Jerusalem The Golden Lyrics
Bernard of Cluny,
Jerusalem the golden,
With milk and honey blest,
Beneath your contemplation
Sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, oh, I know not
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,
What bliss beyond compare.
They stand, those halls of Zion,
All jubilant with song
And bright with many and angel
And all the martyr throng.
The prince is ever in them;
The daylight is serene;
The pastures of the blessed
Are decked in glorious sheen.
There is the throne of David,
And there, from care released,
The shout of those who triumph,
The song of those who feast.
And they, who with their leader
Have conquered in the fight,
Forever and forever
Are clad in robes of white.
Oh, sweet and blessed country,
The home of God’s elect!
Oh, sweet and blessed country
That eager hearts expect!
In mercy, Jesus, bring us
To that dear land of rest!
You are, with God the Father
And spirit, ever blest.
For more stories and lyrics of old hymn visit here. Below are more links to must read posts about hymns: –
Jesus Is Coming Again/Lift Up the Trumpet Hymn Story and Lyrics
You May Have the Joy Bells Hymn
Lord I’m Coming Home History and Lyrics.
His Eye Is on the Sparrow Story and Lyrics
Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee Hymn Story and Lyrics
Jerusalem The Golden Hymn Story
THE pious monk, now known as Bernard of Cluny, was born in the twelfth century in Morlaix, France; and upon maturity dedicated himself to the service of God in the Abbey of Cluny.
Whether or not he was named after Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, as some suppose, it is known that he was much younger than the author of “Jesus, the very thought of Thee.”
From within the cloistered walls of the Abbey the godly man looked out upon the world about him and was sick at heart to see so much worldliness and sin in the life of the people of his day.
As he meditated upon this sad condition, which weighed so heavily upon his soul, he wrote in the Latin language a great poem of three thousand lines, entitled “Concerning a Disdain of the World.”
While it is largely a satire upon the sinful age, and warns against the wrath to come, the poem by way of contrast contains the most exalted passages, expressing the poet’s eager contemplation of the glorious life awaiting the blessed in heaven.
Dr. John Mason Neale, an English clergyman and scholar, has made exquisite translations into English from these lines upon heaven, and from his translations, among others, has been taken our stirring hymn, “Jerusalem the golden.”
It has been called the “Hymn of heavenly homesickness,” as it expresses so tenderly the yearning of the devout soul for “that sweet and blessed country.”
