Hymn Guide: Before the Throne of God Above
“Before the Throne of God Above” is a moving hymn of praise to the ascended and interceding Christ, the risen Lamb of God. When we sing it, we feel drawn up to heaven and given a glimpse of God’s forgiveness and grace. The hymn is, therefore, fitting not only for the Ascension but also occasions of penitence and pardon, such as Lent and Holy Week.
The text was written in 1863 by Charitie Lees Smith, daughter of an Irish Anglican priest. While church musicians long recognized the power of the text, for more than a century there was no agreement on the tune. The contemporary renaissance of the hymn dates to 1997, when American musician Vikki Cook composed its new and now universal music.
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Verse by Verse
Verse 1
The title and opening line of this hymn paints a compelling scene. We get a glimpse of the heavenly throne room, as in Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4:
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong a perfect plea
A great high priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on his hands
My name is written on his heart
I know that while in heaven he stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
And who is there before God? Jesus, our “great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14). Here it is important to remember the distinctive role of the high priest. While Hebrew priests made daily sacrifices for sin, every year the high priest made a culminating sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, entering into the Holy of Holies of the Temple to seek the forgiveness of the whole people (see Leviticus 16).
To say that Jesus is our “great high priest” is to say that he is the one who enters the most holy place before God in heaven, to intercede for all his people. Here is how the book of Hebrews puts it:
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.
Hebrews 8:1-2
With Christ as our great high priest, the “Day of Judgment” becomes our eternal “Day of Atonement,” so that “while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart.”
Verse 2
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because my sinless savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me
The second verse begins with a reference to Satan, who reminds us of our guilt. This is Satan in his role as our “accuser” (Revelation 12:10). The tricky thing about Satan is that he will first tempt us to sin, minimizing the significance of our sin. But then after we sin, he will flip the script and accuse us, maximizing the significance of our sin. Satan’s method is to go from “it’s not so bad” to “you are so bad!”
Our natural response would be either defensiveness or despair, either a denial of our sin or acknowledgment and hopelessness. But in Christ the “sinless savior,” we acknowledge our “sinful soul” yet believe we are “counted free.”
In 1997, contemporary musician Vikki Cook encountered this hymn in church. The congregation had difficulty singing the hymn with its previous tune, but Vikki was taken by the text, especially the second verse. Vikki explains:
I took home a copy of the words and stuck them in my Bible. During my quiet times, I would take out the lyrics and be so affected by them, especially verse two…I spent many mornings with God weeping over those lyrics. I had to find a way to sing these words to God, even if it was only for myself.
Vikki Cook, in correspondence with Chris Fenner for Hymnology Archive
The tune Vikki composed quickly spread and has become the standard music for the hymn. To my mind, the music is especially effective in this second verse. The opening musical lines reflect the poignant experience of personal guilt and the temptation to despair. But the closing section feels both triumphant and complete, music that reflects God’s satisfaction. “For God the just is satisfied / To look on him and pardon me.”
Verse 3
Behold him there the risen lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of Glory and of grace
One with himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by his blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
After tracing the logic of atonement in the first two verses, the third and final verse offers an extended moment of beholding, acclamation and worship. Here Jesus is described as “the risen lamb,” connecting the hymn directly to the depiction of Revelation 4-5. There’s also a fabulous rhyme across lines 1 and 3: “lamb” and “I AM.” This rhyme points to the eternal security of our salvation, because in Revelation Jesus says “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13).
In other words, the lamb who was slain now lives forever, his blood the eternal sacrifice for my sin. “One with himself I cannot die…my life is hid with Christ on high.” Or as the book of Hebrews puts it:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:11-12
On Video
The first video, from Bellevue Baptist in Memphis, offers a meditative and majestic rendition, beginning with solo vocals and piano, then backed by orchestra, band and chorus. The second is in a faster folk style with two voices and two guitars, sung at Covenant Presbyterian in Nashville.
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Image: Stained Glass Agnus Dei from Trinity Moravian Church, Winston Salem, NC, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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