Photocredit from Hymnary.org
Isaac Watts was born in Southhampton in England in 1674, the eldest of nine children. By age seven he was already writing poems. He was taught Greek, Hebrew and Latin as part of his childhood education.
In 1702 he became a Pastor in London, after preaching his first sermon at age 24. He struggled with his health over his lifetime but continued to preach and write as much as his health would permit.
He composed his first hymn for worship at age 20 and has been called 'the greatest of hymn-writers', not least because he wrote over 800 hymns before dying in 1748.
He is another prominent Christian of the past who readily understood the reality of shame and honour (not only guilt), in relation to our salvation and life as a Christian.
Here are some examples below to highlight this in his hymns - with my additions of bold italic type.
I have chosen several!….(although this is but a small sample of his over 800 hymns)…which give us multiple opportunities to contemplate our God and Saviour and our walk with him, in the light of honour and shame dynamics which we often overlook.
And as you come to the end of the samples I chose, maybe take time as we come towards Easter, to reflect on the final line at the end about our Saviour Jesus Christ: "He bought salvation for the poor and bore the sinner's shame".
***
1 I lift my soul to God,
My trust is in His name;
Let not my foes that seek my blood
Still triumph in my shame.
2 From the first dawning light
Till the dark evening rise,
For Thy salvation, Lord, I wait
With ever longing eyes.
3 Remember all Thy grace,
And lead me in Thy truth;
Forgive the sins of riper days,
And follies of my youth.
The Lord is just and kind,
The meek shall learn his ways,
And every humble sinner find
The methods of his grace.
For his own goodness' sake
He saves my soul from shame:
He pardons, though my guilt be great,
Through my Redeemer's name.
***
1 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.
2 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 through his blood.
3 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?
4 Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
...'crowns' are correlated with honour and when we consider this, this hymn is all about Jesus the prince of glory [honour], who for us, put aside his heavenly honour, to be 'honoured' by the shame/humiliation of a 'thorns crown'. Though the words 'honour' and 'shame' aren't used, the concepts fill this hymn: "the Prince of glory died"; "pour contempt on all my pride"; "boast save in the death of Christ"; "thorns compose so rich a crown"
***
…On the need to ponder the doctrine of the fall of man in the context of shame….this hymn which seems to have two versions, both begin with….
Backward we look with grief and shame,
On our first father's fall
On all the race what ruin came,
Was death alike to all
or
Backward we look with grief and shame
On our original;
On all the race what ruin came
Through our first father's fall!
***
1 Behold the glories of the Lamb
amidst His Father's throne!
amidst His Father's throne!
Prepare new honors for His name,
and songs before unknown,
and songs before unknown
***
1 Deep in the dust before Thy throne,
Our guilt and our disgrace we own;
Great God! we own th'unhappy name
Whence sprung our nature and our shame.
2 But whilst our spirits, filled with awe,
Behold the terrors of Thy law,
We sing the honors of Thy grace,
That sent to save our ruined race.
3 We sing Thine everlasting Son,
Who joined our nature to His own:
The second Adam, from the dust,
Raises the ruins of the first.
4 Where sin did reign, and death abound,
There have the sons of Adam found
Abounding life; there glorious grace
Reigns through the Lord our righteousness.
***
We give honour to Christ who ransomed our lives with his own and died to make our peace
Missions is about spreading the honour of God, so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
1 Father of glory, to thy name
Immortal praise we give,
Who dost an act of grace proclaim,
And bid'st us, rebels, live!
2 Immortal honor to the Son,
Who makes thine anger cease;
Our lives he ransomed with his own,
And died to make our peace.
3 To the Almighty Spirit be
Immortal glory given;
Whose influence brings us near to thee,
And trains us up for heaven.
4 Let men, with their united voice,
Adore th' eternal God;
And spread his honors, and their joys,
Through nations far abroad.
5 Let faith and love and duty join
One general song to raise;
And saints in earth and heaven combine
In harmony and praise.
***
1 Give to the Lord, ye sons of fame,
Give to the Lord renown and pow'r;
Ascribe due honors to his name,
And his eternal might adore.
***
1 I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
or to defend his cause,
maintain the honor of his Word,
the glory of his cross.
2 Jesus, my God! I know his name,
his name is all my trust;
nor will he put my soul to shame,
nor let my hope be lost.
3 Firm as his throne his promise stands,
and he can well secure
what I've committed to his hands
'til the decisive hour.
4 Then will he own my worthless name
before his Father's face,
and in the new Jerusalem
appoint my soul a place.
***
I'll speak the honors of my King,
His form divinely fair;
None of his sons of mortal race
May with the Lord compare.
***
'Twas for Thy sake, eternal God,
Thy Son sustained that heavy load
Of base reproach and sore disgrace,
And shame defiled His sacred face.
The Jews, His brethren and His kin,
Abused the Man that checked their sin;
While He fulfilled Thy holy laws,
They hate Him, but without a cause.
My Father's house, said He, was made
A place for worship, not for trade;
Then scattering all their gold and brass,
He scourged the merchants from the place.
Zeal for the temple of His God
Consumed His life, exposed His blood;
Reproaches at Thy glory thrown
He felt, and mourned them as His own.
His friends forsook, His followers fled,
While foes and arms surround His head;
They curse Him with a slanderous tongue,
And the false judge maintains the wrong.
His life they load with hateful lies,
And charge His lips with blasphemies;
They nail Him to the shameful tree:
There hung the Man that died for me.
Wretches with hearts as hard as stones
Insult His piety and His groans;
Gall was the food they gave Him there,
And mocked His thirst with vinegar.
But God beheld, and from His throne
Marks out the men that hate His Son;
The hand that raised Him from the dead,
Shall pour the vengeance on their head
***
Father, I sing Thy wondrous grace,
I bless my Savior's name;
He bought salvation for the poor,
And bore the sinner's shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment