Your Hands: A 13th-Century Hymn Refreshed — and Refreshing
From Matt Bassford’s Excellent Blog:
http://hisexcellentword.blogspot.com/2014/03/your-hands.html
Your Hands
For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet.
— Psalm 22:16 (NASB)O Christ the Shepherd, great and good,
Upon the tree suspended,
Your body pinned against the wood
And by Your hands extended.
O holy hands that all should hail!
New roses there are growing;
They bloom with red around each nail
Where many drops are flowing.Your cross arrests my inward sight,
Its plea, intense and fervent;
My understanding, will, and might–
Let each become Your servant!
Then draw me in Your love so wide
Before the cross I cherish,
For where Your hands were crucified,
There all my sin must perish.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
— Psalm 22:16 (NASB)O Christ the Shepherd, great and good,
Upon the tree suspended,
Your body pinned against the wood
And by Your hands extended.
O holy hands that all should hail!
New roses there are growing;
They bloom with red around each nail
Where many drops are flowing.Your cross arrests my inward sight,
Its plea, intense and fervent;
My understanding, will, and might–
Let each become Your servant!
Then draw me in Your love so wide
Before the cross I cherish,
For where Your hands were crucified,
There all my sin must perish.
Your holy hands I now embrace
With joy and lamentation;
I kiss the wounds that flow with grace
And weep at my salvation.
Now by Your sprinkled blood, I plead
For You alone to tend me,
And in my final hour of need,
Then may Your hands defend me!
Arnulf of Leuven, 13th cent.
tr. M. W. Bassford
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