R&S 76 was written by Josiah Conder, and first published in his own collection, The Star in the East, with Other Poems, of 1824. As the Companion to Rejoice and Sing explains, ‘Conder's hymn is not a piece of triumphalism... but a glad welcoming of "the Man of love, the Crucified", through whom God secures both life and death for all his creatures'. The tune Church Triumphant, by J.W. Elliott, was first published in Church Hymns with Tunes of 1874, edited by Arthur Sullivan.
R&S 203 comes from J. Armitage Robinson, a theologian and biblical scholar, and was written in 1888 while he was dean of Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1904 it found its way into the first version of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune Venice, by William Amps, first appeared in A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes of 1858; there is no indication why that name was chosen.
R&S 681, one of the best known of the Scottish metrical psalms, is based on Psalm 24, and traditionally associated with the service of Holy Communion. The tune St George's Edinburgh was first published in Sacred Harmony, for the Use of St George's Edinburgh, in 1820, compiled by its composer, Andrew Mitchell Thompson, minister of that church.
R&S 67 by W. Chalmers Smith was published in the author's Hymns of Christ and Christian Life of 1876; it links Isaiah's vision of God's glory with Jesus' transfiguration. The tune St Denio is suggested by the Journal of the Welsh Folk-Song Society to come from a ballad of 1810 entitled ‘Can mlynedd i ‘nawr' (‘A hundred years from now'). It was first given its name by Thomas Jones, Vicar of Denio in Caernarfonshire.