Beside Still Waters Ministries

You may or may not recognize his name, but Isaac Watts hymns are the most widely known throughout the Christian world – you should at the very least recognize one of his hymns, Joy To The World.  Born in 1674 in Southampton, England, he was the oldest of nine children and raised in a Nonconformist home (Nonconformists were a type of Puritan in England who felt that the Anglican church did not change enough from Catholicism and desired a more radical reformation).  This was important, because instead of going to Cambridge or Oxford to become an Anglican priest, he went to a Nonconformist Academy, and much of Calvinistic and Lutheran theology is evident in his hymns.  Even at a young age he was prone to think, write, and speak in verse – there is a story that one time during family devotions he heard a mouse and immediately said to his family, 

“A mouse for want of better stairs,
Ran up a rope to say his prayers.”

At that time in England there was a great desire to rely only on the Scriptures, and so they tended to take the Calvinistic approach of only singing Psalms and not allowing any other hymns in the church.  They also believed that musical instruments were “of the devil” and so they sang “a cappella” – without accompaniment of any kind.  Some of the Psalms were paraphrased and adjusted to be more metrical, but they still were not very good for singing.  Isaac constantly complained about this to his father, so to shut him up his father challenged him to try to do better.  He did so with amazing speed and ability, and now we have over 700 hymns, Psalm settings, and other spiritual songs. What an amazing gift that God gave us.

He fought ill-health throughout much of his life, and he was considered ugly and disproportionate – short, with his head much bigger than what would have fit with his body.  His soul, though, was a thing of beauty, and the depth of his love and devotion to the Lord is fully evidenced in his writings.  I’d like to ask all of you to find time to be with the Lord and to read and meditate on what I would say is his finest hymn, and most appropriate this Easter season, “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross.”  It is reported that Charles Wesley said that he would have rather written just this one hymn than all of the ones he did write.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

I’m really moved by singing or listening to the newer version of this song that Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin did a few years ago, called “The Wonderful Cross” They added a chorus that really ties it all together,

Oh, the wonderful cross
Oh, the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die
And find that I may truly live.

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!
Hallelujah!