Blest Is the Man

Text: Psalm 32:1-11, Acts 2:38, Galatians 2:16

It was the song Oliver heard us sing to him from the time he was born. As we tucked him into his crib, then his toddler bed, then his big-boy bed—I would quietly sing in his ear, “blest is the man, forever blest, whose guilt is pardoned by his God…”

Sometimes he wouldn’t mind. I think he really liked it. Other times, he would interrupt me with important toddler questions about dinosaurs or characters on “Thomas the Train.” But I think he grew to love, and even expect, his weepy mommy singing hymns in his room, stroking his hair as he fell asleep. I can just imagine him telling his four-year-old buddies:

It is what it is, you guys. My mom cries more at bedtime than I do.

Oliver is nine now. (Nine-and-a-half, if you’re asking him.) I don’t sing to him often anymore—something even better has happened as he’s grown into a small version of a man. Instead of lying in his toddler bed, wearing robot jammies while he listens to the hymn, he now stands next to me in church on Sunday mornings, holding the sheet music (usually already covered in pre-church doodles), probably wishing he were still wearing robot jammies. If I quiet my own singing, I can tune into his voice joined with our congregation as the words “and not on works but grace relies” now come from his own lips.

It’s a good moment. Not because I’m a perfect mom. Not because he’s a perfect kid. Oh man, you guys, we mess up all the time— especially on Sunday mornings. (I’ve always thought Sundays were the most sanctifying days of the week; not because of the sermons, but because of the hours leading up to the sermons. That’s straight-up refining fire, y’all.)

It’s not a good moment because we’re good. It’s a good moment because we’re not. So whether I’m singing these words to my my son or to myself, or if he’s singing them along with me, we’re just reminding ourselves and each other that we are guilty and we need God. And that the Savior already bled and covered all our days—even our Sunday mornings.

“Blest Is the Man” has been my prayer for the man God has given us to raise. Not just because Isaac Watts knew how to write a solid hymn, but because the lines of this hymn come straight from the pages of Scripture, through the pens of David and Paul and Luke and others. We pray this hymn in worship for our son, and for our daughter, and for ourselves, that though we fall short—though our unrighteousness is plenty—His righteousness pardons us in full.

While bright the evidence of grace
Thro’ all his life appears and shines!

Blest is the Man, Forever Blest
Isaac Watts, 1719

Blest is the man, forever blest,
Whose guilt is pardoned by his God,
Whose sins with sorrow are confessed
And covered with his Savior’s blood.

Blest is the man to whom the Lord
Imputes not his iniquities;
He pleads no merit of reward
And not on works but grace relies.

From guile his heart and lips are free;
His humble joy, his holy fear,
With deep repentance well agree
And join to prove his faith sincere.

How glorious is that righteousness
That hides and cancels all his sins,
While bright the evidence of grace
Thro’ all his life appears and shines!

For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns V! You can find the complete SRT/HRT Hymns V Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!