Home » Isaac Watts » Page 3

Tag: Isaac Watts

Sun Orbit: Where e’er the Sun Doth Its Successive Journeys Run

I frequently ponder the fact that we earth dwellers are moving, according to the experts, at something like 67,000mph in our orbit around the sun. It turns out, the experts say, this is nothing in comparison to the speed at which the sun is rotating around the center of the Milky Way: 475,912mph. Read about it HERE and HERE. Note that I’m not necessarily endorsing everything stated in those links.

I remember years ago hearing someone ridicule Psalm 19 because it portrays the sun as an athlete running a race (v. 5), making its track around the edge of the heavens (v. 6). The speaker claimed that we now know better than to believe such nonsense – the sun doesn’t move, the earth does! Now the scientists tell us that the sun is actually moving seven times faster than the earth, and dragging us along with it as it runs (as portrayed by the image below, which is from HERE).

Sun in orbit around Galactic Centre.gif

Be patient, the science always changes, but Psalm 19, all of Psalm 19, still stands; so does Psalm 72, and Isaac Watts’ paraphrase of it is as applicable as ever:

Jesus shall reign where e’er the sun
doth its successive journeys run;
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.

Write it Down

R. Is thy memory powerful enough to hold all things that thou thinkest out and bidst it to hold? A. Nay, nay; neither mine nor any man’s is so strong that it can hold everything that is committed to it. R. Then commit it to words and write it down.

-From Soliloquies by St. Augustine

Isaac Watts recommends a similar practice in his great book, Logic (this was the quote that inspired me to start this blog):

In order to preserve your treasure of ideas and the knowledge you have gained, pursue these advices, especially in your younger years: – 1. Recollect every day the things you have seen, or heard, or read…2. Talk over the things which you have seen, heard or learned, with some proper acquaintance…3. Commit to writing some of the most considerable improvements [i.e. applications] which you daily make, at least such hints as may well recall them again to your mind, when perhaps they are vanished and lost (1847 edition, pp. 72-73).

If you’re not writing down your thoughts, and the thoughts of others that you are studying, you are overestimating the power of your memory.

Wanderers in the Wilderness though we be…

Psalm 90 is a portion of Scripture that I return to over and over again. The inspired wisdom of Moses is distilled in this psalm to, perhaps, its most potent form. The words of verse one inspired Isaac Watts to write,

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home.

C.H. Spurgeon  comments on verse one (read the whole thing HERE):

Verse 1. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

We must consider the whole Psalm as written for the tribes in the desert, and then we shall see the primary meaning of each verse. Moses, in effect, says – wanderers though we be in the howling wilderness, yet we find a home in thee, even as our forefathers did when they came out of Ur of the Chaldees and dwelt in tents among the Canaanites.

Years ago I rearranged the words of that Spurgeon a bit and formed a sentence that I constantly repeat:

Wanderers in the wilderness though we be, yet we find a home in thee.

Asking Questions, Answering Stories

During my reading for a summer course on interviewing, I found this interesting take on the importance of narrative and the aptness of asking questions in order to elicit such stories:

The advantage of asking questions to initiate conversation is that it encourages the other person to talk about him or herself, an approach that Fisher (1984, 1987, 1989) called the narrative paradigm…According to Fisher, five assumptions underlie the narrative paradigm theory: ‘(1) Humans are essentially storytellers, (2) human communication is achieved fundamentally through stories, (3) through discourse humans use “good reasons” for believing or action, (4) humans have an inherent narrative logic that guides their assessments of communication, and (5) the world as we know it is a set of stories that allows each of us to construct and adapt our realities” (Fisher, 1987). Interview techniques can be particularly helpful at eliciting such stories and getting people to talk about themselves.

-Jonathan Amsbary and Larry Powell, Interviewing: Situations and Contexts, p. 19

I’ve made it a practice in my daily life to be constantly asking questions of people. I was first made a conscious decision to do this after reading Isaac Watts’ book (which I highly recommend) called The Improvement of the Mind. He writes,

If you happen to be in company with a merchant or a sailor, a farmer or a mechanic, a milk-made or a spinster, lead them into a discourse of the matters of their own peculiar province or profession; for every one knows, or should know, his own business best. In this sense a common mechanic is wiser than a philosopher. By this means you may gain some improvement in knowledge from every one you meet (p. 80).

Becoming an ‘interviewer’ has resulted in me getting to hear many stories I would never have otherwise heard. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Questions often illicit stories. And stories can lead to all kinds of good things. Besides from the entertainment value, you might learn something new. Do not be so prideful as to think that you cannot learn something from everyone.

Where reason fails, with all her powers, there faith prevails, and love adores

From Isaac Watts’ hymn, We Give Immortal Praise:

Almighty God, to Thee
Be endless honors done,
The undivided Three,
And the mysterious One:
Where reason fails, with all her powers,
There faith prevails, and love adores.

  • Romans 11:33 ¶ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.