At The Name Of Jesus
At the Name of Jesus
At the name of Jesus
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess Him
King of glory now;
’Tis the Father’s pleasure
We should call Him Lord,
Who from the beginning
Was the mighty Word.
At His voice creation
Sprang at once to sight,
All the angel faces,
All the hosts of light,
Thrones and dominations,
Stars upon their way,
All the heavenly orders,
In their great array.
Humbled for a season,
To receive a name
From the lips of sinners
Unto whom He came,
Faithfully He bore it
Spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious
When from death He passed.
In your hearts enthrone Him;
There let Him subdue
All that is not holy,
All that is not true:
Crown Him as your captain
In temptation’s hour;
Let His will enfold you
In its light and power.
AS A YOUNG WOMAN, Caroline Noel tried to write poems, but she gave it up by the age of twenty. Then when she was bedridden with a serious illness at forty, she took up her pen once again. Eventually, her poetry was published in a little book called At the Name of Jesus, and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely.
You might think the tone of her work would be comforting and devotional, but this hymn is more theological in nature. It focuses attention on Jesus and His power, rather than on sickness and loneliness. Actually, the poem is a beautiful paraphrase of Philippians 2:4-11, an early-church hymn that shows Jesus humbling Himself on earth and being glorified in heaven.
When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:7-11
From the book
