Hymn of the Week: When I Can Read My Title Clear

When I Can Read My Title Clear

Text. Isaac Watts
Tune PISGAH. Southern Harmony

When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear,
And wipe my weeping eyes.

[Refrain]
I'm goin' to trust in the Lord,
I'm goin' to trust in the Lord,
I'm goin' to trust in the Lord till I die:
I'm goin' to trust in the Lord,
I'm goin' to trust in the Lord,
I'm goin' to trust in the Lord till I die.

Should earth against my soul engage,
And fiery darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan's rage,
And face a frowning world. [Refrain]

Let cares like a wild deluge come,
Let storms of sorrow fall!
May I but safely reach my home:
My God, my heaven my all. [Refrain]

There shall I bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast. [Refrain]

This week’s hymn combines two different periods in hymn writing yet again. This week, we have another text by the 18th-century hymn writer, Isaac Watts and a 19th hymn tune entitled PISGAH originating in the mountains of North Carolina. Read below to discover their origins.

When I Can Read My Title Clear. I. Watts. [Assurance of Faith and Hope.] Appeared in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. It is headed "The Hopes of Heaven our Support under Trials on Earth." Its use in Great Britain and America is very extensive. The text has undergone several alterations at the hands of Bickersteth in his Psalms & Hymns, 1833; Elliott in his Psalms & Hymns, 1835, and others. The most important is Bickersteth's rendering of stanza 4

"There, anchor'd safe, my weary soul
Shall find eternal rest,
Nor storms shall beat, nor billows roll,
Nor fears assail my breast."

It is hard to see that this is an improvement upon Watts's original:—

"There shall I bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

The hymn tune PISGAH that you can hear in Mark Hayes’ stirring arrangement has an interesting beginning. For Bible scholars, we know the name PISGAH is associated with the mountain where God showed Moses the Promised Land. European settlers gave the name to a mountain in North Carolina, originally called Elsetoss by the Cherokee Native Americans.

The tune comes from this region of North Carolina and has become a part of the Southern Harmony or Shape Note Hymn tunes collection.

Hymn of the Week: July 25, 2022