When I Survey the Wondrous Cross | Hymn25

1707 | Isaac Watts

We live in a beautiful world of God’s creation. From the wonders of nature to the warm embrace of an old friend, God’s goodness and greatness shines through the dark When I take the time to look around me …really look … I am moved to praise! There is so much to see and enjoy with wonder and awe. Yet, nothing in this world compares to Jesus. Nothing. All the riches, all the fame, all the power cannot hold a candle to our Lord Jesus and the unmatched offering of himself on the cross.

Take some time today to survey the “wondrous attraction” of the cross (as George Bennard described it in Old Rugged Cross). Really look at it. Consider the punishment. Consider the cost. Consider the shame. Consider the wild crowds, the willing savior, the words of love. Taste the bittersweetness as you remember the sorrow and love flowing mingled down in Jesus’ powerful blood.

In 1707 Isaac Watts gave the world one of the most precious and sung english hymns through history. Even today the hymn is sung prolifically to not one, but two different well-known tunes (Hamburg and Rockingham). Take some time to listen to both and sing along. It is only a token of all we might offer the Cross-bearer: Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, me all.

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14 (ESV)

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.

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.

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?

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.