1 See, the Conqu’ror mounts in triumph;
see the King in royal state,
riding on the clouds, his chariot,
to his heav’nly palace gate.
Hear the choir of angel voices
joyful alleluias sing,
and the gates on high are opened
to receive their heav’nly King.

2 Who is this that comes in glory,
trumpets sound with jubilee?
Lord of battles, God of armies,
he has gained the victory.
He who on the cross did suffer,
he who from the grave arose,
he has conquered sin and Satan,
he by death has beat his foes.

3 You have raised our human nature
on the clouds to God’s right hand;
there we’ll sit in heav’nly places,
there with you in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adored by angels,
man with God is on the throne;
mighty Lord, in your ascension
we by faith behold our own.

I found this hymn in one of my graduate school readings the other day and it’s been on my mind ever since.

I like this hymn because it it about the ascension of Christ and I have become convinced that this is a neglected aspect of theology.

The hymn is by Christopher Wordsworth, originally written and published in a ten stanza format it has since been reordered to its present state. The beautiful thing about this hymn is the way it compresses so much scripture and theology into such succinct lines. The current three stanzas have a purposful arrangement:

• 1 – the ascending Lord is welcomed by singing angels as he arrive at the gates of heaven by way of the clouds.
• 2 – A succint summary of the Passion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. It is a kind of flash back answering the question of the first line of this stanza: “who is this…?”
• 3 – The implications of the ascension are here so beautifully articulated: we will be raised to glory with Christ: “in your ascension, we by faith behold our own.”

Beautiful! I will definitely be trying to find a way to work this into our ascension Sunday service!

See [here] the Hymnary.org page for this hymn to try and find it in your hymnal.

See also my post on the ascension.