Scripture Verse

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight in abundance. Isaiah 55:2

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, Hymns and Spi­ri­tu­al Songs, Book 1, 1707, num­ber 9. The pro­mis­es of the co­ve­nant of grace.

Music: Cal­va, ano­ny­mous, in The Sab­bath Hymn and Tune Book, ed­it­ed by Lo­well Ma­son, Ed­wards A. Park & Aus­tin Phelps (New York: Ma­son Bro­thers, 1859), page 182 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

Lyrics

In vain we lavish out our lives
To gather empty wind;
The choicest blessings earth can yield
Will starve a hungry mind.

Come, and the Lord shall feed our souls
With more substantial meat;
With such as saints in glo­ry love,
With such as angels eat.

Our God will every want supply,
And fill our hearts with peace;
He gives by covenant and by oath
The riches of His grace.

Come, and He’ll cleanse our spotted souls,
And wash away our stains
In the dear fountain that His Son
Poured from His dying veins.

Our guilt shall vanish all away,
Tho’ black as hell before;
Our sins shall sink beneath the sea,
And shall be found no more.

And lest pollution should o’erspread
Our inward powers again,
His Spi­rit shall bedew our souls
Like purifying rain.

Our heart, that flinty stubborn thing,
That terrors cannot move,
That fears no threatenings of His wrath,
Shall be dissolved by love.

Or He can take the flint away
That would not be refined,
And from the treasures of His grace
Bestow a softer mind.

There shall His sacred Spi­rit dwell,
And deep engrave His law,
And every motion of our souls
To swift obedience draw.

Thus will He pour sal­va­tion down,
And we shall render praise;
We the dear people of His love,
And He our God of grace.