Story Behind A Song

By: Isaac Watts and John Newton

Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
  And did my Sov’reign die,
Would He devote that sacred head
  For such a worm as I?

Was it for sins that I had done
  He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
  And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
  And shut his glories in,
When the incarnate Maker died
  For man, His creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
  While His dear cross appears
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
  And melt mine eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
  The debt of love I owe;
Here Lord, I give myself away:
  ’Tis all that I can do.

One biography says, "Isaac Watts was born in 1674 and was the oldest of nine children. At the age of eleven his father addressed a letter to all of his children encouraging them to “frequently to read the Scriptures – get your hearts to delight in them – above all books and writings account the Bible the best and read it most – lay up the truth of it in your hearts”.

Isaac Watts was saved at the age of fifteen and by the age of sixteen he had mastered 4 languages…Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and French. I thought that was very impressive! His biography said, "When Isaac was about twenty he became dissatisfied with the singing of the Nonconformist Congregation. At that time it was viewed as sinful to sing songs that were not taken from the Scriptures the majority of which were Psalms or metrical Psalters. His major complaint was the quality of the writing, his father challenged him if he did not like what was being sung to do something better. Over the next two years, from the age of twenty until he was Twenty two, he wrote the majority of his hymns." He was greatly criticized by both the Roman Catholics and the nonconformist who called his hymns “uninspired” because they were not direct quotations from Scripture. (Life Moment: Can you believe that?! Oh, how quick we are to criticize others!)  His reply to this was “…if we can pray to God in sentences that we have made up ourselves (instead of confining ourselves to the Our Father and other prayers taken directly from the Scriptures), then surely we can sing to God in sentences that we have made up ourselves”.

Isaac Watts wrote Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed in 1707, it originally had six stanzas. History reports tell us, "The original tune as intended by Isaac Watts is not known, but in 1800 Hugh Wilson began using his original music composition entitled Martyrdom. In 1885 Ralph F. Hudson added the refrain and the tune that we know use and know as “At The Cross”. (Fascinating, to me!)

One writer said, "What is interesting to note before we survey the doctrinal content of Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed, the in the Fall of 1850 at the age of thirty, Fanny J. Crosby went to the altar at the Thirtieth Street Methodist Church in New York City. She had been to the altar twice before by had not received the peace she sought. While at the altar the congregation was singing the hymn “Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed”, according to her own testimony and in her own words she says, “It seemed to me that the light must indeed come then or never; and so I arose and went to the altar alone. After a prayer was offered, they began to sing the grand old consecration hymn, ‘Alas, and did my Saviour bleed, And did my Sovereign die?’ And when they reached the third line of the fourth stanza, ‘Here Lord, I give myself away,’ my very soul was flooded with a celestial light. I sprang to my feet, shouting ‘Hallelujah!’ and then for the first time I realized that I had been trying to hold the world in one hand and the Lord in the other.”

One biography I came across stated, "Isaac Watts was a brilliant young man and because of his intellectual acumen and proclivity to study he was encouraged by his friends and a prominent Southampton physician to go to one of the Universities, at their expense, in hopes that he would eventually be ordained into the Church of England. Because of his background and being raised as a Dissenting Nonconformist, he refused and rather chose a nonconformist academy. He started preaching at the age of twenty-four and pastored his became pastor of a well-know independent congregation in 1702, he died on November 25, 1748." (Life Moment: A lesson to be learned here! He didn't crack under peer pressure when others tried to steer him away from God!)

Now that you know the story behind the song, I encourage you to set aside a few minutes, re-read this heavenly inspired hymn. Grab a tissue – it will likely bring tears to your eyes!

Ask yourself, “Tis all that I can do?”

Look UP my friends!