Good Friday
Parts of this are a reprint from March 25, 2005
An African-American spiritual, “Were You There?”
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
We sang that song in choir. The deep, low notes of the “tremble, tremble, tremble” part always make me shiver.
Two Good Friday/Easter hymns that I love:
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did ever such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a tribute far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!
My favorite line from the next song is clinging to the Cross, and exchanging it for a Crown. What a glorious day that will be! Today – and Sunday – mark the reason why I can even have that hope.
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.