Isaac Watts composed over 600 hymns, including “Joy to the World,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” and “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Today Isaac Watts is rightfully known as the “Father of English Hymnody.”
Watts lived at a time when it was considered an insult to God to sing any words that were not directly from the Bible. That’s why the hymns Watts and others wrote were paraphrases of the Psalms.
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” is a paraphrase of Psalm 90. Psalm 90 is the only psalm of Moses in the psalter. The other psalms of Moses are recorded in Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 32 and 33. Psalm 90 focuses on death as a judgment upon sin, but it also points to the Lord as the one whose power extends beyond death. For this reason, Psalm 90 is one of the psalms most frequently heard at funerals.
For this devotion, verses of Psalm 90 will be read, along with corresponding notes from the EHV Study Bible, followed then wih the words of “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”
“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity you are God” (Psalm 90:1-2).
The opening verses of the psalm briefly proclaim the eternity of God so that it may be contrasted with the mortality of mankind. The psalmist is not interested in a philosophical discussion of God’s eternity, but in the practical application of God’s eternity for us. Since God is immortal and eternal, he can be a dwelling place for his people throughout all generations.
Verse one: O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home:
Verse two: Under the shadow of your throne your saints have dwelt secure; sufficient is your arm alone, and our defense is sure.
Verse three: Before the hills in order stood or earth received its frame, from everlasting you are God, to endless years the same.
“You grind people to dust, and you say, ‘Return, children of Adam.’ For a thousand years in your sight are like a day, like yesterday that has gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).
God’s eternity is not just endless time but independence from time. For God “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Though we suffer change and decay, God remains unchanged. Before the earth was created, as long as it endures, and after it is gone, God is always the same.
Verse four: A thousand ages in your sight are like an evening gone, short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun.
“You sweep them away like a flood. They are like sleep in the morning, like grass which changes quickly. In the morning it sprouts and grows. By evening it is cut down, and it withers” (Psalm 90:5-6).
This psalm is not concerned only with man’s mortality but with the cause of that mortality. The real cause of death is not natural weakness, sickness, or human violence. All of these may be secondary causes, but the real cause of death is God’s judgment against sin.
Verse five: Time, like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away; we fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the op’ning day.
“The days of our lives add up to seventy years, or eighty years if we are strong. Yet the best of them are trouble and sorrow, for they disappear quickly, and we fly away. … Teach us to number our days in such a way that we bring a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:10, 12).
The sorrows and difficulties that sin has introduced into the world fill the whole span of human life. For those with spiritual insight, the evils of life are a daily reminder of the seriousness of sin and the greatness of God’s anger against sin. The only solution to sin and death is God’s grace. Since we have only one life and that one life is short, we should use it to gain the wisdom that comes from God so that we will be ready to appear before him. That wisdom is the message of the gospel, through which we gain forgiveness of sins and salvation (1 Corinthians 1:18–2:14).
Verse six: O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, still be our guard while troubles last and our eternal home!