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

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

LSB #548 "Thanks to Thee, O Christ, Victorious"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 11-12; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Corinthians 9:15

1 Corinthians 15:51-57:  "51 Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.  53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  'Death is swallowed up in victory.'  55 'O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?'  56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Isaiah 53:4-6:  "4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:8:  "By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?"

Isaiah 53:11-12:  "11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:  "16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."

2 Corinthians 9:15:  "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!"

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The text is public domain:
Thanks to Thee, O Christ, victorious!
Thanks to Thee, O Lord of Life!
Death hath now no power o'er us,
Thou hast conquered in the strife.
Thanks because Thou didst arise
And hast opened paradise!
None can fully sing the glory
Of the resurrection story.
Thou hast died for my transgression,
All my sins on Thee were laid;
Thou hast won for me salvation,
On the cross my debt was paid.
From the grave I shall arise
And shall meet Thee in the skies.
Death itself is transitory;
I shall lift my head in glory.
For the joy Thine advent gave me,
For Thy holy, precious Word;
For Thy Baptism, which doth save me,
For Thy blest Communion board;
For Thy death, the bitter scorn,
For Thy resurrection morn,
Lord, I thank Thee and extol Thee,
And in heav'n I shall behold Thee.
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The Biblical sources for this hymn are easy to trace.  The first verse comes from the text from 1 Corinthians.  The first half of the second verse comes from Isaiah 53, and the second half comes from 1 Thessalonians 4.  The third verse comes from the text from 2 Corinthians.