We’re studying the Sermon on the Mount in a Sunday School class, and just working through the Beatitudes. Since one of the best ways to remember text is to sing it, I looked for a hymn text of the beatitudes, and found this, from Isaac Watts, written in the early 18th century, around 1710, give or take. The only thing to consider is a difference in common word usage now and then when you get to the fifth verse. What they referred to then in poetry as bowels we would say heart, having to do with tender mercies, affections, etc.
One of the Long Meter tunes that could be used with this song is that sung with “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”. Sing it out.
Bless’d are the humble souls that see
Their emptiness and poverty;
Treasures of grace to them are giv’n,
And crowns of joy laid up in heav’n.
Bless’d are the men of broken heart,
who mourn for sin with inward smart;
The blood of Christ divinely flows,
A healing balm for all their woes.
Bless’d are the meek, who stand afar
From rage and passion, noise and war
God will secure their happy state,
And plead their cause against the great.
Bless’d are the souls that thirst for grace,
Hunger and long for righteousness;
They shall be well supplied, and fed
With living streams and living bread.
Bless’d are the men whose bowels move
And melt with sympathy and love;
From Christ the Lord shall they obtain
Like sympathy and love again.
Bless’d are the pure, whose hearts are clean
From the defiling powers of sin;
With endless pleasure they shall see
A God of spotless purity.
Bless’d are the men of peaceful life,
Who quench the coals of growing strife;
They shall be call’d the heirs of bliss,
The sons of God, the God of peace.
Bless’d are the suff’rers who partake
Of pain and shame for Jesus’ sake;
Their souls shall triumph in the Lord;
Glory and joy are their reward.
Isaac Watts, from The Hymns and Psalms of Isaac Watts. Also found in Gadsby’s Hymns, #1112.