Preparing The Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship by Isaac Watts for publication has been an educational experience. As I have learned more about Watts, his influence, and his thinking, I have come to understand that this book is not only a songbook but also an important part of history. Without Isaac Watts and this book, the Protestant Church would be far different today. In this preface, I will attempt to convey the historical setting of and thinking behind this psalter.
The Historical Setting
Isaac Watts was born in 1674 and died in 1748 at the age of 74. In 1534 during the Reformation the Church of England seceded from the Catholic Church. The newly created Church of England, or Anglican Church, was an established church supported by the government and consequently different from any American church today. During the 1600s and 1700s many English Protestants were opposed to Catholicism but felt that the established church, although Protestant, was in serious error or believed that the church should be independent of the state. The people holding these beliefs were called Dissenters, Separatists, or Non-Conformists. They contained many subgroups including Congregationalists, Quakers, Levelers, Puritans, Baptists, Anabaptists, and Presbyterians. (Presbyterians were the established church in Scotland, but in England they were Dissenters.)
The English Civil Wars between the Anglican King Charles I and the Puritan Parliament lasted from 1642 until 1651, and the related Westminster Assembly convened from 1643 until 1653. The Puritans controlled England until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 at which time Anglicanism was reimposed and the Act of Uniformity in 1662 required all clergy to be ordained by the Church of England. The dissenters were legally excluded from full participation in civil and political life and sporadically persecuted after the restoration. Isaac Watts was born under these circumstances. When Isaac Watts was 14 years old in 1688 King William III of the Netherlands came to power in the Glorious Revolution. The subsequent Toleration Act of 1689 then legalized the religious dissenters.
Isaac Watts was a congregationalist dissenter like his father. He would have liked to carry out his studies at Oxford or Cambridge but couldn’t because of his dissenting views. Instead, he attended Stoke Newington, a dissenter school. The English church had been experiencing major changes for over 100 years, so this was a time when revolutionary change was possible. Isaac Watts decided to challenge the musical practices of the church and ended up revolutionizing its practices.
Key Theological Viewpoints
Learning a few theological positions will make it easier to understand Watts and his opposition. First are two opposing principles for planning church services.
- The Regulative Principle holds that scripture gives specific instructions for conducting corporate worship services. It follows that churches must obey these instructions doing everything that is commanded and not doing anything that is not commanded. Under the regulative principle, the objective of a church is to conform as closely as possible to God’s instructions when planning worship services.
- The Normative Principle holds that anything not expressly forbidden in scripture is allowed in corporate worship services. It follows that churches are free to do whatever they think is best as long as it does not violate Biblical commands. Under the normative principle, the objective of a church is to stay within scriptural bounds while adapting to its circumstances.
A second pair of conflicting views are confessionalism and pietism.
- Pietism emphasizes heart religion and a personal experience with God. It stresses our experience and vibrant devotion. Revivals are pietistic. Pietism focuses on the individual believer and tries to lead him to a personal experience with God.
- Confessionalism emphasizes doctrinal orthodoxy. It stresses following all of God’s instructions as faithfully as possible. This leads to creeds and confessions where our understanding of scripture is clearly laid out because it is essential for the church to precisely know God’s commands in order for it to follow them closely. Confessionalism focuses on the body of believers as opposed to the individual.
A final theological position is “exclusive psalmody.” This is the belief that, due to the regulative principle, only the psalms should be sung in public worship. This position is only held by small pockets of the Church today, but at the time of Issac Watts, it was the dominant position. Watts was the biggest or one of the biggest reasons that it is no longer a widely held position.
These opposing viewpoints exist on a spectrum with most people sitting somewhere in the middle between the two positions. Issac Watts’ work shifted the church from the Regulative Principle toward the Normative Principle, from Confessionalism toward Pietism, and away from exclusive psalmody.
The Progression of Psalters and Hymnals
There was no shortage of metrical psalters when Watts arrived on the scene. The first major metrical psalter was the French Strasbourg Psalter published by Calvin in 1539 which developed into the complete Genevan Psalter by 1562. The English living in Geneva would have sung psalms in English. The first English Psalter was the “Old Version” by Sternhold and Hopkins published in 1562 and was similar to the Genevan Psalter. In 1640 the Bay Psalter from Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first book published in English-speaking America. This was followed in 1650 by the Scottish Metrical Psalter. Finally, the “New Version” by Brady and Tate was published in 1696 when Watts was 22 years old. Each of these psalm books was widely used by the Church.
There were many other lesser known psalters produced such as the 1612 Ainsworth Psalter used by the Pilgrims and the 1718 Psalterium Americanum published by Cotton Mather. Several English poets wrote metrical versions of the psalms which could be sung. Isaac Watts mentions reviewing over twenty metrical psalters when considering whether or not to write his own psalm book.
Watts published Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1707 when he was 33 years old. This book contained hymns (written by man) instead of psalms (authored by God). Earlier writers had composed hymns in English, but Hymns and Spiritual Songs was the first hymnal to enter widespread use. In this work Watts was pushing against exclusive psalmody.
Watts then published The Psalms of David in 1719 when he was 45 years old. In contrast to previous psalters, Watts’ did not directly translate the psalms but paraphrased and edited them. He believed that the psalms, as written, needed modification to be suitable for singing by modern Christians. Whereas previous psalters had attempted to translate the psalms into meter from the original Hebrew as accurately as possible, Watts tried to translate them in a way that would resonate with the people of his day. This was a push toward pietism and away from confessionalism. Watts was trying to create the right feelings within individual worshipers rather than precisely communicating the words of God.
Hymnody and paraphrasing were controversial, so Issac Watts sought to defend his methodology. Three essays have been included in this psalter to help the reader understand Isaac Watts and his musical battles.
- “The Life of Isaac Watts” by Dr. Samuel Johnson is an excerpt from Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. It is a biography of Watts that will help you understand the life and personality of this man.
- “A Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody” by Isaac Watts appeared as a preface in the first edition (1707) of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. It defends the practice of using hymns instead of psalms.
- The Preface to the first edition (1719) of The Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Applied to the Christian State and Worship was written by Isaac Watts to defend his practice of paraphrasing the psalms instead of using a direct translation.
These essays have been modified from the original to increase readability: some long paragraphs have been broken into bullet points, spellings have been updated, excessive capitalization has been removed, and headings have been added. These essays provide an understanding of the thinking that went into composing these psalm arrangements and will help you understand the significance of this book.
Benjamin Leonard
January 2024
150 Songs 