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 crimes 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 Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my 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.
This post is not so much about what the song lyrics mean as it is about teaching us to pay attention to what we are singing.
Read the lyrics above, if you have not already. Some of them may be unfamiliar because they are routinely left out of hymnals. Songs of Faith and Praise is particularly bad about choosing three verses whether their order makes sense or not. Sometimes they will choose four, but why makes no more sense to me than just choosing three. In the case of this song, it really fouls up the meaning of at least one verse. Can you find it?
Look at the fifth verse. It begins with "But" which means that verse is reliant upon something that came before. Yet the fourth verse is one that is routinely left out of many hymnals. "But drops of grief" refers back to "melt my eyes to tears." Each verse gradually leads you to the answer to the question in the first two lines of verse one, "Did my savior die for me?" Then it speaks of the reactions that answer should provoke in us: mortification, gratitude, grief, and, finally, total surrender. Now the song makes sense.
But then I hope you have also noticed the complete disparity between the music of the verses and the music of the chorus. Isaac Watts wrote the lyrics in 1701, using the Scottish tune "Martyrdom." The above lyrics were the entire song. In 1885 Ralph Hudson added the words and tune of what is considered the chorus or refrain: "At the Cross." It was written in a "campmeeting style" which some people believe means it was added to more than one tune. It is indeed a completely different style than the verse melody, a bit more raucous and knee-slapping, and it completely interrupts the flow of the verse lyrics, which may well account for few people noticing the problem with the verse 5 "but" having no antecedent that makes sense.
As a musician and writer, I would like to suggest that all five verses be sung, with the refrain sung at the end, if at all. It would make more sense both lyrically and musically. And, as mentioned earlier, this sort of thing is a good test of how much attention we pay to what we sing. The answer to the title question, in this case at least, "Do You Know What You Are Singing?" might well be, "No, we don't."
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (Rom 5:6-10).
*Yes, "worm" is the correct word. Some hymnals have pandered to modern desire for self-esteem and changed it to "one." We need to realize just exactly how low and utterly irredeemable we were, and the unthinkable sacrifice of a God becoming like us and living and dying like we do, though he never deserved it.
Dene Ward
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm* as I?
Was it for crimes 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 Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my 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.
This post is not so much about what the song lyrics mean as it is about teaching us to pay attention to what we are singing.
Read the lyrics above, if you have not already. Some of them may be unfamiliar because they are routinely left out of hymnals. Songs of Faith and Praise is particularly bad about choosing three verses whether their order makes sense or not. Sometimes they will choose four, but why makes no more sense to me than just choosing three. In the case of this song, it really fouls up the meaning of at least one verse. Can you find it?
Look at the fifth verse. It begins with "But" which means that verse is reliant upon something that came before. Yet the fourth verse is one that is routinely left out of many hymnals. "But drops of grief" refers back to "melt my eyes to tears." Each verse gradually leads you to the answer to the question in the first two lines of verse one, "Did my savior die for me?" Then it speaks of the reactions that answer should provoke in us: mortification, gratitude, grief, and, finally, total surrender. Now the song makes sense.
But then I hope you have also noticed the complete disparity between the music of the verses and the music of the chorus. Isaac Watts wrote the lyrics in 1701, using the Scottish tune "Martyrdom." The above lyrics were the entire song. In 1885 Ralph Hudson added the words and tune of what is considered the chorus or refrain: "At the Cross." It was written in a "campmeeting style" which some people believe means it was added to more than one tune. It is indeed a completely different style than the verse melody, a bit more raucous and knee-slapping, and it completely interrupts the flow of the verse lyrics, which may well account for few people noticing the problem with the verse 5 "but" having no antecedent that makes sense.
As a musician and writer, I would like to suggest that all five verses be sung, with the refrain sung at the end, if at all. It would make more sense both lyrically and musically. And, as mentioned earlier, this sort of thing is a good test of how much attention we pay to what we sing. The answer to the title question, in this case at least, "Do You Know What You Are Singing?" might well be, "No, we don't."
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (Rom 5:6-10).
*Yes, "worm" is the correct word. Some hymnals have pandered to modern desire for self-esteem and changed it to "one." We need to realize just exactly how low and utterly irredeemable we were, and the unthinkable sacrifice of a God becoming like us and living and dying like we do, though he never deserved it.
Dene Ward
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