A Passiontide Hymn

King, in the majesty of Truth
Your justice stands decreed:
Ancient of Days, when comes the hour
Your subject world shall heed?
When will the people grant Your crown,
and take Your yoke of peace;
when will they bid You take the sin,
for evil ways to cease?

Not in the world’s grand walks of power,
not in the rule of state,
not in the counsels of the wise,
for judgment need we wait:
Christ in a stable holds His court,
the stall His bench of law;
shepherds and kings the meaning see,
when princes dwell in straw;

Then in high time’s appointed turn
the world You moved to gain:
Seizing for love the weight of sin,
You bowed Yourself to pain.
Drawn to the lifting of Your Cross
come all, forgiven, free:
here is Your crowning, here our peace,
King, reigning from the Tree.

Mark Woodruff © 1990 & 1996
I first started to work on this when I was precentor at the Cathedral of St James in Bury St Edmunds. We used the prototype for a Passiontide service, to the lovely tune Coe Fen by Ken Taylor, for which the Organist at the time, Paul Trepte, was seeking more words.