A Hymn on Isaiah 53
The Lamb of God by Chris Powers
A Lenten Hymn, based on Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 is such a go-to passage during Lenten and Good Friday reflections. What a joy to work with these beautiful and powerful words of Scripture! The following is a poem/hymn based on the words of Isaiah 53:2-9
. I wrote it according to the melody of hymn 746 in Christian Worship Supplement, so it could also be sung. Please read and meditate on the Isaiah passage as you go through these verses. I hope to take Isaiah 53:10-12 next month and prepare an Easter-themed poem or hymn using those truths. May God bless you as you reflect on his marvelous love during this Lenten season!
Like a tender plant from the soil,
Like a common root from the ground,
Came the promised suffering servant
Nothing in his looks would astound.
All his majesty and beauty hid from view
This is how your God comes for you!
See him so despised and rejected
His a life of sorrow and pain
Like the kind of person we turn from,
Hide our faces from all his shame.
This—the son of God—the promised one we sought
He’s despised and we esteem him not!
Surely he took up our infirmness
Carried all our sorrows away
Yet we thought that God struck and cursed him
Smote him with his justice that day.
As he hangs there pierced and crushed against the tree
It’s not for his but our iniquity!
Punishment on him brings us peace now
In his bloody wounds we are healed!
Like rebellious sheep we’ve all wandered
Choosing ways that lead far afield
But on him the Lord laid our iniquity
Peace with God he gave humanity.
How he was oppressed and afflicted
Yet he never made a complaint!
Like a lamb he’s led to the slaughter
Like a sheep for shearing he went
So our Savior’s lips were perfect through his pain
Innocent and true he’d remain.
Taken by oppression and judgment
No one in his day took it in
That he was cut off from the living
Stricken for his own people’s sin
Grouped with criminals; laid in a rich man’s tomb
Though a perfect man from the womb.
All Isaiah’s words are fulfilled now
Come and worship Christ your king
Sinners lay your burden before him
Your new heart will shout and sing
Hear your Savior-God’s great promise ever true—
“It is finished! All is paid for you!”
originally posted on www.breadforbeggars.com
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