Psalm 72:8
By Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
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Isaac Watts, the father of English hymnody, was frail in health
during much of his life. For the last thirty years of his life he
was more or less an invalid at the home of his friend, Sir Thomas
Abney, where Watts devoted himself in comfortable and happy
surroundings to the writing of many of the fine hymns still used
today. Watts's ambition, according to his own words, was as
follows: "My design was not to exalt myself to the rank and glory
of poets, but I was ambitious to be a servant to the churches, and
a helper to the joy of the meanest Christian."
Although frail in health and grotesque in appearance, described as
five feet tall with a big head and a long-hooked nose, Watts was a
scholarly genius in many different fields. His writings included
essays, discussions of psychology, three volumes of sermons,
catechisms, twenty-nine treatises on theology, textbooks on logic,
and a variety of other works.
Though he never married, Isaac Watts always loved children and
wrote much for them. In 1715 he wrote a book of songs especially
for young people, Divine Songs for Children, which has recently
been republished by the Oxford University Press. This hymnal was
the first hymnal ever written exclusively for children. His
unusual love and concern for children is commemorated on his fine
statue located at Southhampton, England.
The text for this hymn is from Watts's hymnal of 1715. In the
preface to this hymnal Watts wrote, "... Children of high and low
degree, of the Church of England or dissenters, baptized in
infancy or not, may all join together in these songs. And as I
have endeavoured to sink the language to the level of a child's
understanding, and yet to keep it, if possible, above contempt, so
I have designed to profit all, if possible, and offend none."
It is interesting to realize that this great scholar and literary
genius was also capable of writing for children such tender
expressions as these:
Hush, my dear, be still and slumber, Holy angels guard thy bed;
Heavenly blessings without number gently falling on thy head.
Other hymns by Isaac Watts include "Jesus Shall Reign",
"O God, Our Help in Ages Past", "When I Survey the
Wondrous Cross", "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?", and "Joy to the World!".
The music for this text was first found in a collection published
in 1784. It was orginally intended for use in the Roman Catholic
Chapel of the Duke of Wurttemberg. Interestingly, of the
fifty-five hymns in this collection, the majority were written by
German Protestant hymn writers. The tune, "Ellacombe," first
appeared in England in 1868 in the Appendix to Hymns Ancient and
Modern, a widely published Anglican hymnal of the nineteenth
century. The tune was named for a village in Devonshire, England.
Quoted from "101 Hymn Stories" by Kenneth Osbeck. Kregel Publishers, P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501, 1982.
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