HYMN FOR PALM SUNDAY All Glory, Laud and Honor
- Gracia Grindal
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Text: St. Theodolf (ca.750-821) Tune: Melchior Teschner (1584-1635)
1. All glory, laud, and honor
To Thee, Redeemer, King!
To Whom the lips of children Made sweet Hosannas ring,
2. Thou art the King of Israel
Thou David's Royal Son,
Who in the LORD'S name comest,
The King and Blessèd One.
R/All glory, &c.
3. The company of Angels
Is praising Thee on high,
And mortal men, and all things
Created make reply.
R/All glory, &c.
4. The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went
Our praise and prayers and anthems
Before Thee we present.
R/All glory, &c.
5. To Thee before Thy Passion
They sang their hymns of praise;T
o Thee now high exalted
Our melody we raise.
R/All glory, &c.
6. Thou didst accept their praises;
Accept the praise we bring,
Who in all good delightest,
Thou good and gracious King.
R/All glory, &c.
Tr. John Mason Neale 1854
REFLECTION
This hymn has become, for me, a Palm Sunday necessity, not only for its wonderful lyrics and tune, but for the story behind it as well. It is very old and is still among the most popular hymns for the day.
Palm Sunday gives me the willies. It is filled with royal pomp and circumstance, we wave the palms in church and our children love the event. But even as we are doing so, I always am wondering what I would have been crying out on Good Friday morning. Would my Hosannas have changed to Crucify Him?
There is also the issue of the offense of the kingship of Jesus—he comes in as a royal, we see direct connections with the coronation of King Solomon riding into Jerusalem in this scene. Pilate doesn’t much care about what the religious are accusing Jesus of doing or being. His accusers know that the one accusation that will get Pilate’s attention is that Jesus has claimed to be king. That Pilate could understand. Calling Jesus King was tantamount to calling him a rival of Caesar. This got Jesus crucified, and it got the apostles into a lot of trouble as they began their missionary journeys. The Romans would leave them alone preaching in the synagogues, but when they heard King, they became concerned.
N. T. Wright, the great New Testament scholar in his book The Challenge of Acts gave me some new ways to think about the word King as a title for Jesus. Many dislike the term because they think of some regal tyrant like George III, not King Charles III and they don’t like to think of Jesus being like that so they won’t use the moniker. Wright argued that Jesus is not only taking the title, but utterly changing the definition by his reign as a king. In the same way that Jesus as THE good shepherd, defines all other shepherds by Jesus’ example, so also should all kings understand that their role as king is under the reign of Jesus. Anyone who listened to the Coronation of King Charles a couple of years ago, if they were paying attention, would have noted that the theme of the reign of Christ was basic. It cleared up something for me. Maybe instead of revising language to fit our meager conventional undertandings, we should be reading deeply in these accounts to have our own definitions converted, turned around and made new. Hosanna to the King!
HYMN INFO
The hymn is one of the oldest in our hymnal. It is said to have been written in 820 by St. Theodolf of Orléans (ca. 750-821), a bishop in Charlemagne’s realm. The next king, Louis the Pious, viewed Theodulf as a traitor and put him in prison where he
languished. Some time during his imprisonment, he wrote this hymn. One Palm Sunday as the king was processing by the prison he is said to have heard this hymn coming from the jail. He was so moved by it, he decreed it should always be sung on Palm Sunday.
We still follow King Louis’ decree twelve hundred years later. The tune comes from
a later time and is used for several other texts, but this is the one we sing on Palm
Sunday. Enjoy these grand videos of the song being sung in cathedrals! Teschner, from Fraustadt, now in Poland, is the composer. He was an early and significant Lutheran composer. This is among the favorite Lutheran tunes of all time. for more on St. Theodulf click here:
LINKS
King’s College
Choir and congregation
Choir and congregation with children’s choir waving palms/fun
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