The Tempter said, “Turn stone to bread
if you are God’s own Son.”
With so much hunger all about,
what good work could be done?
But Jesus said, “It is not bread
by which alone you live,
But by the ever-living Word
that God on high does give.”
“Now throw yourself from Temple peak,”
the Tempter next did try,
“For angels would not let you fall,
but bear you up on high.”
But Jesus said, “You shall not test
the Lord your God above;
For this is written in the Word
of God’s own saving love.”
“All kingdoms of the world I give
if you bow down to me;”
This was the Tempter’s final test
of who our Lord would be.
But Jesus said, “Get out! Be gone!
All worship shall you give
To God alone, and no one else!
Heed this command and live!”
The Tempter then withdrew at last
from God’s beloved Son,
Whose forty days and forty nights
of fast were finally done.
What Jesus said and Jesus did
are ours to hold us fast
Until the time when God’s own reign
becomes our home at last.
TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2020, after Matthew 4:1-11 (Lent 1A)
MUSIC: Tune VOX DILECTI, John Bacchus Dykes, 1868 (CMD)
First new hymn of 2020! I have been nagged of late by the memory of a not-highly-known hymn tune that actually shifted from major to minor in mid-verse. Finally figuring out which it was (the composer is best known for the tune to which we sing "Holy, Holy, Holy"), I naturally felt challenged to create a tune for it. Looking to upcoming lectionary readings, the exchange between the Tempter and Jesus in the wilderness seemed a natural opening to exploit the contrast of mode in this tune. And hey, the first Sunday of Lent isn't until March 1, so you have plenty of time to consider this one (a list of hymnals that include the tune can be found here).
