31 Days of Hymns - Day 10

Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed

This enduring hymn showing our great need and gratitude for a savior was written over 300 years by Issac Watts. Through the years it has been sung to many melodies with lyric variations and in some versions with additional lyrics by other writers.

Here are several:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iphQddrDmtk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sB--oTlLAM

Altered version but so beautiful, so worth listening to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PyDYRXKswY

 Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

[Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine
The glorious Suff'rer stood!]

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When God, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature's sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne'er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
'Tis all that I can do.



Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, The #II.9


More contemporary version:

Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
for sinners such as I.


Was it for crimes that I have done,
he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!


Well might the sun in darkness hide,
and shut its glories in,
when God, the mighty maker, died
for his own creature's sin.


Thus might I hide my blushing face
while his dear cross appears;
dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
and melt mine eyes to tears.


 But drops of tears can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
'tis all that I can do.


Learn more about this hymn here:
http://www.hymnary.org/text/alas_and_did_my_savior_bleed