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Is there ambition in my heart? Humility and submission

Isaac Watts's setting of Psalm 131, 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. 131

METRE

Common Metre 8.6.8.6 · 3 stanzas

WRITTEN ON

Psalm 131 the verse printed above it

The hymn, and the Scripture in it

All 3 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

3 echoes in 12 lines.

The psalm it sets

Watts made this hymn from Psalm 131, "in the language of the New Testament": a paraphrase, not a translation. The line that comes closest to it is marked.

1My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me. 2Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore. PSALM 131 · ITS FIRST VERSES · BEREAN STANDARD BIBLE READ PSALM 131

I charge my thoughts, be humble still, And all my carriage mild, Content, my Father, with thy will, And quiet as a child. STANZA II

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 131. Point at a tick to see the hymn; click it to open that hymn.

NO. 131 · ISAAC WATTS · THIS HYMN Is there ambition in my heart?

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