"Forty Days Was Jesus Tempted"
/Here's a hymn inspired by the Temptation of Jesus (Luke 4:1-13). This text appears in the First Sunday in Lent (Lent 1C), on Sunday, February 14th, 2016. It can be sung to several tunes as it is written in 8.7.8.7 D but is here sung to the tune EBENEZER (which is commonly used to sing "Silence! Frenzied, Unclean Spirit").
Click here for a pdf of this hymn.
Permission is granted for use in congregational worship. Please give the following credit: "Copyright 2016 Stephen M. Fearing | www.stephenmfearing.com"
Forty days was Jesus tempted, Forty nights his trust was tried.
From the Jordan, Christ was driven; there would Satan be his guide.
Famished, thirsty, lost and lonely, Christ endured the toughest test.
In the wilderness, he struggled, Satan sought to do his best.
Then the devil said to Jesus, “You look like you’re moving slow.
Surely you need bread and water, take this stone and make it so!”
Jesus’ stomach sure was empty, hunger like he’d never known;
Yet to Satan he responded, “We don’t live by bread alone.”
Then the devil said to Jesus, “look at all these lands you see!
To you I will give their glory, if you only worship me.”
Jesus stopped to think it over, but he knew who he should love
Then to Satan he responded, “Worship only God above.”
Then the devil said to Jesus,”if you truly are divine,
cast yourself from this high mountain, and you surely will be fine!”
Jesus knew the holy scriptures, thus he knew the devil’s fraud.
Christ responded to his tempter, “Do not test the Lord your God.”
Help us, God, when we are tempted, fill us with your scripture’s strength
Far this Lenten journey takes us, help us trust you through its length.
Jesus knew the way to triumph, scripture was his sword and shield.
May your Spirit come upon us: send us now your Word to wield.