When hymn-writer Isaac Watts published his “Hymns and Spiritual Songs” in 1707 there were no organs installed in churches in the New England colonies! Issues surrounding instruments and music used in worship was controversial among the congregational churches of New England. New England ministers, instead, insisted that metrical “psalters” be used for congregational singing—primarily using the Bay Psalm Book! The preface to the Bay Psalm Book said: “the psalms are to be translated into our Engli

The words for one of the most beloved Christmas songs was actually written more to express God’s deliverance than Jesus’s birth. In 1719, Isaac Watts’s hymnal, "Psalms of David Imitated," was published as “an imitation of David’s Psalms in New Testament language.” | Museum of the Bible

Isaac Watts became one of the world’s most prolific hymn writers. Because of his father’s belief’s, Isaac was banned from attending Cambridge or Oxford. Instead, he attended an academy run by dissenters. | Museum of the Bible

Born July 27, 1674, in Southhampton, England, Isaac Watts became one of the world’s most prolific hymn writers. The eldest of nine children, Isaac shared his father’s love of books—learning Greek and Hebrew as a young man. He also had the “strongly held faith” of his father, a Dissenter from the Anglican Church. Because of his father’s beliefs, Isaac was banned from attending Cambridge or Oxford. Instead he attended an academy run by Dissenters. His years of language and Bible study led to his p