My song is love unknown

Tune: Love Unknown, by John N. Ireland, 1879-1962.
Text: Samuel Crossman, c. 1624-1683
Hymnal: Lutheran Service Book, 2006, #430

My song is lover unknown,
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange,and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend, My friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend!

Sometimes they strew His way
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day Hosannas to their King.
Then "Crucify!" is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done/
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease and 'gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes
That He His foes from thence might free.

In life no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav'n was His home
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend!

This is my final Lenten upload before Holy Week, and it is also one of my favorites. Although done rather straightforward as all of my Lenten uploads, there is heightened sensitivity to one of the most powerful and beautiful Lenten hymns. I hope this ministers to you as much as it has to me.

I will try to get some uploads done for Holy Week, but only time and schedule will tell how successful I will be at that!