Isaac Watts was born into a Christian family in 1674 in Southampton. His father was a nonconformist; one of many believers who had refused to join Charles II’s single national church. Given that his father was imprisoned for his beliefs, Watts grew up aware of the cost of a principled Christian faith.
Gifted at languages, the young Watts learnt Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French. He made a commitment to Christ in his teens, and although he could have gone to Oxford or Cambridge, refused because they would have demanded he become an Anglican.
After studying at a nonconformist academy, Watts returned home where he spent two years reading and writing books and hymns. After becoming tutor to a family, he began to preach. Recognising his ability, an independent chapel in London called him to the ministry. Watts was often ill but despite his frequent absences, his church flourished. A collection of his writings was published in 1705, and a book of hymns and spiritual songs shortly afterwards. In 1712, with his health failing, Watts stepped back from the ministry. He was welcomed into the homes of many generous friends where, for the rest of his life, he worked as a tutor and writer and, when health permitted, preacher.
Watts had a wide range of interests. He wrote dozens of theological works, penned essays on the sciences, published volumes of sermons and produced Christian material for children. His textbook on logic was so well received that it was used at Oxford University for a hundred years.
Watts’ life had disappointments. He fell in love but was rejected. In the final decades of his life, his illnesses became intense. One encouragement was that after years of praying earnestly for revival in the church, he saw the great revivals of the 1730s under Whitfield and Wesley. Watts died in 1748, by now greatly loved and respected, to be given a memorial plaque in Westminster Abbey.
So what of Watts’ hymn writing? Some background first. The two great reformers, Luther and Calvin, differed over singing. Those churches that followed Luther sang hymns and spiritual songs, while those that followed Calvin – including the English Protestants – sang only psalms. Watts struggled with singing the psalms: theologically, they had only an Old Testament perspective; musically their singable English versions were rarely satisfactory. Watts decided to take the psalms and reworked them into hymns, bringing in such New Testament emphases as Christ, the cross, the resurrection and the work of the Spirit.
Watts also went further and wrote new hymns. He had a natural ability for poetry, with a gift for rhyme and the apt phrase. He used words and phrases that were often memorable, always singable and readily adaptable to different tunes. In order to be understood by all, he kept his language plain and simple. Ultimately, Watts sought to communicate Christian truth in the most effective and appealing way to the maximum number of people, and succeeded. Many of his 700 hymns remain well loved today. Think, for example, of ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’, ‘Joy to the world’, ‘O God, our help in ages past’, ‘Alas, and did my Saviour bleed’, ‘Give to our God immortal praise’, ‘Jesus shall reign where’er the sun’ and ‘I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath’.
Watts’ hymns were of such quality and so rich in spiritual insight that objections to hymn singing in churches faded away for good. Let me point out three other qualities in his hymns.
First, his hymns reveal Watts as a powerful preacher. He was a man with a message; he had personally known the riches of the gospel and he wanted others to experience it. Taken from the pulpit by illness, he used his hymns to preach sermons in song. Most of his best hymns speak to both the head and the heart: he wanted people to know the facts of the Christian faith but also to have their hearts moved to a deeper love of Christ. There are many people who have come to faith by contemplating the words of ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’.
Second, his hymns reveal Watts as a caring pastor. He not only knew his Bible and God, but also human beings and their troubles. He didn’t simply want people to acknowledge the truth; he wanted them to apply it. Many of his hymns, such as ‘O God, our help in ages past’, are invitations for the singer to be encouraged in the faith, to press on amid difficulties and to praise God in spite of everything. Watts’ hymns lifted voices, but they also lifted hearts.
Third, his hymns reveal Watts’ servant personality. In the areas of both theology and poetry Watts chose to restrain himself. Theologically, although he held firm views himself, he refused to grind any theological axe and instead produced hymns that were welcomed across every Christian denomination. And as a poet, he deliberately avoided writing that drew attention to itself. Nothing in his hymns says, ‘Look at me!’; everything says, ‘Look at Christ!’
I encourage you to read Isaac Watts’ hymns. They will inspire us to worship God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
J.John
Reverend Canon
