Scripture Verse

Joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5

Introduction

portrait
Richard W. Adams (1952–)

Words: Ri­chard W. Ad­ams, April 28, 2006.

Music: Beech­er John Zun­del, Chris­tian Heart Songs 1870 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Background

During my morn­ing com­mute, I was con­tem­plat­ing a hymn by Will­iam Ad­ams (no re­la­tion), which I had seen set to Zun­del’s tune Beech­er. As I drove, whist­ling the tune, it oc­curred to me that this ex­ub­er­ant me­lo­dy would be well suit­ed to a joy­ous East­er sun­rise service.

Then the words Seal of Cae­sar could not hold Him en­tered my mind, and I be­gan to be­lieve God was speak­ing a new hymn to me.

I wrote the words down in a note­book from the glove com­part­ment, and al­most fin­ished them in the parking gar­age over lunch­time. The fourth and fin­al verse ar­rived be­fore I got home that ev­en­ing.

Lyrics

On this morn we see the dawn­ing
Of a bright and glo­ri­ous Sun;
Night is ban­ished, sha­dows flee­ing,
Demons scat­ter, dev­ils run.
To the gar­den come the wo­men,
Bringing spic­es for the dead,
Wondering how to plead with sol­diers,
Guards of em­pire, armed and dread.

See, the emp­ty se­pul­cher greets them,
Heavy rock now rolled away;
No more sol­diers, nor a bo­dy,
Only grave cloths where He lay.
Seal of Cae­sar could not hold Him,
Nor a migh­ty door of stone;
King of kings, the Lord has tri­umphed,
He has trampled Satan’s throne.

From the tomb a light is stream­ing,
Proving faith is not in vain;
In the morn­ing joy be­friends us,
Sacred mys­tery now made plain.
Can it be? The dead is liv­ing?
Yes, the Son has hell ov­er­come;
Angel mes­sen­ger pro­claim­ing:
See the pow­er of death un­done!

From the si­lent, stone cold pri­son,
God erupts in glo­ri­ous might;
Suffering ov­er, Christ has ris­en,
Ends the age of gloom and night.
Death, the fi­nal en­emy, con­quered,
Now we no more fear the grave;
Jesus died in place of sin­ners,
And He lives, al­migh­ty to save.

illustration
The Resurrection
Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890)