Summary

Isaac Watts Word on the Week 5th October 2024.
This year marks the 350 anniversary of Isaac Watts’ birth. He was perhaps the greatest hymn writer of his time. He had the poetic gift which enabled him to speak in rhyme easier than in prose!
In his day Psalm singing was the only music in the church. Then Psalms in metric were produced to make them more singable. When this change arrived Watts saw an opportunity to make David ‘sing like a Christian’ and started to produce hymns based on the psalms.
He claimed to be the first ‘to have brought the royal Author into the common affairs of the Christian life and led the Psalmist of Israel into the Church of Christ’.
This was considered heretical at first but soon became popular in non-conformist (independent) churches. His first attempt at publishing was in 1707. His work slowly gained acceptance by people who came from a background of no hymns at all.
Watts made the breakthrough by being true to Scripture and used words that gave voice to the thought and emotion of the believer. He believed that the hymn should have a single theme, boldness of attack in the opening lines and a definite progression of thought leading to a decisive climax. And he added, ‘a hymn should also be short’! An example of this is: -
Not all the blood of beasts, on Jewish altars slain, could give the guilty conscience peace Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, Takes all our sins away; A sacrifice of nobler name, And richer blood than they.
My faith would lay her hand On that dear head of Thine, While like a penitent I stand, And there confess my sin.
Here Watts encapsulates the sacrifice of Christ on the cross with Christ the last priest completing the work of redemption for repentant sinners (Hebrews 10: verses 11 to 14).
The hymn then goes on to express the Christian experience of salvation: -
My soul looks back to see The burdens thou didst bear, When hanging on the cursed tree, And hopes her guilt was there.
Believing we rejoice To see the curse remove; We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice And sing His bleeding love.
At the conclusion of the hymn, the person, now a Christian believer, looks back to see his sin laid on Christ, Adam’s curse removed and fellowship with Jesus become a reality (1 Peter 2: verse 24 and Revelation 22 verses 3 to 5).
With the ability to write hymns containing so much truth it’s little wonder that they are sung wherever God’s people meet. So let’s sing them ‘with cheerful voice’!