A myHT Fortress

Monday, January 5, 2009

From the Virgin Soil of Eden

Chad Bird, a Ph.D. candidate and extremely gifted hymn-writer has crafted a new hymn on Holy Baptism. This piece weaves together great foreshadowings of this Sacrament into a marvelous tapestry.

One of the few negative comments that I have for LSB is that it did not include enough hymnody from Chad Bird!

You can find this originally posted on Chad's Facebook page.

“From the Virgin Soil of Eden”

A Hymn on Baptism




From the virgin soil of Eden,
In His image, God made man;

From the virgin womb of Mary,

In our flesh, was God made man;
From the
virgin font of water,
I’m remade in that God-Man.


Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
In Your Name I am baptized;
Like my promised brother, Isaac,
My heart has been circumcised:

Sinful flesh cut off in water,

Abram's sonship realized.


As the waters flooded o'er me,

Angels flew me in the ark,

Through the fleshly door in Jesus,
Which the soldier's spear did mark.

I shall voyage in His Body,

Till in heav'n I disembark.


Hellish Pharaoh sore assailed me,

Whipped my soul unceasingly;

Egypt held me fast in bondage,

Steeped in vile depravity.
Baptized by a Greater Moses,
I passed through His crimson sea.


Born alive but dead in spirit

Leprous was my sinful soul.
Then with Naaman I found healing,
Where the Jordan's waters roll.

By His mighty Word, Elisha,
Healed my body, made me whole.


Cast forth from the fish's belly,

Jonah left the darkness dread,

Pointing to the resurrection,

Of the One from whom he'd fled.

From the belly of the Fountain,

Cast me forth to life from death.


2 comments:

Mark Buetow said...

What's a tune that fits?

Rev. Richard A. Heinz said...

Chad himself said on my Facebook wall:
"I wrote it with Picardy swirling round my head. I think it works."

(The meter is 87 87 87.)