Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

LSB #532 "The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Hebrews 2:10; 1 Peter 4:16; Philippians 2:9-11, 3:10-11

Hebrews 2:10:  "For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."

1 Peter 4:16:  "Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name."

Philippians 2:9-11:  "9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Philippians 3:10-11:  "10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

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The text is public domain:
The Head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty Victor's brow.
The highest place that heav'n affords
Is His, is His by right,
The King of kings and Lord of lords,
And heav'n's eternal Light;
The Joy of all who dwell above,
The Joy of all below
To whom He manifests His love
And grants His name to know.
To them the cross, with all its shame,
With all its grace, is giv'n;
Their name an everlasting name,
Their joy the joy of heav'n.
They suffer with their Lord below,
They reign with Him above,
Their profit and their joy to know
The myst'ry of His love.
The cross He bore is life and health,
Though shame and death to Him:
His people's hope, His people's wealth,
Their everlasting theme.
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The sources are a bit difficult to identify in this one.

The text from Philippians 2 seems to be the source for the first two verses, although the names "The King of kings and Lord of lords" come from Revelation 19:16:  "On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."

Hebrews 2:10 seems to appear in the third, fourth, and sixth verses, and the fourth and fifth verses seem to combine the ideas in 1 Peter 4:16 and Philippians 3:10-11.