Throned upon the Awful Tree
Text: John Ellerton, 1875
Tune: ARFON, Hugh Davies, c. 1906 or GETHSEMANE (OUSELEY), Frederick A. Gore-Ouseley, 1869
Throned upon the awful tree,
Lamb of God, Your grief I see.
Darkness veils Your anguished face;
None its lines of woe can trace.
None can tell what pangs unknown
Hold You silent and alone.
Silent through those three dread hours,
Wrestling with the evil powers,
Left alone with human sin,
Gloom around You and within,
Till the appointed time is nigh,
Til the Lamb of God may die.
Hark, that cry that peals aloud
Upward through the whelming cloud!
You, the Father’s only Son,
You, His own anointed One,
You are asking “can it be”
“Why have You forsaken Me?”
Lord, should fear and anguish roll,
Darkly o’er my sinful soul,
You, Who once were thus bereft
That Your own might ne’er be left,
Teach me by that bitter cry
In the gloom to know You nigh.
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All these hymn postings remind me that the most powerful expression of the Maundy Thursday/Good Friday message is through the words of these songs.
For quite a few years, our pastors have read the whole Gospel of Holy Week on "Passion Sunday" (ie Palm Sunday.) For those who only go to church on Sundays or only go on Easter, well, they miss the depths before the triumph on Easter. They miss Thur and Fri. These songs are about the depths, the sacrifice.
We will have an "all church" Friday service. Our Lutheran pastor got stuck with planning it. Which is OK with her because she will make it a true Good Friday service. Quite frankly, in some years past, I thought there was too much of "Easter" in the solos sung by wonderful musicians from other traditions.
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