I am currently convalescing from ankle reconstruction surgery. About a week after the surgery, I was surprised by a package at the door. Inside was a beautifully bound volume of poetry that my grandmother sent me to read while I recover. It’s called The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts.
Isaac Watts is a very important Christian historical figure. Without him, we might not be singing hymns in church today. Until he arrived upon the scene, the Protestant church sang Psalms exclusively, and the Anglican Church forbade its members to freely compose hymns. Mr. Watts was the instrument of change.
Isaac Watts was of Nonconformist stock. His father was thrown in jail when Isaac was a small boy for not conforming to Anglican worship. When not in prison, Isaac’s father taught him and other students in his home. In his childhood, Isaac Watts mastered Greek, Hebrew, and French. His poetic gifts manifested themselves at an early age, and as he thought of them, he would write his poems down. When he was seven years old, he showed some of his work to his mother, who immediately wondered if her son had written them. Isaac Watts convinced his mother by sitting down and writing two verses, expressing his faith in God right then and there.
I am a vile polluted lump of earth;
So I’ve continued ever since my birth;
Although Jehovah grace does daily give me,
As sur this monster Satan will deceive me.
Come, therefore, Lord, from Satan’s claws relieve me.
Wash me in Thy blood, O Christ,
And grace divine impart;
Then search and try the corners of my heart,
That I in all things may be fit to do
Service to Thee, and sing Thy praises too.
Perhaps his mother may have doubted even then that Isaac wrote these lines - after all he could have easily copied this from memory - but there is something pretty distinctive about this poem that undoubtedly reveals it as his. Can you guess what it is? (Clue - look at the first word of each line.)
One day when Isaac Watts was about fifteen, he came home from church and complained about the awful singing he heard there. His father immediately challenged him to give them something better. Later that day Isaac wrote these lines,
Behold the glories of the Lamb
Amidst His Father’s throne;
Prepare new honors for His name,
And songs before unknown.
The church sang them that night and a musical revolution was born. In 1707, Isaac Watts published the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, which allowed other churches other than his own to sing the hymns he wrote. Mr. Watts’ reason for writing hymns was simple. He loved singing the Psalms, but because the Psalms were written before the birth of Christ, there is no reference to Jesus by name. Mr. Watts objected to exclusively singing praise that never used the name of the Savior. Many times he would take the majestic themes found in the Psalms and translate them into hymns. For example, in Psalm 72, the writer says of Solomon’s kingdom, They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. Psalm 72:6-8 Isaac Watts took this and wrote of Jesus’ Kingdom,
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
I have sung Isaac Watts’ hymns since I was very young, and since I have a love for old poetry - especially Christian poetry - I was absolutely delighted when I first opened The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts. It contains an entire Psalter and every hymn that he wrote - a total of over 700 poems. The Psalter is especially interesting. Sometimes he would versify the Psalms multiple times in different meters, so the congregations could sing them to different tunes. Long Psalms such as Psalm 119 and 104 are broken down into bite sized chunks with each chunk consisting of four or five verses. Sometimes these are repeated several times in different meters. Each one has its own uniqueness, giving a slightly different perspective on the original Psalm.
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 19, because it talks first about how God reveals Himself in creation, and then how He reveals Himself in His word - two very favorite themes of mine. I was surprised to see that Mr. Watts versified this one four times, twice in small meter, once in long meter, and the last in something completely different. Maybe He liked this one too. ;-) Here is one of them.
Great God, the heav’ns well-order’d frame
Declared the glories of Thy name:
There Thy rich works of wonder shine;
A thousand starry beauties there,
A thousand radiant marks appear
Of boundless power and skill divine.
From night to day, from day to night,
The dawning and the dying light
Lectures of heav’nly wisdom read;
With silent eloquence they raise
Our thoughts to our Creator’s praise,
And neither sound nor language need.
Yet there divine instructions run
Far as the journeys of the sun,
And ev’ry nation knows their voice:
The sun, like some young bridegroom dress’d,
Breaks from the chambers of the east,
Rolls round, and makes the earth rejoice.
Where’er he spreads his beams abroad,
He smiles and speaks his Maker God;
All nature joins to show Thy praise:
Thus God in ev’ry creature shines;
Fair is the book of nature’s lines,
But fairer is Thy book of grace.
I love the volumes of Thy word;
What light and joy those leaves afford
To souls benighted and distress’d!
Thy precepts guide my doubtful way,
Thy fear forbids my feet to stray,
Thy promise leads my heart to rest.
From the discov’ries of Thy law,
The perfect rules of life I draw;
These are my study and delight:
Not honey so invites the taste,
Nor gold that hath the furnace past
Appears so pleasing to the sight.
Thy threat’nings wake my slumb’ring eyes,
And warn me where my danger lies;
But ’tis thy blessed gospel, Lord,
That makes my guiltly conscience clean,
Converts my soul, subdues my sin,
And gives a free, but large reward.
Who knows the errors of his thoughts?
My God, forgive my secret faults,
And from presumptuous sins restrain:
Accept my poor attempts of praise
That I have read Thy book of grace,
And book of nature, not in vain.
Thank you, Grandma, for giving me such a wonderful book! I am really going to enjoy it.
