Behold, I stand and knock

"Behold, I stand and knock upon your door."

Hear what the Lord is calling us to do: 

"If you will hear and open up your door, 

I will come in with you."

 

"For those I love, my discipline is sure."

Hear how the Lord is calling us today; 

"Therefore, repent, with yearning true and pure;

Come, now, repent and pray."

 

"For those who conquer, I have made a place;"

Hear now the Lord; now listen, look, and see!

"Those who endure will join me face to face 

For all eternity."

 

O church, now listen to the Spirit's call; 

Open your ears and hear the Spirit's cry! 

Let us repent, and give to God our all; 

On God alone rely.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2022.

MUSIC: Tune PEACE, George Whitefield Chadwick, 1890.

 

 

This hymn came from a desire to work with a tune that was not familiar and also rather atypical for a "traditional" tune; to set a tune by George Whitefield Chadwick, one of the main subjects of my dissertation and research in my musicological past life; and most simply to avoid falling out of practice. Regrettably the scriptural text does not appear in the RCL; if I ever decide to embarrass myself by trying to preach a sermon series on those seven letters at the beginning of Revelation, it will come in handy then, I guess.