with mirth but] with fear." There is no depth of perdition low enough for editors who corrupt the Psalter, the Bible and the gospel. Should we serve the Lord with fear? Yes. But that is not what Psalm 100 says. And the Bible should be allowed to speak for itself. We have no right to replace one good thing with even another good thing, if the Bible is authoritative over us. ....

Every elder board needs to set aside one hour at least to discuss this question: "How can we at our church serve the Lord with more mirth — in a non-weird way?" .... [more]

The Psalter Hymnal [CRC, 1987] my church uses has:

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Serve him with joy, his praises tell,
Come now before him and rejoice.

"Joy" is better than "fear" but not as good as "mirth."

Update: The paraphrase was written by William Kethe and was first published in 1561. It used "fear." The Penguin Book of Hymns [1989] says

Certain modern hymnals render the third line of the first verse "Him serve with mirth," following a change that was first made in the Scottish Psalter to bring the hymn more in line with the second verse of Psalm 100, which runs "Serve the Lord with gladness." One cannot help feeling that Kethe was a little severe in his paraphrasing at this point, but he does at least allow us a "cheerful voice" in the line before.

Christ is deeper still: Mirth or fear?