Lyrics: Isaac Watts, 1707. (b.1674. Yesterday, July 17th, was Isaac Watts’s birthday.)
Music: MARTYRDOM attributed to Hugh Wilson, 1827.
Also sung as “At the Cross” with a chorus and tune (HUDSON) by Ralph E. Hudson.
Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed – Sovereign Grace Music
Theme: “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Luke 7:41-43
Isaac Watts: “I have made no pretence to be a poet. But to the Lamb that was slain, and now lives, I have addressed many a song, to be sung by the penitent and believing heart.â€
Fanny Crosby, about yielding to the call of Jesus upon her life while hearing this hymn: “I surrendered myself to the Savior, and my very soul flooded with celestial light. I sprang to my feet, shouting ‘Hallelujah.’â€
1. Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I?
2. Was it for crimes that I have done,
he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
3. Well might the sun in darkness hide,
and shut its glories in,
when Christ, the mighty maker, died
for man the creature’s sin.
4. Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine
and bathed in its own blood
While the firm mark of Wrath Divine
His soul in anguish stood.
5. Thus might I hide my blushing face
while his dear cross appears;
dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
and melt mine eyes to tears.
6. But drops of grief can ne’er repay
the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’tis all that I can do.
At the Cross refrain:
At the cross, at the cross,
where I first saw the light,
and the burden of my heart rolled away;
it was there by faith I received my sight,
and now I am happy all the day.
Even though I have reservations about the “happy all the day” line, we used to sing this song every Sunday morning in the car on the way to church. Z-baby always requested it, and we belted it out. “AT the cross, AT the cross, where I first saw the LIGHT . . .” I never heard the fourth and fifth verses (above), but our family knows all of the others by heart. It’s a good hymn.
Sources:
Hymn Stories and Gospel Hymn Stories: Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed.
Notwithstanding your family’s enjoyment of “belting out” At the Cross, I stand by the assessment of my June 14th blog about Hudson’s mutilation of a superb hymn. There is nothing wrong with enjoying some lively singing, but the musical setting ought to reflect the mood of the words. Watts’s depiction of the excruciating and gruesome sufferings of the Lord ought to be pondered with sober reflection and awe, not bouncy jollity. It was our sin that put Him in that terrible place. We need to come weeping to the cross, before we depart with rejoicing.
I have mixed feelings on this one. We sing “At the Cross” with some frequency at PSST (our Sunday evening service), and I too have some reservations about the “bouncy jollity”. On the other hand, in defense of the practice, I would point out that while the MARTYRDOM-tuned original is very appropriate to a Tenebrae service or other Good Friday or Holy Saturday meditation, the bouncy jollity of “At the Cross” may simply be the quite appropriate expression of the rejoicing we should feel after it is finished. I agree, though, that the original version is the greater hymn.
I think that anytime we sing about the sacrifice of our Savior it should be reverent and serious, never “bouncy jollityâ€.
I only wanted to know if the 1st originally written Isaac watts was for such a worm as I or For sinners such as I. Expaination not here