Thy living finger never wrote that life should be an aimless mote,
A deathward drift from futile birth.
Thy Word meant life triumphant hurled,
In splendor through Thy broken world,
Since light awoke and life began, Thou hast desired Thy life for man.
Our fatal will to equal Thee,
Our rebel will wrought death and night. We seized and used in prideful spite
Thy wondrous gift of liberty.
We housed us in this house of doom,
Where death had royal scope and room
Until Thy servant, Prince of Peace, breached all its walls for our release.
Thou camest to our hall of death,
O Christ, to breathe our poisoned air, to drink for us the dark despair
That strangled our reluctant breath.
How beautiful the feet that trod
The road that leads us back to God! How beautiful the feet that ran
To bring the great good news to man!
O Spirit, who didst once restore
Thy church that it might be again the bringer of good news to men,
Breathe on Thy cloven Church once more,
That in these gray and latter days
There may be those whose life is praise, each life a high doxology
To Father, Son and unto Thee.
-Martin Franzmann
Try singing these powerful words to rich music in a high-halled sanctuary,
driven by a wonderful organist. Heaven on earth.
1 comment:
Best hymn ever written! (Along with a couple dozen others.) So chock full of strong phrases. What better way to describe God's approach to us than, "Thy Word meant life triumphant hurled"? Who but Franzmann (or maybe Luther) would use words like "hurled" and "breached" in a hymn?
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