Throned Upon the Awful Tree

Representative Text

1 Throned upon the awful tree,
King of grief, I watch with Thee;
darkness veils Thine anguished face,
none its lines of woe can trace,
none can tell what pangs unknown
hold Thee silent and alone.

2 Silent through those three dread hours,
wrestling with the evil pow'rs,
left alone with human sin,
gloom around Thee and within,
till th'appointed time is nigh,
till the Lamb of God may die.

3 Hark that cry that peals aloud
upward through the whelming cloud!
Thou, the Father’s only Son,
Thou, His own Anointed One.
Thou dost ask Him- can it be?
“Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

4 Lord, should fear and anguish roll
darkly o’er my sinful soul,
Thou, who once wast thus bereft
that Thine own might ne’er be left-
teach me by that bitter cry
in the gloom to know Thee nigh.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #265

Author: John Ellerton

John Ellerton (b. London, England, 1826; d. Torquay, Devonshire, England, 1893) Educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1851. He served six parishes, spending the longest time in Crewe Green (1860-1872), a church of steelworkers and farmers. Ellerton wrote and translated about eighty hymns, many of which are still sung today. He helped to compile Church Hymns and wrote its handbook, Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns (1882). Some of his other hymn texts were published in The London Mission Hymn Book (1884). Bert Polman… Go to person page >

Text Information

Tune

ARFON (Minor)

ARFON is originally a six-phrase Welsh folk tune in minor tonality entitled 'Tros y Garreg." Named for a district on the mainland of northern Wales opposite Mon and Anglesey, the tune was published in Edward Jones's Relicks of the Welsh Bards (1784). In the later nineteenth century ARFON was associa…

Go to tune page >


MADRID (Spanish)


REDHEAD NO. 76

REDHEAD 76 is named for its composer, who published it as number 76 in his influential Church Hymn Tunes, Ancient and Modern (1853) as a setting for the hymn text "Rock of Ages." It has been associated with Psalm 51 since the 1912 Psalter, where the tune was named AJALON. The tune is also known as P…

Go to tune page >


Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #6712
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 9 of 9)

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #105

TextPage Scan

CPWI Hymnal #161

TextPage Scan

Hymns to the Living God #153

TextPage Scan

Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #265

TextPage Scan

Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #161

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #6712

TextPage Scan

The Presbyterian Hymnal #99

TextPage Scan

Trinity Hymnal (Rev. ed.) #250

TextPage Scan

Trinity Psalter Hymnal #345

Include 58 pre-1979 instances
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us