Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts, the “Godfather of English Hymnody” was born
near London in 1674, while his father was in prison for not supporting the Church
of England. His mother literally nursed
him on the jailhouse steps. His father
was later released and fathered seven siblings after Isaac.
Isaac showed great academic prowess, learning Latin by
age 4, Greek by age 9, French by age 11, and Hebrew at age 13. Several wealthy neighbors offered to pay his
full expenses to go to university but, as that would have led to Anglican
ministry, remembering stories of his stubborn father, he refused. At age 16, he went to a non-conformist
academy in London. He graduated and
became a tutor for five years, then accepted a pastorate at a Mark Lane
Independent (Congregational) Church in London – a position he held for over 50
years. He suffered ill health for most
of his adult life, as well as bouts of depression.
He was a scant five feet tall, skinny, pale, with a head
size disproportionate to the rest of his body, and was charitably described as “homely”
– which probably led to the rejection of his marriage proposal from a Miss Elizabeth
Singer. This young lady fell in love
with his poetry and his letters, but was put off after meeting him. It was written that she “loved the jewel, but
could not admire the casket [case] which contained it.”
Watts had a very special interest in music, and studied
the Psalms extensively. He grieved that
the metrical singing of Psalms in the Protestant church of his day seemed stale
and uninspiring. Isaac believed that the
Psalms “ought to have been translated in such a manner as we have reason to
believe David would have composed them if he had lived in our day.” As such, he proposed translations of the
Psalms to music which baffled many in his day.
His hymn “Joy to the World” is his paraphrase translation of Psalm
98. His hymn “O God Our Help in Ages
Past” is his translation of Psalm 90.
His hymn “Jesus Shall Reign” was part of his translation of Psalm 72. Despite criticism, Watts was unapologetic in
doing so, believing he captured the Psalmist’s intent in speaking to the contemporary
meaning of the Psalm. His focus was on
the heart of the singer, so he did not discourage the singing of metrical
Psalms – he seems to have seen his music as somewhat of a supplement to that
practice.
Isaac Watts was a scholar as well. He wrote thirty books of theology, essays on
Psychology, Astronomy, and Philosophy, three volumes of his sermons, the
first-ever children’s hymnal, and a college-level textbook on logic, the latter
of which was the standard textbook on the subject at colleges such as Harvard,
Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford for well over 100 years.
Our Baptist Hymnal at FBCW contains 14 of Isaac Watts’
over 750 surviving hymns. These include:
I Sing the Mighty Power of God, At the Cross, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,
Alas and Did My Savior Bleed, Am I A Soldier of the Cross, and We’re Marching
to Zion.
Isaac watts died at age 74 in 1748. He left behind the large numbers of his writings
and scholarly works, but is certainly best remembered for his hymns and the
impact they had on succeeding generations of English hymn-writers. He maintained friendships with John and Charles
Wesley, evangelist George Whitfield, and maintained a prolific correspondence
with Cotton Mather in Boston. There is a
memorial to him in Westminster Abbey, as well as numerous other places around
London. The great American hymnwriter
Fanny J. Crosby committed her life to Christ’s service after hearing the last
verse of ‘Alas and Did My Savior Bleed’, “…Here, Lord, I give myself away, ‘Tis
all that I can do.” His hymn ‘O God our
Help in Ages Past’ was played over British radio immediately after it was
announced that Britain had declared war in 1939, the beginning of World War II. It was played again at Winston Churchill’s
funeral.
His friend and biographer, Samuel Johnson, wrote: “Few
men have left behind such purity of character of such monuments of laborious
piety.”
Morgan, Robert J., Then Sings My Soul, Nelson
Publishing, 2003.
Christian History Magazine, “The Golden Age of Hymns (Issue
31, Volume X, No. 3).
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