Word in Worship II

So, it's taken me a while to decide what to address next about the words used in worship.  I've finally agreed with myself that writing about Issac Watts' hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" would be the best way to go.  The more I learn think about the words Watts chose and how he put them together, the more I'm blown away by his sheer brilliance. 

Each of the three verses are one sentence, divided into four clauses.  Each sentence contains only one independent clause (one phrase that can stand on its own as a complete sentence).  The first verse sets up the main point in such a way as to make the point of the rest of the song clear.  Three of the four clauses in the first verse contain (or allude to) a first person subject ("when I survey the wondrous cross.... my richest gains I count but lost and pour contempt on all my pride").  Only the second clause contains a third person subject; only the second clause is parenthetical (not necessary to the completion of the sentence); only the second clause contains a preposition: "on which the prince of glory died".  By doing this, Watts pulls this thought out from the rest of the verse, making this clause the most important, the most noticeable.   The point: identifying that "the prince of glory" is the key to the whole song. 

On to the second verse.  Here, Watts deviates a little by not including a clear subject.  He opens this verse with the command "see", but with no clear subject at whom this is aimed.  Is he talking to himself or to his audience?  Who knows.  I think Watts did this on purpose to divert attention from a speaker (or us as the singers) and make the focus on picture we should see at the cross: Jesus dying for our sins.  Whatever his reasons, the result is effective; one looks now fully at the cross with no sense of self or a speaker intruding.  But what do we see in this picture?  "See how his head, his hands, his feet".  To whom does "his" refer here?  The only third person male mentioned so far is "the prince of glory". Thus we can assume that we are now looking, not at the cross, but at the one who died upon it.  Watts furthers this point by choosing some interesting, repeated, terms: Sorrow and Love (both capitalized in the text). "Sorrow and Love flow mingled down.  Did e're such Love and Sorrow meet".  By repeating these terms, Watts reminds us of two key points attributed to Jesus: the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3) and that "God is love" (I John 4:8).  By reiterating these two names in conjunction with the possessive "his" Watts is clearly connecting the view of the cross with the aforementioned "prince of glory" thus solidifying the main subject of the whole hymn: Jesus' death.

In the third and final verse, Watts returns the focus from the view of Jesus' death to the speaker by again using first person pronouns. Instead of using first person pronouns as subjects, he uses "Love" from the second verse (attributed as stated in the previous paragraph both as an action and a characteristic of "the prince of glory") as the subject for the final two clauses: "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life my soul, my all".  Here, Watts moves away from the picture of the cross to the response that it (should) elicit in us: awestruck repentance.  The view of Jesus dying should remind us of what he paid for our sins; and should drive home the point that there is nothing I can do or give to repay him.  But all that I am is now his.

The point of all this is pretty simple: the hymn is not about the cross, but about the one who died upon it.  The cross is an object, never a subject, in the hymn.  The subject is Jesus' love, sorrow, and sacrifice.