Tag Archives: Isaac Watts

To God the Only Wise ~ Hymn

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To God the Only Wise

To God the on­ly wise,
Our Sav­ior and our king,
Let all the saints be­low the skies
Their hum­ble prais­es bring.

’Tis His al­migh­ty love,
His coun­sel, and His care,
Preserves us safe from sin and death,
And ev­ery hurt­ful snare.

He will pre­sent our souls,
Unblemished and com­plete,
Before the glo­ry of His face,
With joys di­vin­ely great.

Then all the chos­en seed
Shall meet around the throne,
Shall bless the con­duct of His grace,
And make His won­ders known.

To our Re­deem­er, God,
Wisdom and pow­er be­longs,
Immortal crowns of ma­jes­ty,
And ev­er­last­ing songs.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1707.

My God, My Life, My Love ~ Hymn

My God, My Life, My Love

My God, my life, my love;
To Thee, to Thee I call;
I can­not live if Thou re­move,
For Thou art all in all.

Thy shin­ing grace can cheer
This dun­geon where I dwell;
’Tis pa­ra­dise when Thou art here;
If Thou de­part, ’tis hell.

The smil­ings of Thy face,
How ami­able they are!
’Tis heav’n to rest in Thine em­brace,
And no where else but there.

To Thee, and Thee alone,
The an­gels owe their bliss;
They sit around Thy gra­cious throne,
And dwell where Je­sus is.

Not all the harps ab­ove
Could make a heav’n­ly place,
If God His re­si­dence re­move,
Or but con­ceal His face.

Nor earth, nor all the sky,
Can one de­light af­ford,
No, not a drop of real joy,
Without Thy pre­sence, Lord.

Thou art the sea of love,
Where all my plea­sures roll:
The cir­cle where my pass­ions move,
And cen­ter of my soul.

To Thee my spir­its fly
With in­fi­nite de­sire;
And yet how far from Thee I lie!
Dear Je­sus, raise me high­er.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1707-09.

Jesus Shall Reign ~ Hymn

Jesus Shall Reign

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.

Behold the is­lands with their kings,
And Eur­ope her best trib­ute brings;
From north to south the princ­es meet,
To pay their hom­age at His feet.

There Per­sia, glo­ri­ous to be­hold,
There In­dia shines in east­ern gold;
And bar­bar­ous na­tions at His word
Submit, and bow, and own their Lord.

To Him shall end­less pray­er be made,
And prais­es throng to crown His head;
His name like sweet per­fume shall rise
With ev­ery morn­ing sac­ri­fice.

People and realms of ev­ery tongue
Dwell on His love with sweet­est song;
And in­fant voic­es shall pro­claim
Their ear­ly bless­ings on His name.

Blessings abound where’er He reigns;
The pri­son­er leaps to lose his chains;
The wea­ry find eter­nal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.

Where He dis­plays His heal­ing pow­er,
Death and the curse are known no more:
In Him the tribes of Ad­am boast
More bless­ings than their fa­ther lost.

Let ev­ery crea­ture rise and bring
Peculiar hon­ors to our king;
Angels des­cend with songs again,
And earth re­peat the loud amen.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1719.

Let Everlasting Glories Crown ~ Hymn

Let Everlasting Glories Crown

Let ev­er­last­ing glo­ries crown
Thy head, my Sav­ior and my Lord;
Thy hands have brought sal­va­tion down,
And writ the bless­ings in Thy Word.

What if we trace the globe around,
And search from Bri­tain to Ja­pan,
There shall be no re­li­gion found
So just to God, so safe for man.

In vain the tremb­ling con­sci­ence seeks
Some so­lid ground to rest up­on;
With long des­pair the spir­it breaks,
Till we ap­ply to Christ alone.

How well Thy bless­èd truths agree!
How wise and ho­ly Thy com­mands!
Thy pro­mis­es, how firm they be!
How firm our hope and com­fort stands!

Not the feigned fields of heathen­ish bliss
Could raise such plea­sures in the mind;
Nor does the Turk­ish pa­ra­dise
Pretend to joys so well re­fined.

Should all the forms that men de­vise
Assault my faith with trea­cher­ous art,
I’d call them van­ity and lies,
And bind the Gos­pel to my heart.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1707.

Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne ~ Hymn

Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne

Before Je­ho­vah’s aw­ful throne,
Ye na­tions, bow with sac­red joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone;
He can cre­ate, and He de­stroy,
He can cre­ate, and He de­stroy.

His so­ver­eign pow­er, with­out our aid,
Made us of clay, and formed us men;
And when like wan­der­ing sheep we strayed,
He brought us to His fold again,
He brought us to His fold again.

We are His peo­ple, we His care,
Our souls, and all our mor­tal frame;
What last­ing hon­ors shall we rear,
Almighty Mak­er, to Thy name,
Almighty Mak­er, to Thy name?

We’ll crowd Thy gates with thank­ful songs,
High as the heav­ens our voic­es raise;
And earth, with her ten thou­sand tongues,
Shall fill Thy courts with sound­ing praise,
Shall fill Thy courts with sound­ing praise.

Wide as the world is Thy com­mand,
Vast as eter­ni­ty Thy love;
Firm as a rock Thy truth must stand,
When roll­ing years shall cease to move,
When roll­ing years shall cease to move.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1719

 

The Law Commands and Makes Us Know ~ Hymn

The Law Commands and Makes Us Know

The Law com­mands and makes us know
What du­ties to our God we owe;
But ’tis the Gos­pel must re­veal
Where lies our strength to do His will.

The Law dis­co­vers guilt and sin
And shows how vile our hearts have been;
The Gos­pel on­ly can ex­press
Forgiving love and cleans­ing grace.

What curs­es doth the Law de­nounce
Against the man that fails but once!
But in the Gos­pel Christ ap­pears,
Pardoning the guilt of nu­mer­ous years.

My soul, no more at­tempt to draw
Thy life and com­fort from the Law.
Fly to the hope the Gos­pel gives;
The man that trusts the pro­mise lives.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1709.

Blest is the Man, Forever Blest ~ Hymn

Blest is the Man, Forever Blest

Blest is the man, for­ev­er blest,
Whose guilt is par­doned by his God;
Whose sins with sor­row are con­fessed,
And co­vered with his Sav­ior’s blood.

Blest is the man to whom the Lord
Imputes not his ini­qui­ties;
He pleads no mer­it of re­ward,
And not on works, but grace re­lies.

From guile his heart and lips are free;
His hum­ble joy, his ho­ly fear,
With deep re­pent­ance well agree,
And join to prove his faith sin­cere.

How glo­ri­ous is that right­eous­ness
That hides and can­cels all his sins!
While a bright evi­dence of grace
Through his whole life ap­pears and shines.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1719.

The Deity and Humanity of Christ ~ Hymn

 

The Deity and Humanity of Christ

Ere the blue heav’ns were stretched abroad,
From ev­er­last­ing was the Word:
With God He was; the Word was God,
And must di­vine­ly be ad­ored.

By His own pow­er were all things made;
By Him sup­port­ed all things stand;
He is the whole cre­ation’s head,
And an­gels fly at His com­mand.

Ere sin was born, or Sa­tan fell,
He led the host of morn­ing stars:
Thy ge­ne­ra­tion who can tell,
Or count the num­bers of Thy years?

But lo, He leaves those heav’n­ly forms,
The Word des­cends and dwells in clay,
That He may hold con­verse with worms,
Dressed in such fee­ble flesh as they.

Mortals with joy be­held His face,
Th’eter­nal Fa­ther’s on­ly Son;
How full of truth! how full of grace!
When thro’ His eyes the God­head shone.

Archangels leave their high abode
To learn new mys­te­ries here, and tell
The loves of our des­cend­ing God,
The glories of Im­ma­nu­el.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1707.

Bless, O My Soul! The Living God ~ Hymn

Bless, O My Soul! The Living God

Bless, O my soul, the liv­ing God.
Call home thy thoughts that rove abroad,
Let all the pow­ers with­in me join
In work and wor­ship so di­vine.

Bless, O my soul, the God of grace;
His fa­vors claim thy high­est praise:
Why should the won­ders He hath wrought
Be lost in si­lence and forgot?

’Tis He, my soul, that sent His Son
To die for crimes which thou hast done;
He owns the ran­som and for­gives
The hour­ly fol­lies of our lives.

The vic­es of the mind He heals,
And cures the pains that na­ture feels;
Redeems the soul from hell, and saves
Our wast­ing life from threat­en­ing graves.

Our youth de­cayed, His pow­er re­pairs;
His mer­cy crowns our grow­ing years:
He sa­tis­fies our mouth with good,
And fills our hopes with heav’n­ly food.

He sees th’op­press­or and th’op­pressed,
And oft­en gives the suf­fer­ers rest;
But will His jus­tice more dis­play
In the last great re­ward­ing day.

His pow­er He showed by Mos­es’ hands,
And gave to Is­ra­el His com­mands;
But sent His truth and mer­cy down
To all the na­tions by His Son.

Let the whole earth His pow­er con­fess.
Let the whole earth adore His grace;
The Gen­tile with the Jew shall join
In work and wor­ship so di­vine.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1719.

How Sweet and Awful is the Place ~ Hymn

How Sweet and Awful is the Place

How sweet and awful is the place
With Christ with­in the doors,
While ev­er­last­ing love dis­plays
The choic­est of her stores!

Here ev­ery bow­el of our God
With soft com­pass­ion rolls;
Here peace and par­don bought with blood
Is food for dy­ing souls.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to ad­mire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thank­ful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And en­ter while there’s room,
When thou­sands make a wretch­ed choice,
And ra­ther starve than come?

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweet­ly forced us in;
Else we had still re­fused to taste,
And per­ished in our sin.

Pity the na­tions, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy vic­to­ri­ous Word abroad,
And bring the stran­gers home.

We long to see Thy church­es full,
That all the chos­en race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy re­deem­ing grace.