Blessed is the man whose bowels move

That can be a blessing, even in the way you may now be thinking of it. However, when Isaac Watts wrote this hymn, the thought was perceived much differently, very positively. Those of us who use the King James Bible are likely more familiar with the contextual meaning of this expression than those who do not use it. In the days of Watts, it was understood that “bowels” referred to the deepest or innermost part, a quality that defines something at its very core, especially the seat of pity, tenderness, compassion courage, etc. “Bowels” is used which such intention probably a dozen times in the King James Bible. It still carries that meaning, but it not likely the first thought that enters the modern mind.

The psalm of four stanzas first appeared as a metrical setting of the first part of Psalm XLI, in 1719 in The Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Apply’d to the Christian State and Worship. The heading was “Charity to the Poor; or, Pity to the Afflicted.” Metrically, it is long meter.

In a note on Psalm XXXV (“Hark, how his sounding Bowells move”), the author, Isaac Watts, explained that “sounding of the Bowels is a Scriptural Metaphor, Isa. 63.15.” The changed primary meaning of the expression possibly helped doom the hymn to oblivion. The most recent setting of the hymn displayed on Hymnary.org is from 1909. Several options have been substituted for “bowels move” – “breast can move,” “heart doth move.” “heart-strings move,” “mercies move,” “passions move,” among others.

The hymn has seen limited use, which also means it has found no set tune companion with which it is generally associated. The Musical Olio of 1805 paired it with Banbury from the “T. Williams Collection.” Perhaps the hymn is the victim of the unfortunate change of emphasis in language. Or perhaps it just never was all that popular to begin with – seeing that revising the expression did not salvage it.

1. Blest is the man whose bowels move,
And melt with pity to the poor,
Whose soul by sympathizing love,
Feels what his fellow saints endure.

2. His heart contrives for their relief
More good than his own hands can do;
He in the time of general grief,
Shall find the Lord has bowels, too.

3, His soul shall live secure on earth,
With secret blessings on his head,
When drought, and pestilence and death
Around him multiply their dead.

4. Or if he languish on his couch,
God will pronounce his sins forgiv’n;
Will save him with a healing touch,
Or take his willing soul to Heav’n.