"When I Can Read My Title Clear" Hymn Story
Isaac Watts called the hymn “The Hope of Heaven Our Support
Under Trials on Earth.” That reassures us that the opening line is not intended
to cast doubt on the destiny of the child of God. It’s not as though Watts were
saying that he hasn’t been able to “read his title clear” as yet. Rather, it’s,
in effect, “Because I’m able to read my title clear in God’s Word, day by day…”
Throughout time God has used sacred music to convey truth
and provide a means of worship and witness. Countless times our hymns have
brought comfort in trials. “God…gives songs in the night” (Job 35:10). So it
was for missionaries Paul and Silas.
“When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them
into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such
a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the
stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:23-25).
An incident in the American Civil War shows again the power
of a hymn to inspire faith and lift the spirit. In the Battle of Shiloh, a
Christian captain was shot through both thighs and lay dying on the
battlefield, sodden by the falling rain. A little pool of muddy water formed
nearby, and he tried desperately to reach it, to quench his burning thirst, but
he was unable to. He said, “I never felt such disappointment before–so needy,
so near, and yet so helpless.”
As time wore on, the clouds cleared and the stars shone
brilliantly overhead. The wounded man says, “I began to think of the great God
who had given His Son to die a death of agony for me, and that He was up there,
above the scene of suffering, and above those glorious stars. I felt that I was
going home to meet Him, and praise Him there.”
This meditation stirred his heart to try and sing, through
parched lips, the present song:
Verse 1) When I can read my title clear to mansions in the
skies,
I bid farewell to every fear, and wipe my weeping eyes.
And wipe my weeping eyes, and wipe my weeping eyes
I bid farewell to every fear, and wipe my weeping eyes.
There was another soldier in the bush nearby who took up the
strain, and beyond him another, and another, all over the battlefield. They
made that place of suffering ring with hymns of praise to the Lord.
Isaac Watts’ original text in verse 2) spoke of Satan’s
“hellish darts.” This has been changed in most hymn books to “fiery darts,” in
keeping with Ephesians 6:16. In either case, the armour of God can protect us
from the devil’s malice. To see a detailed study of the Christian’s armour as
described in Ephesians, click on Christian Armour.
Verse 2) Should earth against my soul engage, and hellish
darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan’s rage, and face a frowning world.
And face a frowning world, and face a frowning world,
Then I can smile at Satan’s rage, and face a frowning world.
The third stanza seems to apply graphically to the soldiers
at Shiloh in their pain and desperate need. And what a metaphor for heavenly
blessing in verses4, “There shall I bathe my weary soul in seas of heav’nly
rest”!
Verse 3) Let cares, like a wild deluge come, and storms of
sorrow fall!
May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heav’n, my All.
My God, my heaven, my All, my God, my heave’, my All,
May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heaven, my All.
Verse 4) There shall I bathe my weary soul in seas of
heav’nly rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll, across my peaceful breast.
Across my peaceful breast, across my peaceful breast,
And not a wave of trouble roll, across my peaceful breast.
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