Psalm 42.1, 5
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

“As congregational song, hymns were an extraordinary kind of poetry,” notes the Poetry Foundation in their biography page for Isaac Watts. “It is no coincidence that Watts, as [the] originator [of hundreds of hymns], was both an accomplished poet and a recognized religious leader and teacher. His admiration of dramatic effects and familiarity with devotional imagery served him particularly well. Indeed, hymns depended for their success on real pleasures, on their value as entertainment. Insipid or obtuse poetry would fail to provoke the desired response.”

For Watts the real pleasure wasn’t simply the craft, at which he was immensely talented, but the glory and beauty of the Savior his words beheld. 

“If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious,” writes C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory. 

Watts found God’s beauty in the community of the church. His hymn drawn from Psalm 42 reveals this even in its alternative title: Complaint of Absence from Public Worship. Desertion from the church lead him to cry out — hope was found when he returned to the wonders of God incarnate in the joy and trial of community.

Today we look at Isaac Watts’ words, from his book The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, inspired by Psalm 42:

With earnest longings of the mind,
  My God, to thee I look;
So pants the hunted hart to find
  And taste the cooling brook.

When shall I see thy courts of grace,
  And meet my God again?
So long an absence from thy face
  My heart endures with pain.

Temptations vex my weary soul,
  And tears are my repast;
The foe insults without control,
  “And where’s your God at last?”

’Tis with a mournful pleasure now
  I think on ancient days;
Then to thy house did numbers go,
  And all our work was praise.

But why, my soul, sunk down so far
  Beneath this heavy load?
Why do my thoughts indulge despair,
  And sin against my God?

Hope in the Lord, whose mighty hand
  Can all thy woes remove,
For I shall yet before him stand,
  And sing restoring love.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 7 (Listen – 12:50)
Psalms 42-43 (Listen – 2:32)

Melodies of Heaven
Part 4 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Psalm 40.4
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! 

John Calvin was among the first theologians to rewrite psalms for communal singing. When Isaac Watts joined the tradition nearly two centuries later the culture in the church was more hostile to mixing the arts and spiritual disciplines.

The Poetry Foundation, which in its own words is “committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture,” reports on Watts work to unite the church and arts for spiritual formation. “Watts’s short critical essay introducing Horae Lyricae claims poetry for the cause of religion and virtue, rejecting the common secular debasement of the heavenly genre.”

“Watts wonders at the potential poetic impact of the Incarnation and the Passion of Christ and the evangelical power of Christian poetry to transform readers’ lives. This line of argument at once recalls the criticism of John Dennis and anticipates the achievements in Christian musical drama of George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach.”

Thankfully Watts pressed on in his work.  

We enjoy him today not only for the beauty of his craft, but for the theological clarity he brings through all of his work.

This week we are looking at five works from Isaac Watts’ book, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. Today, Psalm 40:

The wonders, Lord, thy love has wrought,
Exceed our praise, surmount our thought;
Should I attempt the long detail,
My speech would faint, my numbers fail,

No blood of beasts on altars spilt
Can cleanse the souls of men from guilt;
But thou hast set before our eyes
An all-sufficient sacrifice.

Lo! thine eternal Son appears,
To thy designs he bows his ears,
Assumes a body well prepared,
And well performs a work so hard.

“Behold, I come,” the Savior cries,
With love and duty in his eyes,
“I come to bear the heavy load
Of sins, and do thy will, my God.

“’Tis written in thy great decree,
’Tis in thy book foretold of me,
I must fulfill the Savior’s part;
And lo! thy law is in my heart!

“I’ll magnify thy holy law,
And rebels to obedience draw,
When on my cross I’m lifted high,
Or to my crown above the sky.

“The Spirit shall descend and show
What thou hast done, and what I do
The wond’ring world shall learn thy grace,
Thy wisdom, and thy righteousness.”

Today’s Readings
Numbers 6 (Listen – 4:04)
Psalms 40-41 (Listen – 3:57)

Melodies of Heaven
Part 3 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Psalm 39.4, 7
“O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”

As an infant Isaac Watts “nursed on the steps of the Southampton jail where his father was imprisoned as a Dissenter,” says his biography at the Poetry Foundation. Upon his release the elder Watts, also named Isaac, began teaching Latin to his four year old son. In primary school the boy learned Greek, French, and Hebrew.

While Watts is remembered for his poetry and hymns, like Joy to the World and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, he was successful across multiple disciplines. The Poetry Foundation notes that after his formal education concluded, “Watts was to become a prominent educator whose textbooks and educational theory were republished in Britain and America for more than a century.” He also published four volumes of poetry, 750 hymns, hundreds of sermons, and seven books that span a number of fields.

In all this success Watts grounded himself in the scriptures and prayer. His book, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, provides a glimpse into this world. This week we’re looking at five works where Watts rewords the Psalms to make overt what the psalmists allude — Christ is at the center of every longing, joy, and cry.

Today, we look at Isaac Watts’ words, inspired by Psalm 39:

Teach me the measure of my days,
  Thou Maker of my frame;
I would survey life’s narrow space,
  And learn how frail I am.

A span is all that we can boast,
  An inch or two of time;
Man is but vanity and dust
  In all his flower and prime.

See the vain race of mortals move
  Like shadows o’er the plain;
They rage and strive, desire and love,
  But all the noise is vain.

Some walk in honor’s gaudy show,
  Some dig for golden ore;
They toil for heirs, they know not who,
  And straight are seen no more.

What should I wish or wait for, then,
  From creatures earth and dust?
They make our expectations vain,
  And disappoint our trust.

Now I forbid my carnal hope,
  My fond desires recall;
I give my mortal interest up,
  And make my God my all.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 5 (Listen – 4:39)
Psalm 39 (Listen – 1:49)

Melodies of Heaven
Part 2 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Psalm 38.1, 22
O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation! 

The psalms anticipate Christ with brilliant clarity and longing. Because of this Isaac Watts, the 18th century theologian, hymnodist, poet, and preacher, drew from them at length in his works. One of Watts’ most famous songs, Joy to the World, recasts Psalm 98 in common measure.

In his book Sacred Song in America, Stephen Marini notes that one of the reasons Watts’ works are so enduring is that they balance emotional subjectivity and doctrinal objectivity. “Watts’ voice broke down the distance between poet and singer and invested the text with personal spirituality.”

Watts’ work from the Psalms brings insight while making overt what the psalmists allude — Christ at the center of every longing, joy, and cry.

This week we’ll look at five works from Isaac Watts’ book, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. Today, Psalm 38:

Amidst thy wrath remember love,
  Restore thy servant, Lord;
Nor let a Father’s chast’ning prove
  Like an avenger’s sword.

Thine arrows stick within my heart,
  My flesh is sorely pressed;
Between the sorrow and the smart,
  My spirit finds no rest.

My sins a heavy load appear,
  And o’er my head are gone;
Too heavy they for me to bear,
  Too hard for me t’ atone.

My thoughts are like a troubled sea,
My head still bending down;
And I go mourning all the day,
Beneath my Father’s frown.

Lord, I am weak and broken sore,
  None of my powers are whole:
The inward anguish makes me roar,
  The anguish of my soul.

All my desire to thee is known,
  Thine eye counts every tear;
And every sigh, and every groan,
  Is noticed by thine ear.

Thou art my God, my only hope;
  My God will hear my cry;
My God will bear my spirit up,
  When Satan bids me die.

My foot is ever apt to slide,
  My foes rejoice to see ’t;
They raise their pleasure and their pride
  When they supplant my feet.

But I’ll confess my guilt to thee,
  And grieve for all my sin;
I’ll mourn how weak my graces be,
  And beg support divine.

My God, forgive my follies past,
  And be for ever nigh;
O Lord of my salvation, haste,
  Before thy servant die.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 4 (Listen – 6:11)
Psalm 38 (Listen – 2:14)

Melodies of Heaven
Part 1 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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