Scripture Verse

Unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Isaiah 45:23

Introduction

portrait
Martin Luther (1483–1546)

Words: Will­iam W. Hull, A Col­lect­ion of Hymns for Ge­ne­ral Use (Lon­don: Hatch­ard & Son, 1833), num­ber 150.

Music: Nun freut euch Mar­tin Lu­ther, in Geist­liche Lied­er, by Jo­seph Klug (Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1535) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Wär’ Gott nicht mit uns in the Ge­sang­buch (Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1537) (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Hull (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

The day must come, the judg­ment day,
On each fond idle dream­er,
On ev­ery wan­der­er from the way,
On ev­ery dark blas­phem­er!
The Christ will come in dread ar­ray,
Each eye be­hold, each heart ob­ey,
His udge or his Re­deem­er!

We may grow hard, and not re­vere
Each old pro­phet­ic to­ken,
Too will­ful and too proud to hear
What God Him­self hath spok­en;
Yet shall the Son of Man ap­pear,
And strong­est hearts shall fail for fear,
And wrath and pride be brok­en!

He comes in clouds! each daz­zled eye
And cons­cious heart con­found­ing,
Myriads of se­ra­phim on high
His glo­ri­ous sign sur­round­ing!
Sun, moon, and stars, droop in the sky;
The shout dies down; the arch­an­gel’s cry;
The trump of God is sound­ing!

Over each dist­ant so­li­tude
That lone­ly blast is swell­ing,
None shall its thrill­ing call elude,
In earth or ocean dwell­ing:
Death is dis­armed; the grave sub­dued;
To all the count­less mul­ti­tude
Their doom is Je­sus tell­ing!