Lamb of God, you now are seated

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Jeremiah 31:3
  • Matthew 16:27
  • Matthew 24:30-51
  • Mark 13:26-37
  • Mark 8:38
  • Luke 21:27
  • John 1:29
  • John 14:2-3
  • John 19:30
  • Romans 8:34
  • Philippians 2:10
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
  • 2 Timothy 2:12
  • Hebrews 1:3
  • Hebrews 4:9
  • Hebrews 7:25
  • Revelation 1:7
  • Revelation 14:13
  • Revelation 22:5
  • Revelation 5:6-13
Book Number:
  • 492

Lamb of God, you now are seated
high upon your Father’s throne,
all your gracious work completed,
all your mighty victory won;
every knee in heaven is bending
to the Lamb for sinners slain;
all sing forth his praise unending-
‘Worthy is the Lamb to reign!’

2. Lord, in all your power and glory,
still your thoughts and eyes are here,
watching over all your people,
to your gracious heart so dear;
you for them are interceding-
everlasting is your love-
and a holy rest preparing
in our Father’s house above.

3. Lamb of God, you soon in glory
shall to this sad earth return;
all your foes shall quake before you,
all that now despise you, mourn:
then your saints shall rise to meet you,
with you in your kingdom reign;
yours the praise and yours the glory,
Lamb of God for sinners slain.

James G Deck 1802-84

The Son - His Ascension and Reign

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Tune

The story behind the hymn

‘If this hymn had not been included in Christian Hymns it would probably have fallen into complete obscurity’, writes Cliff Knight in the 1994 CH Companion. Until the present book, the only shadow of an exception came in the 1976 Christian Worship, which (again uniquely among current books) featured four stzs of Lamb of God, our souls adore thee; the present hymn comprises stzs 5–7 of the full text found in the 1841 edition of James G Deck’s Hymns for the Poor of the Flock. The separation of the two now seems very natural, each being self-contained and different from the other. The present version changes 1.7 from ‘every voice and harp is swelling’; 2.3 from ‘… o’er thy ransomed people’; and 2.7 from ‘… a blessèd rest’.

Caradog Roberts’ tune IN MEMORIAM features here for the 3rd time; see the notes to 50.

A look at the author

Deck, James George

b Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk 1802, d Motueka, Tasman Bay, S Island, New Zealand 1884. He belonged to the Christian (Plymouth) Brethren but joined the Indian service as an army officer; he may have joined the Brethren only during his army years. On his retirement in 1843 he took charge of a Gospel Hall in Wellington, Som, and in 1852 sailed for New Zealand where he remained. In 1837–8 he published Hymns for the Poor of the Flock; Psalms and Hymns etc followed in 1842, and further books in NZ in 1857 and 1860. In 1876 his work was collected as Hymns and Sacred Poems, and published in Melbourne. Many of his hymns reflect the traditional Brethren emphases on our Lord’s return in glory. Christian Worship (1976) features 8 of them; CH has 6 (5 in the 2004 edn). One of his small but pithy works was Joy in Departure; this account ‘of the conversion and last days of Augustus James Clarke’ (1831–45), who died a few days short of his 14th birthday, ends with a solemn gospel appeal. JDG was the brother of the hymnwriter Mary Walker, qv, and therefore brother-in-law of Dr Walker of Cheltenham who compiled Psalms and Hymns in 1855. A feature by John Andrews in HSB211 (April 1997) sets his work in the wider context of ‘Plymouth Brethren Hymnody’. No.492.