Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed

1 Alas! and did my Savior bleed!
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

[2 Thy body slain sweet Jesus thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine
The glorious Sufferer stood!]

3 Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

4 Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When God the mighty Maker, died
For man the creature's sin.

5 Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

6 But drops of grief can ne'er repay
The debt of love we owe;
Here, Lord, I give my self away;
'Tis all that I can do.

The Christian's duty, exhibited in a series of hymns, 1791

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Scripture References:
st. 2 = Mark 15:34
st. 3 = Mark 15:33

Written by Isaac Watts (PHH 155) in six stanzas, this text was published in Watts' Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1707. The final line in stanza 1 originally read, "for such a worm as I."

Watts' original heading for the text, "Godly sorrow arising from the suffering of Christ," fits stanzas 1-3 well. Stanza 3 contains the profound paradox of God the creator dying for the sin of human creatures: "Christ, the mighty Maker, died for his own creatures' sin." Stanza 4 moves from penitent sorrow to gratitude and tears of joy.

Liturgical Use:
Holy Week; with sermons on atonement and redemption.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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Alas! and did my Saviour bleed. I. Watts. [Passiontide.] First published in the first edition of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, and again in the enlarged edition of the same 1709, Bk. ii., No. 9,in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Godly sorrow arising from the Sufferings of Christ." At a very early date it passed into common use outside of the religious body with which Watts was associated. It is found in many modern collections in Great Britain, but its most extensive use is in America. Usually the second stanza, marked in the original to be left out in singing if desired, is omitted, both in the early and modern collections.
A slightly altered version of this hymn, with the omission of stanza ii., was rendered into Latin by the Rev. R. Bingham, as "Anne fundens sanguinem," was included in his Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, pp. 245-247.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)