YouTube Link
Psalm 90:1-5 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning.
Mark 15:22-27 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. 25 It was the third hour when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
We continue our series of Hymns and Their Stories today with hymns by Issac Watts. All three of the hymns we are singing today were written by him. Our opening hymn, I Sing the Mighty Power of God was originally written for children and contained eight verses, we only sang three. Our closing hymn, Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun was written as a paraphrase of Psalm 72. Our first scripture reading today was the first five verses of Psalm 90. Rev. Watts used this as the basis for his hymn Our God, Our Help In Ages Past.
Isaac Watts was born in England in 1674 during a time of unrest, it was considered treasonous to not belong to the Church of England and his family was Calvinist. He is considered the Father of English hymnody. Watts was the author of a nearly complete Psalter and between 600 and 700 hymns, many of which are still sung today.
Isaac was always bothered that the Calvinists only sang psalms in their public worship. In those days hymns were slow and ponderous, void of emotion and joy. Watts had grown to dislike this because it restricted the Christian from being able to explicitly celebrate in song all those aspects of the gospel that are fulfilled and illuminated in the New Testament.
As wonderful as they were, the psalms did not tell the story of God’s salvation through Christ’s life, the cross, His death and resurrection. They did not celebrate the grace, the mercy, the atonement, or the second coming of Christ,
Frustrated with the heartless psalm singing of his time, young Watts criticized the singing at his church. Listening to his concerns one day, Watts’ father challenged him, “Well then, young man, why don’t you give us something better to sing?” He rose to the challenge by writing his first hymn that day.
By 1702 Watts became the full time pastor of the Mark Lane Chapel. He often composed a new hymn or psalm setting for every sermon he preached on Sunday. It was during this time that he wrote the bulk of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs which were published in 1709. Through his hymn writing Watts reminded the world that worshipping God should be a joyful and personal experience.
Our hymn today is, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” This classic hymn that Isaac Watts wrote has often been called the greatest hymn in the English language. Another contemporary of Isaac Watts said of it, “There may be a few others equally great, but there is none greater.”
Isaac Watts wrote “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” in 1707, and yet its words remain just as powerful today. This hymn is not just poetry—it’s a deep theological reflection on the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ. It leads us to pause, to look, and to reflect—to survey—what happened on that cross and what it means for us. Isaac Watts doesn’t just describe the cross—he helps us respond to it. This hymn is a personal, powerful meditation on what Jesus has done through the cross.
Our second scripture reading was Mark 15:22-27. This is the briefest account of the crucifixion out of all four gospels. Mark’s account is a bare statement of facts. Who, what, when, where. There is no emotion attached to his account. From these few verses though comes the beauty of Watts hymn. Let’s take some time to examine both the theology and emotion that are part of this hymn.
One author said, “When I Survey” is a hymn which is saturated with theology and a call for an emotional response from the singer.” It ponders the love that turned that instrument of judicial torture and death into the channel of divine compassion.”
But what makes the hymn unique is the particular beauty of its language and imagery, and the power with which it highlights the most significant event in human and personal history — the cross of Jesus Christ our God.
It has been suggested that Isaac Watts based this hymn on Galatians 6:14 (KJV) “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
In this hymn we are, in a sense, listening in on Isaac Watts’ visceral reactions to the crucifixion. Let us consider his words our own as we survey the wondrous cross.
Mark’s gospel says starkly, “and they crucified him.” We are frozen in this moment. Before us, Jesus hangs on the cross, dying. What are our thoughts, our emotions?
The hymn speaks for us, “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
The hymn calls the cross “wondrous” yet how can that be? It was an instrument of torture, shame, and death. (pause) How can it be “wondrous”? Because of what was accomplished there.
The King of Kings, Jesus Christ, died in our place. The wonder of the cross is that the perfect Son of God chose to suffer and die for a broken and sinful humanity.
Isaiah 53 reminds us Jesus was despised and rejected, that he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
The cross is wondrous because it reveals the depth of God’s love and the seriousness of sin.
In Philippians 3:7-8 Paul says, “7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Our hymn this morning echoes this by saying, “my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
Standing before the cross we have nothing, nothing in this world has value to us, all our pride, all we strive for, all we work for is nothing. This may sound like a negative but it isn’t. All the achievements of humanity, massive monuments, scientific discoveries, beautiful art, soaring music, everything pales before the wonderous cross. Our Savior, the Prince of Glory, the Lord of Lords allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross and hung there and died for us. It’s like having the curtain torn from our eyes, behind the reality we know we discover there is a far greater reality. The reality of God and of God’s love. Everything pales before this love.
When it says “pour contempt on all my pride” it isn’t so much a way of putting ourselves down, it isn’t a negative but it is coming to the realization that everything we know shrinks down in the sight of the cross.
The second verse tells us, Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them through his blood.
The cross humbles us. There’s no room for boasting or pride. Paul says in Philippians 3 that all his credentials, achievements, and righteousness are garbage compared to knowing Christ.
When we truly survey the cross we let go of pride and instead we see our need for grace which causes us to surrender our self-sufficiency. The hymn teaches us the appropriate response is worshipful surrender.
The third verse always grabs me. Look at the cross. See Jesus as he hangs there. See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Sorrow and love flow mingled down. This is Jesus, the Son of God on the cross. Before the incarnation, he has seen across all of time. He knows what happens to us, what we endure, what we do to each other. He knows the past and the future. Sorrow flows down for a world so filled with sin and pain and death. Sorrow for all that traps us. And love, oh, what love must fill Him that Jesus would willingly hang on that cross. For us. To redeem us from our sin. There has never been before nor will there ever be again such a display of love. The thorns which crown His head are the most majestic crown a king could ever wear.
The final verse says, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
What Jesus did on the cross wasn’t just a good example of love—it was the ultimate demonstration of love. Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What is our response to such love? We are told that even if we owned the entire world that would not be enough of a present. But then Jesus doesn’t want presents from us. What His divine love demands is all of ourselves, our soul, our life our all. Worship is the only fitting response to the cross.
So how should we live in light of the wondrous cross? With humility, not pride. With surrender, not control. With passionate worship, not lukewarm religion.
Let us survey the cross every day—let it shape our thoughts, our hearts, and our lives. And may we echo the last line with conviction, “Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Let us pray. Lord, as we survey the wondrous cross, help us to see not only the cost of our salvation, but also the greatness of Your love. Strip away our pride. Call us to deeper surrender. May our lives be a fitting response to the grace we have received. In Jesus’ name, Amen.