Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12 KJV) set to verse.
Blest are the humble souls that see
Their emptiness and poverty;
Treasures of grace to them are giv’n,
And crowns of joy laid up in heav’n.1
Bless’d are the men of broken heart,
Who mourn for sin with inward smart;
The blood of Christ divinely flows,
A healing balm for all their woes.
Bless’d are the meek, who stand afar
From rage and passion, noise and war;
God will secure their happy state,
And plead their cause against the great.
Bless’d are the souls that thirst for grace,
Hunger and long for righteousness;
They shall be well supplied, and fed
With living streams and living bread.2
Bless’d are the men whose bowels move
And melt with sympathy and love;
From Christ the Lord shall they obtain
Like sympathy and love again.
Bless’d are the pure, whose hearts are clean
From the defiling pow’r of sin;
With endless pleasure they shall see
A God of spotless purity.
Bless’d are the men of peaceful life,
Who quench the coals of growing strife;
They shall be called the heirs of bliss,
The sons of God, the God of peace.
Bless’d are the suff’rers who partake
Of pain and shame for Jesus’ sake.
Their souls shall triumph in the Lord;
Glory and joy are their reward.
View the presentation of this hymn
which shows how it exactly parallels Matthew 5:3-12.
- This first stanza is quoted by Percy Gutteridge in The Nature of Faith. ↩
- Pastor Gutteridge also quotes from the first, second, and fourth stanzas in The Holy Spirit as Former and Latter Rain. ↩
