The Presence of God worth dying for: Or, The Death of Moses

A favorite among Sacred Harp singers is the tune Minnesota. It incorporates 3 stanzas from the hymn “The Death of MOSES, Deut. xxxii. 49,50 and xxxiv. 5,6. Or The Enjoyment of GOD Worth Dying For” by Isaac Watts. The hymn was published in Horae Lyricae: Poems Chiefly of the Lyric kind, in Two Books (London: S. and D. Bridge, 1706, pp. 97-99).

This hymn extols the delight of seeing God, and faces the spectre of death that brings us there. Heaven is worth dying for! Watts weaves in the story of the death of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:48ff; 34:5-6) as the illustration of the noblest road to death and the sweetest grave in which to rest. “The kiss of death” is now an English idiom that refers to something that will cause certain failure or certain doom. Watts, however, accentuates death as the kiss of God which brings us into his presence.

Below the hymn appears as it is found in the 1709 “2nd Edition, Altered and Much Enlarged.” The title is altered to “The Presence of God worth dying for: Or, The Death of Moses,” and there are some minor alterations in the text. (Horae Lyricae: Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind, in Three Books (2nd Edition, Altered and Much Enlarged, London: J. Humfreys, 1709, Book I, pp. 148-149).  There are eight stanza in common meter.

1. Lord, ’tis an Infinite Delight
To see thy lovely Face,
To dwell whole Ages in thy Sight,
And feel thy vital Rays.

2. This Gabriel knows; and sings thy Name
With Rapture on his Tongue;
Moses the Saint enjoys the same,
And Heaven repeats the Song.

3. While the bright Nation sounds thy Praise
From each eternal Hill,
Sweet Odours of exhaling Grace
The happy Region fill.

4. Thy Love, a Sea without a Shore,
Spreads Life and Joy abroad:
O ’tis a Heaven worth dying for,
To see a smiling God.

5. Shew me thy face, and I’ll away
From all inferiour things;
Speak, Lord, and here I quit my Clay,
And stretch my airy Wings.

6. Sweet was the Journey to the Sky
And wondrous Prophet try’d;
Climb up the Mount, says God, and die;
The Prophet climb’d and died.

7. Softly his fainting Head he lay
Upon his Maker’s Breast’
His Maker kiss’d his Soul away,
And laid his Flesh to rest.

8. In God’s own Arms he left the Breath
That God’s own Spirit gave;
His was the noblest Road to Death,
And his the sweetest Grave.

Sacred Harp singer Stanley Smith of Ozark, Alabama wrote the tune Minnesota, choosing stanzas 1, 3, and 4 as his text, then adding a repeating chorus:

My blessed Lord,
My Savior and my King,
My ransomed soul will sing your praise
Through all eternity.

Stanley wrote this song in January 2004 and named the tune Minnesota because he “dedicated it to the Minnesota [Sacred Harp] singers.” It is published on page 210 in The Sacred Harp, Revised Cooper Edition, 2012. Select HERE to hear the song led by the composer at the 2019 East Texas Sacred Harp Convention.