The Story Behind the Song
Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley are the two men who had the greatest impact on Baptists and our music in the eighteenth century. Watts (1674-1748), “The Father of English Hymnody,” created a position for singing in worship that remains to this day, as well as some marvelous texts. “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed,” “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” and “Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come” are among his approximately 750 hymns.
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Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was even more prolific, writing almost 9,000 hymns, including “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “And Can it Be,” and “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.”
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Wesley had an unusual faith journey. He was born prematurely, the eighteenth of Samuel and Susannah Wesley’s nineteen children. His father was a minister in the Church of England so Charles was involved with the church from his infancy. As did his brother John, he studied for the ministry at Oxford University, was ordained an Anglican priest, and even sailed to the colony of Georgia as a missionary in 1735—however, neither was saved yet!
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During the voyage to Georgia, Charles and John became acquainted with Moravians, a group of European evangelical Christians who made much use of music in their worship and who emphasized a personal, saving faith. They had a profound impact on the brothers. In his journal, John described the difference in how he and the other English reacted as compared with the Moravians (he called them “the Germans”) when it was thought that the ship might go down during a storm: “In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, ‘Was you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied, mildly, ‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.’”
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Three years later, back in London, Charles Wesley was teaching English to another Moravian, Peter Boehler, and became converted. John recounted the experience in his journal: “My brother had a long and particular conversation with Peter Boehler. And it now pleased God to open his eyes; so that he also saw clearly what was the nature of that one true living faith, whereby alone, ‘through grace, we are saved.’”
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Peter Boehler not only led Charles Wesley to the Lord, he also gave him the inspiration for a great hymn. Boehler said once, “Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise him with them all.” That sentence struck Charles Wesley, and in 1739, on the first anniversary of his conversion, the 18-stanza hymn from which “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” is derived was written. Over a hundred years later, Ralph E. Hudson took the text by Wesley, substituted the phrase “Blessed be the name of the Lord” in place of the original second and fourth lines of the stanzas, added the refrain, and the song we sing today was born.
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Ray Ortlund has written on Job 1:21—“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” He explained the meaning of each phrase. “Job did not say, ‘Blessed be the Lord’ but ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ At issue in his life was not only his own reverence for God but also the name of the Lord in the world, how God would be thought about and spoken about and felt about… ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ God has done nothing wrong. He has been good in his giving and in his taking. Self-pity is an uncomprehending response. What’s happening here is, God’s name is being made more obvious in my life. I’m part of a drama, displaying who God really is here in this world of false appearances. That’s the true meaning of my life, and it’s a privilege to be involved. So I don’t want merely to acquiesce to God; I want to praise God, and I want you to praise him too.”
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Let’s all, together, praise our good God.
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