Lent Bible Study

I've always loved the Isaac Watts' hymn 'When I survey the Wondrous Cross'.  It encompasses the whole Lent season as it asks us to look, or survey the wonder of the cross - but not only the wonder, he vividly paints the colour of Christ's agony and death on the cross.

This was one of the first English-language hymns to use the word ‘I’ and have at its core personal religious experience. The hymn is also an example of how Isaac Watts, who has been called the father of English hymnody, enlarged the boundaries of English hymn writing beyond the metrical psalms to include freer verse that readily lent itself to new musical settings.

Isaac Watts lived in turbulent times, and as we look at his life, and the words that he has written, it is easy to see the parallels with contemporary society. Most importantly for Christians, he wrote for the masses in words that they could understand. In the preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707) he wrote: ‘I have aimed at ease of numbers and smoothness of sound, and endeavoured to make the sense plain and obvious; if the verse appears so gentle and flowing as to incur the Censure of Feebleness, I may honestly affirm that sometimes it has cost me labour to make it so.’

So it inspired me to write a Lent Bible study around each of this hymn's verses. It's written with the intention that only one copy is needed per group, and permission given to photocopy. There are questions from discussion and lots of background information for the leader.

Check out http://www.faithandworship.com/Amazing_Love.htm for more information