Zion, To Thy Savior Singing
Zion, to Thy Savior Singing
Zion, to thy Savior singing,
To thy Prince and Shepherd bringing
Sweetest hymns of love and praise,
Thou wilt never reach the measure
Of His worth, by all the treasures
Of thy most ecstatic lays.
Of all wonders that can thrill thee,
And with adoration fill thee,
What than this can greater be,
That Himself to thee He giveth?
He that eateth ever liveth,
For the Bread of Life is He.
Fill thy lips to overflowing
With sweet praise, His mercy showing
Who this heav’nly table spread:
On this day so glad and holy,
To each longing spirit lowly
Giveth He the living Bread.
Here the King hath spread His table,
Whereon eyes of faith are able
Christ our Passover to trace:
Shadows of the law are going,
Light and life and truth inflowing,
Night to day is giving place.
O Good Shepherd, Bread life-giving,
Us, Thy grace and life receiving,
Feed and shelter evermore;
Thou on earth our weakness guiding,
We in heav’n with Thee abiding
With all saints will Thee adore.
Translated by Alexander R. Thompson (1822–1895)
THOMAS AQUINAS is among the greatest Christian thinkers in the history of the church. During the Middle Ages, he anchored Christian theology to Aristotle’s philosophy and recovered the role of reason in church life. In this way he paved the way for the Reformation and Renaissance. Not that everyone agrees with all aspects of his theology. His teachings were suspect within the church at first, and later the Reformers took issue with some of his assertions. But he remains one of the most influential Christian thinkers of all time, an intellectual light during the Dark Ages.
Despite Aquinas’s intellectual brilliance, his hymn is not bathed in intellectualism. It is a simple Communion hymn, a meditation on the Lord’s Table. After speaking of the surpassing wonder of Christ, he marvels that Christ offers His own body and blood for us.
Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me.
John 6:56-57
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