Worship

Cherishing Hymns in Corporate Worship

January’s hymn is “Amazing Grace.”

The Story behind the Hymn
This is probably the most recognized and most often sung Christian hymn in the English language. It was written by John Newton, one of the most powerful evangelical preachers in British history, who was also a former slave trader. If you've seen the recent movie Amazing Grace, you've seen a portrayal of some of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade during the 1700s. Christians were among the strongest opposers of the those horrors and some of the strongest advocates for abolishing the slave trade in England. The rough life of a sailor and the atrocities that he had committed against captive African men, women, and children led Newton to fully recognize himself as a "wretch" before God and Jesus Christ as the bestower of amazing, undeserved, eye-opening, saving grace.

After his conversion, John Newton became a pastor and the author of hundreds of hymns. He would often write poems to outline the topics of his weekly sermons, and then have his congregation sing them as hymns in response to the message of God's Word. "Amazing Grace" was written as a reflection on Scripture and originally entitled, "Faith's Review and Expectation." He based the words on his study of 1 Chronicles 17:16-17: "King David...said: 'Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet...You have also spoken of Your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree....' "

It is a hymn that spans the whole life of the believer--from God's opening our eyes to see our need of His grace, to the many trials through which His grace upholds us, to the promise of His grace sustaining us all the days of our life and even beyond life, all the way to the endless ages that will never see an end to our songs of praise for His glorious grace! (Biographical sources: NetHymnal & Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan)

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

John Newton, 1779
Verse 6, author unknown, from A Collection of Sacred Ballads, 1790