Johann Crüger wrote the music for Ah, Holy Jesus, a Good Friday hymn that remembers the sacrifice Jesus offered for our salvation. The singer raises the question of whether Jesus had done anything to deserve crucifixion, and comes to the necessary conclusion that it was their own sin that led to the Savior’s willing sacrifice …
Tag: Good Friday
Good Friday is the remembrance of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world is remembered. The failure of mankind (both corporately and indvidually) to meet the standard of God's perfection required the sacrifice of the Son of God so that we could be right before Him. Because of this, only faith in that sacrifice is required for us to be assured of a blessed eternity with God.
Good Friday is traditionally observed with "tenebrae" services that focus on the events leading to and including the Crucifixion. These services traditionally end in silence and darkness, remembering that the death of the Divine One was our only hope for rescue from the price of our transgressions.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (HAMBURG) – Eight handbells
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross is a meditation on the Son of God who gave His life for us. Isaac Watts wrote this hymn which continues to draw us to the Savior. “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour …
Go to Dark Gethsemane (REDHEAD NO. 76) – Eight handbells
Richard Redhead was a vocalist and an organist in Sussex in the nineteenth century. He also spent a career building the next generation of church musicians. In the nineteenth century, he published a book of hymns, and the tune name of this arrangement includes his surname. Go to dark Gethsemane, / You who feel the …
Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed (MARTYRDOM) – Eight handbells
Hugh Wilson arranged a tune of anonymous origin, MARTYRDOM, as a setting for Isaac Watts’ words Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and then added a refrain. It’s a hymn that is important to many Christians at Easter. Alas! and did my Savior bleed / And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred …
What Wondrous Love is This (WONDROUS LOVE) – Eight handbells
Here’s a very familiar tune of American origin. It’s a thoughtful Holy Week selection, perhaps best matching Good Friday. What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul! What wondrous love is this, O my soul! What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for …
Were You There? (WERE YOU THERE?) – Eight handbells
The familiar African-American spiritual does indeed fit into eight bells! 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? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you …
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN) – Eight handbells
Few hymns have had a more enduring effect on the Church than the Crucifixion remembrance, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. O sacred head, now wounded with grief and shame weighed down, Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, your only crown. O sacred head, what glory and blessing you have known! Yet, though despised and gory, I …
