Scripture Verse

In His love and in His pity He redeemed them. Isaiah 63:9

Introduction

portrait
François H. Barthélémon (1741–1808)

Words: Is­aac Watts, Hymns and Spir­it­ual Songs 1707–09, Book 2, num­ber 79. Praise to the Re­deem­er.

Music: Bal­ler­ma Fran­çois H. Bar­thé­lé­mon (1741–1808). Adapt­ed by Ro­bert Simp­son in A Se­lect­ion of Or­ig­in­al Sac­red Mu­sic, 1833 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a bet­ter pic­ture of Bar­thé­lé­mon,

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

No hymn in the en­tire range of Chris­tian lyr­ic po­et­ry fur­nish­es a fin­er stu­dy in lit­er­ary cli­max than this.

The be­gin­ning of the hymn in the gulf of dark des­pair furn­ish­es the po­et with an op­por­tu­ni­ty to as­cend through the suc­ceed­ing stan­zas to the lof­ty cli­max of grace and glo­ry with which the last stan­za clos­es the hymn.

It is a fine spe­ci­men of lyr­ic po­et­ry, whe­ther viewed from the stand­point of lit­er­ary art or of spir­it­ual de­vo­tion.

Nutter, p. 129

Lyrics

Plunged in a gulf of dark des­pair
We wretch­ed sin­ners lay,
Without one cheer­ful beam of hope,
Or spark of glim­mer­ing day.

With pi­ty­ing eyes the Prince of grace
Beheld our help­less grief;
He saw, and, O amaz­ing love!
He ran to our re­lief.

Down from the shin­ing seats above
With joy­ful haste He fled,
Entered the grave in mor­tal flesh,
And dwelt among the dead.

He spoiled the powers of dark­ness thus,
And brake our ir­on chains;
Jesus hath freed our cap­tive souls
From ev­er­last­ing pains.

In vain the baf­fled prince of hell
His curs­èd pro­jects tries
We that were doomed his end­less slaves
Are raised above the skies.

O for this love let rocks and hills
Their last­ing si­lence break,
And all har­mo­ni­ous hu­man tongues
The Sav­ior’s prais­es speak.

Yes, we will praise Thee, dear­est Lord,
Our souls are all on flame;
Hosannah round the spa­cious earth
To Thine adored name.

Angels, as­sist our migh­ty joys,
Strike all your harps of gold;
But when you raise your high­est notes,
His love can ne’er be told.