Jesus: Lord of All the Earth

Statue and portait of Isaac Watts

Sermon by John Turner based on Colossians 1:15-23

June 21, 2009

The Small-Scale, Big-Scale, and the Overall Salvation Pictures

in Paul's Letters

Paul understands the small-scale, personal picture, that Jesus died to reconcile individual sinners to God and to one another, making peace by the blood of his cross, paving the way for him to present us mature in our likeness to him and fit for eternal life.

Paul understands the big, cosmic picture, that Jesus Christ was present with God from the beginning, that all things were created through him and for him, that all things hold together in him and that all things will find their ultimate destiny in him, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the church and the first citizen of the perfect new creation of the whole universe.

Paul understands the salvation picture: We are not saved because we are handsome or healthy, athletic or smart, educated or wealthy, popular or well-connected. We are not saved because we are respectable or religious, morally disciplined or socially responsible. We are saved because we have believed his gospel and, dying to sin and self, have given ourselves to him, totally, without reservation. We have decided that he will rule our lives.

Since the conclusion of the era of Paul and the other apostles, I cannot think of a person who has done more to put the small-scale personal picture, the big, cosmic picture, and the overall salvation picture together for us in terms that we can understand than Isaac Watts.

Isaac Watts, 1674—1748

Isaac Watts was a tiny man, barely over five feet at his tallest, with a head too large for his body, a nose too prominent and eyes too small for his face, with a physique weakened by too much reading, too little exercise, too little sleep, further debilitated by several severe illnesses, and deeply scarred by small pox. He was frequently bedridden for long periods of time. In his young adulthood, a young woman poet became entranced by Watts’ writings and the two began corresponding, feeling that they had fallen in love and should consider marriage. But when they met in person, the young woman was negatively overwhelmed by Watts’ appearance and exclaimed, “If only I could say that I admire the casket (translate casket as container) as much as the jewel it contains.” Watts never again came so close to marriage and family. Watts told a friend that he trusted he would understand in heaven why this was for the best.

Watts was brilliant and creative, stunningly precocious from early childhood, but he knew that his hope rested not in his wit and reason and giftedness, but solely in the grace of God. Among the many things he was—astronomer, mathematician, logician, psychologist, educator, grammarian, preacher, theologian, pastor, poet, children’s writer, and more (he published text books in several fields that were used at leading universities)—he will be best remembered as the father of modern English hymnody. In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, he wrote hymns that 300 years later still appear in our hymnals. More than that, he established the patterns which later hymn writers sought to develop. I think it safe to say that no one in history has more influenced how English-speaking Protestant Christians worship. He may not have fathered biological offspring, but he fathered much of the worship of our churches.

The Founding Figure of Late 17th and Early 18th Century

Contemporary Christian Hymns

Prior to Watts, the hymns being sung in many English churches consisted entirely of the 150 psalms of our Bible rearranged to rhyme and to fit the meter of available tunes. Now think just a moment whether you would want to sing in church the words to some of our psalms, especially the ones complaining of our enemies and wishing horrible fates upon them. Not all the topics are suitable for public praise and worship. Nor do the psalms speak the name of Jesus, and direct references to the Holy Spirit are few and far between. There is a lot missing for the Christian. Then imagine trying to sing them in abysmally bad rhymes, with very unnatural word order. We sampled perhaps the least objectionable one last week, and felt awkward singing, “My soul he doth restore again, and me to walk doth make within the paths of righteousness, e’en for His own name’s sake,” but that was nothing compared to many of them. It was a test of endurance to get through them.

The best I can figure, Watts was in his mid-teens, the age when few of us are satisfied with the way the world is run, when returning from church, he was complaining at length about the pitiful renditions of the psalms they had to endure as their only subjects for singing. He had a long list of considered reasons that the hymns were inferior, unfruitful, and insufferable. Irritated, his father replied, “Then, young man, if you are so dissatisfied, why don’t you give us something worth singing?”

Young Watts proceeded to do just that. The congregation was soon singing his hymns. His very first preserved hymn is not so widely known today, but it is worth noting. It was based on Revelation 5, and it portrays the worship that will take place in heaven. For now I want to focus on the opening verse which seems to anticipate Watts’ own career:

Behold the glories of the Lamb amidst His Father’s throne.

Prepare new honors for His Name, and songs before unknown.

Watts proceeded to produce a new hymn for most Sundays that followed for a considerable period of time. I have seen varying counts of how many hymns Watts wrote, but on one Website I counted over 700 of Watts’ “new honors for His name and songs before unknown.” You can probably find about thirty of those hymns still being published in hymnals today with most individual Protestant hymnals having about ten to fifteen of them. Many of the rest of his hymns, though hindered by dated language, are still worth devotional reading and might inspire young hymn writers to come up with more current expression of the basic thoughts.

The Mixed Response

Watts’ hymns were instantly popular in certain segments of churches, but thoroughly denounced in others.

Watts improved matters in three ways: (1) he ranged a little further from the text of the psalms to write with more natural rhyme and meter as when he turned Psalm 90 into "O God, Our Help in Ages Past"; (2) he Christianized the psalms as when he turned Psalm 72 into "Jesus Shall Reign," and (3) he wrote hymns of original composition and Christian experience such as “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

Those who loved Watts’ songs saw them as fresh, clear, understandable, in their own modern language, and speaking to their hearts to kindle and fire their passions. Those who hated Watts’ hymns saw them as taking too much liberty with the words of scripture and thereby disrespecting the inspiration of scripture and as introducing too many subjective human feelings into the worship of the church. For instance, Watts’ use of "I" in “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," was considered blasphemous by many.

In other words, Watts was a contemporary hymn writer of his day, every bit as controversial as

our contemporary Christian musicians of the past several decades. The many churches who opposed his hymns tended not to grow. Those who welcomed his hymns were much more likely to grow. In time, almost all surviving churches were singing his hymns.

We need to understand the lessons that Watts had learned: (1) Hymns need to speak truly, clearly, and well in the language of the worshipers. (2) They need to be based on careful study of Scripture and prayerful reflection on the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. (3) They need to train the hearts of the worshipers to receive, celebrate, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its dimensions. To an unprecedented degree, Watts accomplished all three goals, and the results were evident to those who could move far enough out of their ruts to give a fair hearing to his hymns.

About 100 years after Watts wrote, Barton Stone’s Christians and Alexander Campbell’s Disciples of Christ were movements that grew rapidly on the American frontier and at last came together. An early form of every Watts hymn we are singing this morning—and many more as well--appeared in one or both of the first two hymnbooks of the Stone-Campbell movement, published in the 1830’s and 1840’s. Watts’ hymns, and those of the succeeding generation that were inspired by him, were the songs to which our movement marched across the American frontier planting churches right and left.

Watts’ Themes:
1. The Sovereign Creator

Watts understood that God created the world to be good, and that, even in its fallen state, enough of the goodness remains that we should thank and praise the Lord for its beauties.

1. I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,

That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;

The moon shines full at God's command, and all the stars obey.

2. I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,

Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.

Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, wherever I turn my eye,

If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.

3. There's not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known,

And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;

While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;

And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God, art present there.

2. Redemption at the Cross

Watts’ also understood that human beings, including himself, have committed grievous sins for which there is no redemption except through the grace of God made available through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

1. Alas! and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

(We delete the worm language today and make it “for sinners such as I”)

2. Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

3. Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in,

When Christ, the mighty Savior died, for man the creature's sin.

4. But drops of grief can never repay the debt of love I owe:

Here, Lord, I give my self away; 'Tis all that I can do.

Side point: When this hymn was declining in popularity in the late nineteenth century, Ralph Hudson set it to a new tune and wrote a refrain for it to turn it into, “At the Cross.” Similarly, current contemporary Christian musician Chris Tomlin has added a refrain to “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” and Watts’ old hymn has a new and wide audience as “The Wonderful Cross.”

3. Grateful Worship in Resposnse to Costly Redemption

The notion that we owe all to Christ also appears in what is probably Watts= greatest hymn and the hymn that many experts have called the greatest hymn in the English language:

1. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.

2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

3. See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

4. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small: love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

4. A Possible Happy Ending Ahead

The cross may be at the painful center of history, but it points toward what is for believers a happy ending. Not only was the world made good, but it would be made new again under the Lordship of Jesus. Clearly Watts= best known work is the one titled in his hymnal "PSALM 98 PART 2 The Messiah's coming and kingdom." Do you recognize it by that title? It is one of our two favorite Christmas carols, but it was not written especiually for Christmas and its meaning stretches far beyond Christmas. Today, we will sing some verses of it at the close of our worship service to remind us that it is a hope toward which we are every day still pointed: "No more let sins or sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found."

5. The Importance of the Saving Gospel

Perhaps the dominant theme of Watts’ music is celebration that Jesus has come and will come again to reign over all the world. Yet Watts was quite aware that, if Jesus comes to reign on behalf of love, truth, and justice, then those who persistently choose to resist Jesus’ reign cannot fit within the perfect future Jesus will bring. It was essential to Watts for everyone to understand how urgent it is for us to receive and to proclaim the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. People who could be saved by the gospel may be lost without it.

Watts was a Calvinist. Calvinists believe in predestination which says that God chooses all who are saved. But Watts took a gentle version of that Calvinist doctrine, asserting that God would not mock anyone with the opportunity to hear the gospel if they could not by believing it and accepting Jesus as Lord be saved. If we truly believe in Jesus and seek to obey his leading, Watts held that this is all the evidence that is needed that we have been chosen by God for salvation.

6. World Mission

Watts’ belief, that the fate of the lost may well depend on their hearing a persuasive presentation of the gospel, drove him with a passion to see the gospel shared in the whole world. In the opening section of our worship service, we sang, "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does its successive journeys run." Two things need to be noted about this hymn:

(1) It has an evangelistic and missionary fervor that has been missing from much of Christianity in our times. Watts understood with great clarity that we have been given the gospel that it might be shared with all the world. Was it by accident or mere coincidence that the great evangelical awakening led by the Wesleys, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and a generation later our own frontier movement, came on the heels of Watts= songs, and that, on both sides of the Atlantic, that revival marched to the hymns of Watts and the new hymns inspired by him? I don't think so!

(2) The theological conviction underlying the evangelistic fervor was that Jesus is Lord of all the earth and that we are responsible for celebrating and proclaiming and living out his love to all people: "His kingdom spread from shore to shore till moons shall wax and wane no more." All things hold together in the One through whom creation came, the One through whom creation will be fulfilled, even Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen and alleluia! Let our good news of Jesus be proclaimed to all the world.

One thing to note as you consider your calling to proclaim the gospel. You may object that you are not able, that there are too many things against you. Make a list of your obstacles and compare them to the list of obstacles that Watts faced. I am pretty sure that he overcame more and greater obstacles.

Appended Hymns

"Behold the Glories of the Lamb"

Written by Isaac Watts when he was in his teen years

Based on Revelation 5

1. Behold the glories of the Lamb amidst His Father’s throne.

Prepare new honors for His Name, and songs before unknown.

2. Let elders worship at His feet, the Church adore around,

With vials full of odors sweet, and harps of sweeter sound.

3. Those are the prayers of the saints, and these the hymns they raise;

Jesus is kind to our complaints, He loves to hear our praise.

4. Eternal Father, who shall look into Thy secret will?

Who but the Son should take that Book and open every seal?

5. He shall fulfill Thy great decrees, the Son deserves it well;

Lo, in His hand the sovereign keys of Heav’n, and death, and hell!

6. Now to the Lamb that once was slain be endless blessings paid;

Salvation, glory, joy remain forever on Thy head.

7. Thou hast redeemed our souls with blood, hast set the prisoner free;

Hast made us kings and priests to God, and we shall reign with Thee.

8. The worlds of nature and of grace are put beneath Thy power;

Then shorten these delaying days, and bring the promised hour.

"Say to the Nations, Jesus Reigns"

Written by Isaac Watts

Based on Psalm 96, similar to Psalm 98 on which he based “Joy to the World”

The last verse was early dropped from publication in some hymnals

1. Say to the nations, Jesus reigns, God's own almighty Son;

His power the sinking world sustains, and grace surrounds his throne.

2. Let heav'n proclaim the joyful day, joy through the earth be seen;

Let cities shine in bright array, and fields in cheerful green.

3. Behold, he comes, he comes to bless the nations as their God;

To show the world his righteousness, and send his truth abroad.

[4. But when his voice shall raise the dead, and bid the world draw near,

How will the guilty nations dread to see their Judge appear!]

"The Heavens Declare Thy Glory, Lord"

Written by Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 19

1. The heav’ns declare Thy glory, Lord, in ev’ry star Thy wisdom shines

But when our eyes behold Thy Word, we read Thy Name in fairer lines.

2. The rolling sun, the changing light, and nights and days, thy power confess

But the blest volume Thou hast writ reveals Thy justice and Thy grace.

3. Sun, moon, and stars convey Thy praise round the whole earth, and never stand:

So when Thy truth began its race, it touched and glanced on every land.

4. Nor shall Thy spreading Gospel rest till through the world Thy truth has run,

Till Christ has all the nations blest that see the light or feel the sun.

5. Great Sun of Righteousness, arise, bless the dark world with heav’nly light;

Thy Gospel makes the simple wise, Thy laws are pure, Thy judgments right.

6. Thy noblest wonders here we view in souls renewed and sins forgiv’n;

Lord, cleanse my sins, my soul renew, and make Thy Word my guide to Heav’n.

For the words to all published Watts hymns, see:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/watts/psalmshymns.ii_1.html

and, for many of them with tunes, see:

http://nethymnal.org/bio/w/a/t/watts_i.htm