Hymn of the Week: April 12, 2021
Hymn of the Week: Thine Is the Glory
Glory to God #238
Music from G.F. Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus
Text Edmund Louis Budry
Thine Is the Glory
Thine is the glory, Resurrected One!
Endless is the victr’y now for us begun!
Angels clothed in glory rolled the stone away,
leaving only graveclothes where his body lay.
Thine is the glory, Resurrected One!
Endless is the victr'y now for us begun!
Lo! Jesus meets us. Risen from the tomb,
lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom.
Let our doubting spirits find a voice to sing:
Christ who died is living; death has lost its sting.
Thine is the glory, Resurrected One!
Endless is the victr'y now for us begun!
No more we doubt thee; glorious Prince of Life!
Life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife.
Make us more than conquerors through the deathless love,
Bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.
Thine is the glory, Resurrected One!
Endless is the victr'y now for us begun!
Today’s hymn comes to us from two very different sources. The text comes to us from the composer born in Vevey, Switzerland (near Lausanne). Budry was ordained in the Free Church of Switzerland and was fluent in many languages using this ability to translate hymns from German, English, and Latin into French. In 1884, he wrote Thine Is the Glory, (À toi la gloire, O Ressuscité!).
It was thought that Edmond Budry wrote this hymn in response to the death of his wife. Their faith assured them that her death was not the end – and that there was a final victory because of the resurrection of Christ Jesus. His inspiration in writing his text, according to English hymnologist J. Richard Watson, was based on the story of Christ’s resurrection as found in the Gospels as well as the Apostle Paul’s writings from I Corinthians chapter 15. Budry’s embrace of the phrase ‘endless is the victory thou o’er death has won’ comes from I Corinthians 15:57 where Paul says, “But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“The message of this hymn is all about Jesus having broken down the barriers of sin that separate us from God, thereby enabling us to pass over the spiritual Jordan into the promised land of heaven.” (Geoffrey Foote).
The music of course comes from the first Handel’s oratorio titled, Joshua and he later used a chorus from that oratorio and put it in his more widely known work, Judas Maccabaues.
Today’s arrangement comes from a wonderful hymn tune arranger who has written piano works for the entire church year, Thomas Keesecker. His music is at once timeless and altogether contemporary at
the same time. I especially love how he has set this triumphant hymn into a setting that is almost more suitable for an intimate prayer service.
Enjoy!
Philip
