Scripture Verse

A priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm 110:4

Introduction

Words: At­trib­ut­ed to Mi­chael Bruce, cir­ca 1764; as in Scot­tish Pa­ra­phras­es, 1781.

Music: Sol­dau Geyst­liche Ge­sangk Buch­leyn (Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1524) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

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

Lyrics

Where high the hea­ven­ly tem­ple stands,
The house of God not made with hands,
A great high priest our na­ture wears,
The guard­ian of man­kind ap­pears.

He who for men their sure­ty stood,
And poured on earth His pre­cious blood,
Pursues in Hea­ven His migh­ty plan,
The Sav­ior and the friend of man.

Though now as­cend­ed up on high,
He bends on earth a bro­ther’s eye;
Partaker of the hu­man name,
He knows the frail­ty of our frame.

Our fel­low suf­fer­er yet re­tains
A fel­low feel­ing of our pains:
And still re­mem­bers in the skies
His tears, His ago­nies, and cries.

In ev­ery pang that rends the heart,
The Man of Sor­rows had a part,
He sym­pa­thiz­es with our grief,
And to the suf­fer­er sends re­lief.

With bold­ness, there­fore, at the throne,
Let us make all our sor­rows known;
And ask the aids of hea­ven­ly power
To help us in the ev­il hour.