- Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 24, 2023
“Jesus, I will Ponder Now”
This favorite and historic Lenten hymn written by Sigismund von Birken (1626-81) first appeared in print in 1663. It’s 6 verses remain virtually unchanged for the last 360 years. The first verse is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to help the singer meditate or ponder on the Passion of Christ. This is according to His own promise: “but when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about Me” [John 15:26]. Verse 2 proceeds to review the facts of the Passion: the great distress, anguish, and affliction, the scourging, the nails, the crown of thorns, His vicarious death [Isaiah 53]. Verse 3 is the theological interpretation: it identifies the sin of the world as the cause of Christ’s Passion [Romans 4:25]. The last three verses are a prayer for Christ’s Passion to have it’s proper effect as a help in fighting against sin, overcoming the grieving conscience, and enduring suffering with a thankful heart.Jesus, I will ponder now on Your holy passion;
With Your Spirit me endow for such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith may the image cherish
Of Your suff’ring, pain, and death that I may not perish.LSB 440
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 23, 2023 “O Dearest Jesus, What Law Hast Thou Broken” O dearest Jesus, what law hast Thou brokenThat such sharp sentence should on Thee be spoken?Of what great crime hast Thou to make confession,What dark transgression? LSB 439
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 22, 2023 “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” A lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners bearing and,Laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing;Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, to slaughter led without complaint,The spotless life to offer, He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies,The mockery, and yet […]
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 21, 2023 “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed” When Isaac Watts (1674-1748) published this hymn, he placed in the section of his book titled “composed on Divine Subjects”. Within this section, he assumed that one would sing and read one after another, thus learning the entire message of Christ’s Gospel.This hymn was published in […]
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 20, 2023 “Go to Dark Gethsemane” The author of this hymn, James Montgomery (1771-1854), is a declining star in the world of English hymn writers. During his lifetime, he wrote approximately 400 sacred lyrics, and fourteen of them made it into our Lutheran Hymnals. Among them, are “Angels from the Realms of Glory”, “Hail […]
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 17, 2023 “Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain” Come to Calvary’s holy mountain, sinners, ruined by the fall;Here a pure and healing fountain flows for you, for me, for all,In a full, perpetual tide, opened when our Savior died. LSB 435
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 16, 2023 “Lamb of God, Pure and Holy” Lamb of God, pure and holy, who on the cross didst suffer,Ever patient and lowly, Thyself to scorn didst offer.All sins Thou borest for us, else had despair reigned o’er us:Have mercy on us, 0 Jesus! O, Jesus! LSB 434
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 15, 2023 “Glory be to Jesus” This hymn, so essential to the keeping of a Holy Lent within the Missouri Synod, emerges from a strong Italian Catholic root. The hymn was brought to protestant attention through a nineteenth century translation by Edward Caswall (1814-78),a former Anglican who had “gone over”, as he recorded, to […]
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March 14, 2023
Lenten Hymns and their Story “In Silent Pain the Eternal Son” In silent pain the eternal son hangs derelict and still;In darkened day His work is done, fulfilled, His Father’s will.Uplifted for the world to see He hangs in strangest victory,For in His body on the tree He carries all our ill. LSB 432
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Lenten Hymns and their Story
March 13, 2023 “Not all the Blood of Beasts” Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slainCould give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. LSB 431
