以撒·华兹（Isaac Watts，1674-1748）. Explore “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed”: song information and official sources.
Redeeming grace · Precious blood and cleansing
The hymn begins in astonishment that the Saviour bled for someone like me. The second stanza presses further: he bears the sins I committed. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.” Romans 5:8 establishes the order: “But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God did not wait for us to improve. Watts's original uses the biblical image of a worm's lowliness, as Psalm 22:6 says, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.” It expresses the distance between the sinner and the glorious Saviour. Many modern hymnals revise the word because it can sound like a denial of human created dignity. Explain that history, neither excusing away the original's difficulty nor dismissing it as a merely obsolete phrase.
Holy Week, Good Friday, Communion and confession; teaching on Isaiah 53.