When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross is a hymn text. Found in CW21 407, CW93 125, ELH 308, elw 803. Sung to HAMBURG.
Hymnal Appearances
- Christian Worship: Hymnal — 407
- Christian Worship — 125
- Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary — 308
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 803
- Lutheran Book of Worship — 482
- Lutheran Service Book — 425
- Lutheran Worship — 114
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: Law reveals emptiness of worldly gain and pride; Gospel proclaims Christ's sacrificial love as sole worthy object of devotion; believer responds with total surrender of self and possessions
Background Research
Watts placed it in Book III of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), his hymns for the Lord's Supper: a Communion hymn, titled 'Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ' (Gal 6:14). In 1709 he changed line 2 (original: 'Where the young Prince of Glory died') and bracketed st. 4 as optional; most books drop it. Louis Benson called it the best of all Watts's hymns. RICHMOND was its usual tune before 1820; Lowell Mason's HAMBURG took over through Sankey's Gospel Hymns. The LSB study confirms Watts placed it among his Lord's Supper hymns rather than the Scripture paraphrases, with Gal 6:14 as its text.
Sources: Hymnology Archive; LCMS Worship, The Word in Song: Hymn of the Day Studies (study by David R. Schmitt). (The quoted 1707 wording of line 2 is unconfirmed.)
In the Church Year
Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book) for: Holy Wednesday
Suggested in the three-year series
- Lent 3 (3×)
- Lent 4 (2×)
- Lent 5 (2×)
- Epiphany 4 (1×)
- Epiphany 5 (1×)
- Good Friday (1×)
- Proper 18 (1×)
- Proper 8 (1×)
From LCMS Worship's published hymn suggestions, 2014–2026. The count is how many of those yearly lists suggested this hymn for that day.
Overview
Watts's meditation on Galatians 6:14 is often ranked among the finest hymns in English. Its method is contemplation: the singer 'surveys' the cross, and what he sees overturns his values. Every stanza measures something against the cross — gain, pride, boasting, the whole of creation — and finds it wanting. It ends not with a feeling but with a total claim: the cross 'demands my soul, my life, my all.'
Central theme: The cross revalues everything; boasting only in Christ crucified
Structure
Four quatrains: (1) the gaze and its effect on pride; (2) prayer against boasting; (3) contemplation of the wounds; (4) the impossibility of an adequate response. Watts's original had a fifth stanza (originally fourth) on Christ's blood as a robe covering the body; TLH and most hymnals omit it.
Law & Gospel Shape
Not a Law-Gospel narrative but a response hymn. The 'Law' element is the stripping of pride (st. 1-2); the Gospel is the love flowing from the cross (st. 3). St. 4 describes faith's response, which is never repayment.
Confessional Connections
'Christ, my God' and 'Prince of glory' confess Christ's full divinity at the cross (communication of attributes, FC VIII). St. 4 should be taught carefully: total self-giving is the fruit of faith, not a condition for grace (AC VI, XX).
Liturgical Use (Study Notes)
Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday; Holy Cross Day (Sept 14); communion hymn; Lent 2 or wherever Galatians 6 or Philippians 3 is read.
Historical Notes
Published in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), intended for the Lord's Supper. Watts's first edition read 'Where the young Prince of Glory died'; the familiar line came in the 1709 edition.
About the Tune
HAMBURG (Lowell Mason, 1824, built on a chant-like range) suits the quiet contemplative tone; ROCKINGHAM OLD is the British favorite.
Scripture References
Gal 6:14 Phil 3:7-8 1 Cor 2:2 1 Cor 2:8 John 19:2, 34 Rom 12:1
Stanza by Stanza
Looking at the cross where the Prince of glory died, the singer counts his greatest gains as loss and scorns his own pride.
'Survey' means to look over carefully, as a surveyor measures land — the hymn is a deliberate act of contemplation. 'The Prince of glory' (1 Cor 2:8, 'they crucified the Lord of glory') confesses that the one who died is divine; Lutherans read this through the communication of attributes. Lines 3-4 paraphrase Phil 3:7-8: Paul's credentials, gains in the world's eyes, become 'loss' compared with knowing Christ. The cross works as a revaluation of values. 'Pour contempt on all my pride' is the Law's work of humbling — not self-hatred, but a true estimate of one's own worth before God.
- Scripture
- Phil 3:7-8, 1 Cor 2:8, Gal 6:14, Isa 2:11
- Imagery & language
- Surveying land; ledger of gain and loss; contempt poured out.
- Law / Gospel
- Law (humbling) prompted by the Gospel (the cross itself).
- Connection to previous
- Opening contemplation.
A prayer that the singer will boast only in Christ's death, and that he will sacrifice to that blood all the empty things that harm him.
Almost a direct quotation of Gal 6:14 ('far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ'). The shift from description to prayer ('Forbid it, Lord') concedes that the singer cannot overcome pride on his own; even humility must be asked for. 'Christ, my God' is a deliberate confession of deity at the moment of death. 'I sacrifice them to His blood' inverts sacrificial language: the believer offers nothing to earn grace, only lays down the 'vain things' that compete with Christ. Theologically this is repentance — turning away from idols.
- Scripture
- Gal 6:14, 1 Cor 1:29-31, Jer 9:23-24, 1 John 2:15-17
- Imagery & language
- Boasting; sacrifice on an altar of blood.
- Law / Gospel
- Repentance — prayer for help against pride.
- Connection to previous
- Turns st. 1's observation into prayer.
The singer points to the wounds of Christ, from which sorrow and love flow together, and asks whether love and sorrow have ever met like this, or thorns ever made so rich a crown.
The imperative 'See' invites the congregation to look with the singer. The head, hands, and feet recall the crown of thorns and the nails (John 19:2; 20:25-27). 'Sorrow and love flow mingled down' is the central image of the hymn: the blood is both grief and gift. Some interpreters hear an echo of the blood and water from Christ's side (John 19:34), which the church has long linked to Baptism and the Supper. The final question — 'Or thorns compose so rich a crown?' — is the theology of the cross in miniature: God's glory is revealed under its opposite, in shame and weakness (1 Cor 1:18-25). The mocking crown is the truest royal crown.
- Scripture
- John 19:2-5, John 19:34, John 20:25-27, 1 Cor 1:18-25, Isa 53:3-5
- Imagery & language
- Flowing blood; mingling streams; crown of thorns as royal crown.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel — love revealed in suffering.
- Connection to previous
- Moves from the singer's self-examination to Christ himself.
Even owning all creation would be too small a gift; a love so amazing claims the singer's soul, life, and everything.
The hymn ends by measuring the whole universe against the cross and finding it 'far too small.' This is not a bargain — the point is that nothing could ever repay such love, so the only fitting response is the gift of self (Rom 12:1; 2 Cor 5:14-15). In Lutheran terms the line 'Demands my soul, my life, my all' describes the claim of love on the redeemed, not a condition the singer must meet to be saved; good works follow faith as fruit (AC VI). Sung honestly, the stanza also convicts: no one actually gives 'my all,' which drives the singer back to the cross of st. 1-3.
- Scripture
- Rom 12:1, 2 Cor 5:14-15, Ps 50:10-12, Mark 12:30, 1 John 4:19
- Imagery & language
- Tribute or tax owed to a king; ownership of creation.
- Law / Gospel
- Response of faith; third-use Law (the claim of love).
- Connection to previous
- Concludes the measuring of values begun in st. 1.