We know the Scripture Paul must have had in mind when he wrote this. “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

We can’t judge a man on surface level. It is said Paul had a very poor outward appearance but he had a fine mind and a good heart. The famous hymn writer Issac Watts was also a man who had a poor bodily presence. (Today is the anniversary of his death). Once when he proposed to a woman she replied, “Oh Mr. Watts, I only wish I could say that I admire the casket as much as I admire the jewel.”

From childhood Watts had an amazing gift for versifying. Once, during family prayers, he began to laugh. When asked by his father why, he answered that hearing a sound had caused him to open his eyes. When he did so he spotted a mouse climbing a rope. He told his father the verse that came into his head and which had made him laugh.

A little mouse for want of stairs
Ran up a rope to say its prayers.

His father was cross at this and was about to smack him when Issac shouted out,

Father, father, mercy take,
And I will no more verses make.

In a tea room Watts overheard someone contemptuously speak of his appearance. He turned to the man and with a smile said,

Were I so tall to reach the pole,
Or grasp the ocean with my span,
I must be measured by my soul;
The mind's the standard of the man.