STUDY / LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE / HYMNS

Thus saith the Lord, Your work is vain Psalm 40 Part 2

Isaac Watts's setting of Psalm 40:6–9, printed in 1719 in The Psalms of David Imitated, where he set the psalms "in the language of the New Testament".

WRITTEN BY

Isaac Watts 1674–1748

PRINTED

1719 The Psalms of David Imitated · no. 2

METRE

Common Metre 8.6.8.6 · 8 stanzas

WRITTEN ON

Psalm 40:6–9 the verse printed above it

The hymn, and the Scripture in it

All 8 stanzas as Watts printed them, with the verses their lines echo beside them. Point at a line to join it to its verse; click to read the passage.

SHARED WORDSthe verse shares the line's wording ECHOproposed by an AI model, confirmed by a separate check Not the author's own notes

AMONG THE SCRIPTURES

The stanzas at the centre; around them, every book its heading and its echoes come from, Old Testament on the left and New on the right. Choose a stanza or a book.

a line echoes this verse its heading or an echo comes from here

STANZA I

Thus saith the Lord, "Your work is vain

Give your burnt-offerings o'er;

In dying goats, and bullocks slain,

My soul delights no more."

The psalm it sets

Watts made this hymn from Psalm 40:6–9, "in the language of the New Testament": a paraphrase, not a translation. The line that comes closest to it is marked.

6Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. 7Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll: 8I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.” 9I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know. PSALM 40:6–9 · BEREAN STANDARD BIBLE READ PSALM 40

"Thy law is ever in my sight, I keep it near my heart; Mine ears are opened with delight To what thy lips impart." STANZA III

Its place in the book

Watts's psalms run from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150, several settings to many psalms: 367 hymns. This is number 2. Point at a tick to see the hymn; click it to open that hymn.

NO. 2 · ISAAC WATTS · THIS HYMN Thus saith the Lord, Your work is vain

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