Show pity, Lord

A popular hymn in our Sacred Harp book is “Show Pity, Lord” sung to the tune Cusseta by John Massengale (No. 73a). Isaac Watts (1674-1748) wrote the words, which apparently first appeared in 1719 in The Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Apply’d to the Christian State and Worship, (London: Printed for J. Clark, R. Ford, and R. Cruttenden, 1719). It is a long meter hymn, the first part of his rendition of Psalm 51, headed “A Penitent Pleading for Pardon.”[i] 

Psalm LI First Part. Long Metre.
A Penitent Pleading for Pardon.

1. Shew pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive,
Let a repenting rebel live:
Are not thy mercies large and free?
May not a sinner trust in thee?

 

2. My crimes are great, but not surpass
The power and glory of thy grace:
Great God, thy nature hath no bound,
So let thy pard’ning love be found.

3. O wash my soul from every sin,
And make my guilty conscience clean;
Here on my heart the burden lies,
And past offences pain my eyes.
 

4. My lips with shame my sins confess
Against thy law, against thy grace:
Lord, should thy judgment grow severe,
I am condemned, but thou art clear.
 
5. Should sudden vengeance seize my breath,
I must pronounce thee just in death;
And if my soul were sent to hell,
Thy righteous law approves it well.
 
6. Yet save a trembling sinner, Lord,
Whose hope, still hov’ring round thy word,
Would light on some sweet promise there,
Some sure support against despair.

In addition to singing this in The Sacred Harp, one of our church books (Favorite Songs and Hymns) attached these words to two different tunes that I enjoy. The first was with an arrangement of the tune Devotion (song 213). This version used four stanzas from Watts – numbers 1, 2, 5, 6 above – and attaches a stanza that Charles Wesley wrote, as a recurring chorus:

O depth of mercy! can it be
That mercy’s still reserved for me?
Ah, can my God his wrath forbear,
And me the chief of sinners spare?[ii]

 

The other song (number 220) is Will the Waters Be Chilly? This is a camp meeting tune, taking couplets from Watts’s psalm with an interrupting refrain, and then adding a recurring chorus: 

1. Show pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive,
Prepare me, Lord, to die.
Let a repenting rebel live,
Prepare me, Lord, to die.

Refrain (after each stanza):
Will the waters by chilly?
Will the waters by chilly?
Will the waters by chilly?
When I am called to die.

2. Are not Thy mercies large and free?
Prepare me, Lord, to die.
May not a sinner trust in Thee?
Prepare me, Lord, to die.

3. My sins are great, but don’t surpass,
Prepare me, Lord, to die.
The pow’r and glory of Thy grace,
Prepare me, Lord, to die.

4. Here on my heart the burden lies,
Prepare me, Lord, to die.
And past offences pain mine eyes,
Prepare me, Lord, to die.

(The fourth stanza of Will the Waters Be Chilly is from the last two lines of Watts’s stanza 2.)

The following is an interesting hymn on Psalm 51, with some similarities. According to Hymnary.org, Erhart Hegenwalt wrote it in German in 1524, and Johann Christian Jacobi translated it into English circa 1722, borrowing some lines from Watts.

I. Shew Pity, LORD! O LORD, forgive!
Is not thy Mercy still the same?
Let a repenting Sinner live:
Pardon his Guilt who owns his Shame.
If Thou thy Judgments should’st display;
I die; and Righteous is thy Name.
But, O my God, thy Judgments stay;
For I confess my Sin and Shame.

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[i] The Second Part of Psalm 51 begins with the first line, “Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin,” and the Third Part with “O thou that hearest when sinners cry.” 

[ii] The arrangement changes Wesley’s original 7s. meter “Desiring Mercy and Pardon, After a Relapse into Sin, “1740, to Long Meter: Depth of mercy can there be, mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners spare?