A Lenten Hymn

As a Nazarene serving as pastor of two United Methodist churches, I have often been frustrated when planning the musical parts of worship.  It is so often the case that a certain hymn (or other song) will come to mind that fits the Scripture reading just perfectly, but when I go to look it up in The United Methodist Hymnal, it is nowhere to be found.  It's in the Sing to the Lord (Nazarene) hymnal, and I have sung it since I was a kid, but it is unfamiliar to these United Methodists!

However, for the hymn, below, it is just the opposite.  Here is a wonderful hymn for the Lenten season, that does not appear in the Nazarene hymnal.  It is one, that I am going to keep in mind whenever the time comes, and the Lord leads me back to a Nazarene setting.

We sang this hymn this past Sunday, the First Sunday in Lent.  It was written by Claudia F. Hernaman, in 1873, based on Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; and Luke 4:1-13).  It can be sung to the tune, Land of Rest.

 

LORD, WHO THROUGHOUT THESE FORTY DAYS

 

1.) Lord, who through-out these fort days

for us didst fast and pray,

teach us with thee to mourn our sins

and close by thee to stay.

 

2.) As thou with Satan didst contend,

and didst the victory win,

O give us strength in thee to fight,

in thee to conquer sin.

 

3.)  As thou didst hunger bear, and thirst,

so teach us, gracious Lord,

to die to self, and chiefly live

by thy most holy word.

 

4.)  And through these days of penitence,

and through thy passion-tide,

yea, evermore in life and death,

Jesus, with us abide.

 

5.) Abide with us, that so, this life

of suffering over past,

an Easter of unending joy

we may attain at last.