O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing
Charles Wesley is one of the all time great hymnwriters. These words were inspired by the man who led him to true faith in Christ - although he'd already been an ordained minister for years!
Well, it's about time that I do a Wesley hymn! I grew up in the Methodist Church. I'm now part of the Church of the Nazarene, and both denominations look to the Wesleys as their spiritual forefathers. I don't know why I haven't done one yet. Charles Wesley is one of the all-time greats when it comes to hymns, and today I want to look at one of His amazing hymns.
You know, strangely enough, I never really knew this song. We didn't sing it when I was growing up, and even lately I haven't sung it in church except once. I had to learn it to sing it—I chose it for a service and had to learn it to be able to lead it. Since then, I've really grown to enjoy these amazing words. Let's see where they come from. This is "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
The Story Behind "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"
Charles Wesley is a giant in the world of hymns and hymn writing. He is said to have written 6,500 poems or hymns—that's crazy! Many scholars have said that only Isaac Watts, whom we spoke about in "The Joy to the World" video, can compare to Wesley, at least in terms of hymn-writing ability.
Charles Wesley was born in Epworth, England, on 18th December 1707. His father was a minister, and he was educated at Oxford, where he and his brother became tutors there and started a little group that became known as the Methodists. They were called that because they were so methodical and strict in their spiritual practices that people thought they were a little quirky for being so committed, and they were called the Methodists.
Charles was ordained in 1735 as a priest in the Anglican church, and soon after, he and his brother John went to America on a mission trip. They wanted to convert the Native Americans to the faith. Long story short, it all went wrong for them over there, and they both came back quite dejected, wondering what it was that God wanted from them.
But amazing things were about to happen in both Charles and John Wesley's lives. You see, both of them had grown up believing that they had to work to earn God's approval—that if they just did enough good, God would look on them with His approval because of their works. Both of them lived in fear and terror that God was hating them until they'd finally earned His love by what they'd done.
When they arrived back in England, both brothers were changed by God's grace in two amazing encounters. John Wesley famously had his heart strangely warmed at a place called Aldersgate and came to know that he was accepted by God as he was. It changed the world, actually, because Wesley then went on to create a huge movement which is still going strong today.
Charles, the poet whom we're talking about today, also had an amazing conversion. He was very sick—so sick that it seemed that he wasn't actually going to survive. His friend, one of the other missionaries from the German Moravian Christian group, was spending some time with him at his bedside. This man, whose name was Peter Böhler, asked him as he sat next to his bed, "Do you hope to be saved?"
Charles answered, "Yes."
Böhler said, "On what grounds do you have that hope?"
Charles said, "Because I've tried to serve God. Because I've done everything I could to serve God."
His friend just shook his head, and Charles's hopes were shattered. How could he be made right with God, he asked, if all his efforts hadn't done that?
His friend explained to him that it was by grace and grace alone that we are saved—that all we have to do is place our faith in Christ, and He graciously gives us the gift of salvation. Not by what we've done, not showing God all of our good works and saying, "Please love me," but just coming to Him as we are and having faith that He loves us. That is how we are saved.
Charles Wesley's life was changed forever as he learned that he was accepted by God as he was. He survived this illness, and a year later he sat down and he wrote this poem—which was 19 verses long—to commemorate a year of being truly saved by grace. Let's have a look at the words.
What Do the Lyrics of "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" Mean?
As I said, this poem is 19 verses long, but we're only going to look at five of the verses. The first verse of the poem is now usually sung at the end, so we're going to look at that now. When John Wesley was putting together a hymnal for the Methodist people, he looked at his brother Charles's poem and sort of trimmed it down so that it could be sung and not take up too much time. He decided to start with verse 7, which we know as verse 1, and especially we know the opening line.
Verse 1
It goes like this:
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!
Beautiful, beautiful verse! This famous line that starts it was inspired by a sentence spoken by Peter Böhler, the man who led Charles Wesley to true faith in Christ. Apparently, Böhler said to him, "If I had a thousand tongues, I would praise God with all of them."
That really stuck with him, and so he wrote, "O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise." If only I had more opportunity and more means to just worship and worship and worship, because I feel like the worship I give Him is inadequate.
I love this because this is our purpose as Christians—it's to praise Him and to worship Him and to give Him glory, to marvel at the glories that God has shown us.
The triumphs of His grace—I love it! His grace has saved us, His grace is what makes us new, His grace is what gives us power in this life. We live triumphantly in this life and in the next life because of His grace. We sing His praise because of this. What a beautiful verse!
Verse 2
Verse 2 says this:
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honours of Your name.
This is a great verse about being an evangelist. Wesley here is so overcome with joy that God has saved him that he says, "Assist me, Lord. Help me to proclaim and spread the good news all throughout the earth."
I love that! Isn't that something that you and I are called to do as well? We've received His love, and now we've got to proclaim it and spread it—spread the honour of His name wherever we go. I think it's wise that Wesley is asking for God's assistance here. "Assist me to do this," because we can't do it alone. We try to do it alone with our own wisdom, and we just fail. But with God's help, we can share the good news. We can spread it among the peoples.
Verse 3
Verse 3 is beautiful:
Jesus! The name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease
'Tis music in the sinner's ears,
'Tis life and health and peace.
Lovely words, lovely words!
Jesus! The name that charms our fears.
"Charms" almost sounds magical, you know, like as if He waves His wand and our fears are calmed. Of course, God doesn't do magic—it's His real power within Himself to do this. But that's what He does. We come to God with our fears, and at the name of Jesus, our fears are calmed.
Our sorrows cease. As we spend time with Him, God is a God who, even though we go through sorrows, helps us through them so that we can be past them and we can live in joy.
Then he says it's music in the sinner's ears. People like you and me can have music in our ears, can rejoice because of this amazing name of Jesus. Just the name is like a melody to us. We just hear His name, and it sets our hearts singing.
'Tis life and health and peace, he says.
The name of Jesus is everything to us. Is this true for you? Does the name of Jesus excite you and make your spirits soar? Oh, it upsets me that somehow the name of Jesus has been tarnished in the world. It's used as a swear word and so on. It shouldn't be! The name of Jesus is the name above all names, and it's the name that brings life into our hearts.
Let the name of Jesus calm your fears and bring life and health and peace to you today as you just hold on to it with all your heart.
Verse 4
Then verse 4 is an important one because it's very Wesley in its theology. It says:
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me.
Ah, this is a great verse—very powerful and very important in Wesleyan theology and thinking. For Wesley, and especially John Wesley in his writings, he wrote a lot about how God not only forgives us but sets us free from sin, empowers us to live sanctified and holy lives. This verse sums it up beautifully.
He breaks the power of cancelled sin.
He doesn't just cancel our sin and then have us go on living in sin. No! He breaks the power of that sin.
He sets the prisoners free. We don't need to walk in chains because our sins hold us. We can walk in freedom because His blood and His power has cleansed us and set us free.
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me.
I love this! He's getting personal here. For me, the blood of Christ washed me clean and can do the same for the foulest person. His blood availed for me—His blood helped me, His blood worked for me. It's been effective in my life.
Have you been cleansed by the blood of Christ and empowered and freed by the blood of Christ? Place your faith in Him today that He not only forgives you but He frees you from your old life of sin and shame.
What a verse! Look at it again and take it in because it's great:
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me.
Amen to that!
Verse 5
Then comes verse 5, which, as I said, is actually the first verse of Wesley's poem, but the one that we normally close with when we sing it today. It's just a verse of praise to God:
To God all glory, praise, and love
Be now and ever given
By saints below and saints above,
The Church in earth and heaven.
Yes! This is what we on earth do. Because of all that He's done for us, we give Him glory, praise, and love now and always. I love this picture of us joining in with the saints in heaven who are gathered around the throne worshipping. We do the same because of what He's done.
Glory to God for these amazing words from Wesley, and I hope you'll join me as we sing them now.
Conclusion
Now, when it comes to performing the song, there are two ways to do it—two famous tunes that are associated with this song. The British way, and the South African way too, is to use the Lyngham tune. I've arranged it for solo voice rather, because the original is written for choir, and there are four voices coming in and out all over the place with harmonies. It's beautiful—go and look it up on YouTube! But I wanted to try to do it just by myself on the piano, and hope you'll sing along.
The second way to sing this song is the American one, which is the Azmon melody—very beautiful. This is the one that I actually sang when we were singing it in church not so long ago. But as I said, here in South Africa, turns out the other one is more popular. But I love this version as well! Sing along and let me know down below which one you prefer. Do you prefer the British one or the American one? Which one works better for you?
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