This hymn, written by Isaac Watts in 1707, is considered by many scholars to be the finest hymn in the English language. Watts, a young minister, had been becoming more and more frustrated by the church services of the day. The hymns of the day had no energy, no drama, and no sense of emotion. Most of the hymns were slow and ponderous, and they were not at all inspiring or thought provoking to the congregation. Watts thought that the state of congregational singing was dull and deplorable.
Isaac Watts became so frustrated after church one day that he aggressively complained about the hymns to his father, a respected independent thinking school teacher. His father responded, “Complaining will not help this hymn problem, Isaac. Why don’t YOU write a more meaningful hymn yourself?” That conversation opened the door to his life-long hymn writing which became an innovative departure from dull hymns.
Watts sat down that day and wrote his first hymn to be used in his own evening service that day. This meant so much to him and to his church that Watts wrote a new hymn every week for the next several years. He was the first in that era to write hymns which expressed personal feelings. Many of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of his preaching.
Had Watts only written the one hymn “When I Survey”, he would already have been highly admired by people like us, but look at what else he left us, plus hundreds more:
- Joy to the World
- My Shepherd Will Supply My Need
- O God Our Help in Ages Past
- From All That Dwell Below the Skies
- I Sing the Mighty Power of God
- Jesus Shall Reign Where’re the Sun
As was his father, a “nonconformist”, Isaac Watts was also an independent thinker, often choosing to go his own way in ecumenical terms. In this hymn, “When I Survey”, he used the word “amazing”, which up until then in England, had meant stupefying or confusing. This word had never been used in a positive way before, but here is how Watts used it: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,” words so appropriate for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
This new use of the word “amazing” changed people’s sense of what the word meant, a significant reason why we now have hymns like “Amazing Grace”.