How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be
clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?
Recently as I read this portion of scripture from Job 25:4-6, it reminded me how well the hymn writer Isaac Watts knew the Bible. As he wrote the words to the hymn "At the Cross", the first stanza begins with these words:
Alas! and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sov'reign die,Would He devote that sacred head, For such a worm as I?
Isaac Watts lived from 1674-1748 and wrote about 750 hymns. Many including this hymn have become a standard in every hymnal, no matter what denomination. But times are changing and as recently as 1986 the publishers of hymns started changing words. In 1986, Word, Inc. published "The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration". If you read the words to this hymn on page 188, the first line now ends in the phrase, "for sinners such as I." I checked all of my hymnals from earlier years- Inspiring Hymns, Great Hymns of the Faith, All American Hymnal, Broadman Hymnal, even an old copy of the Methodist Hymnal - and they all read the same, "for such a worm as I." I suppose some newer version will be changing the last line to read "for others such as I," or something less offensive. You can read the words and listen to "At the Cross" at hymnal.net
We have sung that song for choir, and they had the words "for sinners such as I"... no one in choir was used to that and no one liked it, so we changed it back to worm! :)
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