O God, Our Help in Ages Past - Isaac Watts

 

Isaac was thinking about time. And, he began reading a well-known psalm that gave him reassurance about time’s passage, instead of looking at a sundial (like this one, perhaps the world’s oldest timepiece, from Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, circa 1500 B.C.*). Of those two things, we can be sure when we consider the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” (alternately ‘Our God…’, as originally written) that was published in 1719 when the ground-breaking English hymnist Isaac Watts was 45 years old. What events spurred Watts to open his bible and consult his ancient musical predecessor’s thoughts on this subject? Was Watts thinking about some national event, like the ancient composer, or was it more personal consequences of which Isaac was thinking?

 

Isaac Watts apparently composed the hymn’s words as early as 1708, or perhaps several years later as he contemplated the impending death of his country’s queen (Anne) and what that might mean for his family. The Watts men, including Isaac’s father (also named Isaac), were Nonconformists, meaning they stood in opposition to the authority of the Church of England, to the point that Isaac Sr. was imprisoned for a time. Leniency by the queen, who would die in 1714, was uncertain under a new royal, and so Watts felt the need to pray. Moses was his guide, a leader who sought relief for not just himself but for his nation, and recorded his plea to God in Psalm 90. Isaac composed his reflection on Moses’ words, echoing that He is a God who is faithful according to the actions He took for His people in ‘ages past’.  Isaac is not content to address God in the third person, but instead prays to Him directly, calling out with ‘Thy’ and ‘Thou’ in five of his nine verses. He is the One who provides security (vv.1-2), who has existed before time (v.3), and who controls the destiny of all humanity (vv.4, 9). Watts finds his human voice (vv. 6-8) too, which without God might otherwise sound bereft of hope; peoples are carried by ‘a flood’, and ‘lost’(v.6), as time rolls on inexorably to make us otherwise ‘forgotten’ beings (v.7) who ‘wither’ with the passage of the ages (v.8). Indeed, there must have been moments when Isaac was tormented with anxiety, but the ninth verse expresses his prayer’s hope that has not been extinguished. He trusted that this God of the past would be present in the future.

 

Are Moses’ words enough; are they relevant for 21^st Century man? There must have been part of Isaac Watts who, if for but a moment over three hundred years ago, asked the same question. He’d lived long enough to observe many people pass into history, so some sober thoughts about mortality and where he would be eventually would not have been unusual. Great men, like Moses, speak words that mean something. It might seem like ancient history, until one acknowledges that all people still do what he did over 3,500 years ago. He was born, lived, struggled with various issues, and died. How’s that different from you and me? It’s not hard to imagine that Isaac came to the same conclusion. He needed a trustworthy, prayer-listening God. Same as us.

 

* The photo is in the public domain in the U.S.

 

Information on the song was obtained from the books 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982; Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006; and Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003. 

 

Also see the following website for information about Isaac Watts.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts

 

 

See all nine verses of the hymn here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/g/o/h/ogohiap.htm

 

See this article for information on the hymn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_God,_Our_Help_in_Ages_Past 

Where Peace Like a River -- Alton Howard

 

Did he mean to say’When..’, instead? That’s what response you’ll get from your computer, when you try to search for Alton Hardy Howard’s "Where Peace Like a River” that he penned in 1977. You get the impression that Alton knew what he was doing when he wrote his words, especially in the first verse’s opening line. He certainly was aware of, and gave a nod toward the more well-known song about a peaceful river that begins with ‘When’. From his lifelong home-state of Louisiana, Alton was thinking of a place, indeed the same place for which his predecessor and author of the ‘When’ hymn was yearning. Had Alton suffered a grievous loss as his musical ancestor had, prompting a similar spontaneous purging of his soul’s anguish? 

 

The short answer is that we don’t know what spurred Alton Howard to compose three verses about a place with an environment like a peaceful river. Alton’s life led him down a variety of avenues, but they all led to the same destination. The biggest parts of Alton’s life, from the sources we can examine, were the Christian enterprises that he led – from a radio program, to a Christian camp, to a church he helped shepherd for decades, and to the music that he helped publish and promote. Most assuredly, we can surmise that Alton knew and had sung many times “When Peace Like a River”, by Horatio Spafford. Perhaps it was the 100-year anniversary of that song’s publication, in 1876, that sparked Alton’s imagination. Who couldn’t be moved by Spafford’s circumstances, the staggering loss of his four children in a ship’s accident in the Atlantic Ocean? From what we know of Alton’s life, at least a few of the ventures in which he engaged – including some business efforts, no doubt with a monetary cost -- were not successful, so was one or more of them cause for dejection in 1977? Horatio’s words regarding ‘sorrows like sea billows’ may have struck a nerve in Alton’s spirit, for his own poem’s first few words are nearly identical to Spafford’s – ‘sorrows like billows’. Something in Alton’s life was the source of some ‘despair’ (v.1), yet he doesn’t wallow in that state. He’s looking in the rearview mirror, in his mind’s eye, while in a place he expects will be a ‘city so fair’ (v.1). It’s a place of ‘sunshine’, and of a ‘fountain’ with ‘Calvary’ at the headwaters (vv.2,3). While Horatio dreamt of the day when the Lord would come to erase his life’s tragedy, Alton looked beyond, when he would be enjoying his inheritance.

 

 Alton Howard was awash in despair at times, too, though he chose not to emphasize that. He could imagine that the river, though peaceful, was also powerful. To be enveloped by such a stream was not just a way relieve the troubles of existence, but it was existence itself. It’s not a temporary bath, it’s where one resides. All the surroundings feed you, sustain you. We can hardly fathom such a place, since earthly life is mingled with struggle, and that is the only place any of us have ever been. So, was somebody communicating with Alton from another place, or was he merely wishfully letting his mind wander? Perhaps Alton allowed himself some dreaming, because it helped transform his present, and held the promise of transport, too. You and I don’t need more of everyday reality. Let’s live for what Alton could see.     

 

 

See following links for information on the composer:

 

http://www.christianchronicle.org/article/songbook-publisher-entrepreneur-howard-dies-at-age-81?A=SearchResult&SearchID=2809510&ObjectID=4369268&ObjectType=35

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Books

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Hardy_Howard

 

See also “Our Garden of Song”, edited by Gene C. Finley, Howard Publishing Company, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1980.

Wonderful He Is To Me -- Alton Howard

 

He was 46 years old in 1971, when he penned some words about his present and the future, and how what had happened in the past was still affecting his outlook. Alton Hardy Howard declared that “Wonderful He Is to Me”, not just because he felt very fortunate to be in a home he loved in West Monroe, Louisiana (see the map, highlighting it in northern LA’s Ouachita Parish), but because an even grander one with his Creator awaited. Could Alton have known that time would come some three and a half decades later? He’d had a pretty eventful life, even at this point when he chose some words to express the reason for his delight. Had he been purposely spared in a conflict early in his life, allowing Alton to pursue so many beneficial ventures subsequently? Read some more about Alton Howard, and consider a life well-lived.

 

Alton Howard’s upbringing undoubtedly played a big role in his development and the trajectory of his life’s pursuits. Church-going parents who loved to sing communicated volumes to Alton and his brothers and sisters. Could Alton’s service in World War II (he was a gunner in a B-26 bomber, serving in the US Air Force in France and Germany) also have helped galvanize his life’s purpose following his return from the war? Certainly, something spurred Alton into multiple endeavors to serve those around him, both near and far. From a variety of business activities to the church and some related appendages, Alton was the model of a leader in the West Monroe community. He just never sat still, it seems, playing the part of entrepreneur in no less than a dozen business efforts from the mid-1940s onward. Besides editing and publishing three hymnbooks, which included the handful of songs he wrote, Alton authored three other books, including one (Money Grow$ on Tree$: How to Make, Manage, and Master Money) that underscored the success story that was his life. But, nothing probably brought Alton more satisfaction than the music, Christian youth camp, and international radio gospel program he helped to establish near the end of his life, all while serving as a shepherd in the church he served for over 40 years. It’s almost as if, in 1971, he was reflecting on how blessed he’d become over the previous 25 years, and was pondering how to keep the ball rolling for the next 35 years. It wasn’t a mystery to Alton Howard – it seems that not many things were a mystery to him – how to continue. It’s right in the words he wrote in 1971. The One above was the source of all things great and best in Howard’s life, both temporally and eternally.

 

Alton exuded all the was good and prototypical in the Christian life he led. And, he knew who was foundational in that life – the One who came ‘from portals of glory’ (v.1); the One who ‘leadeth’, ‘speaks’, and ‘lifted’ (v.2); and the One with whom Alton could envision walking forever (v.3).  Alton knew ‘His riches and blessings’ (v.3) while on earth, but certainly expected them to be but a shadow of what was to come. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t limit his enterprising spirit to just one thing among all that he did. None of those things would last forever, Alton would have said, including his own flesh and blood. They were just special things to develop himself and those around him. All that Alton developed and helped make better was wonderful, you might say…’marvelous, wonderful, and glorious’ were not foreign to Alton. He just became really good at imitating the source of those adjectives.           

 

See following links for information on the composer:

 

http://www.christianchronicle.org/article/songbook-publisher-entrepreneur-howard-dies-at-age-81?A=SearchResult&SearchID=2809510&ObjectID=4369268&ObjectType=35

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Books

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Hardy_Howard

 

See also “Our Garden of Song”, edited by Gene C. Finley, Howard Publishing Company, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1980.