Scripture Verse

They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Zechariah 12:10

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley (1707–1788), alt. Ap­peared in The Un­pub­lished Po­et­ry of Charles Wes­ley, Vol­ume 3 (Nash­ville, Ten­nes­see: Ab­ing­don Press, 1992), pag­es 180–81.

Music: Dar­ling­ton The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1889), num­ber 95 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

O Je­sus our head, who hast died in our stead,
Thy pro­mise of faith and re­pent­ance we plead,
Now let it take place, pour out on our race
The spi­rit of pray­er, and con­tri­tion and praise.

While thus we re­cord our cru­ci­fied Lord,
Be mind­ful of us, and ac­comp­lish Thy word.
Thy pro­mise is past, we shall see Thee at last,
Our souls on Thy bloody atone­ment be cast.

Stretched out on the tree, Thou saidst, They shall see,
My mur­der­ers sure­ly shall look up­on Me.
The stones shall re­lent, the rocks shall be rent,
And hearts more ob­dur­ate than mar­ble la­ment.

Now then let us turn, to Je­ho­vah’s first-born
And look up­on Thee we have wound­ed, and mourn,
In bit­ter­ness cry that the Prince of the sky
God’s on­ly be­got­ten, we doomed Him to die.

Our sins were the cause of His sor­row and loss;
By our sins we pur­sued Him and nailed to the cross;
We in­flict­ed the pain; we have pierced Him again;
And O! shall He suf­fer so oft­en in vain?

The sense of Thy smart, O Je­sus, im­part,
And break by Thy death the in­flex­ible heart:
Thy pass­ion alone can make us atone;
Appear in Thy wounds, and our heart is Thine own.