Hymns from scripture
Hymns based on 1 Peter 2
1 Peter 2 has given hymn writers words for 4 hymns in this library, by writers including Joseph Medlicott Scriven, Edward Mote and E. H. Plumptre. Each is listed below with the lines that echo the chapter and the verses they draw on, quoted from the World English Bible, a public-domain modern translation.
The verse these hymns return to most is 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.”
Hymn writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries knew their Bibles almost by heart, and they wove its phrases into their lines — sometimes as a close paraphrase, as in the metrical psalms, and sometimes as a single image carried into a new setting. Reading the verse beside the line shows what the writer had in mind, and often why a hymn was chosen to be sung alongside a particular reading.
- What a Friend We Have in Jesus — What a friend we have in Jesus,1 Peter 2:24
- My Hope is Built on Nothing Less — My hope is built on nothing less1 Peter 2:5–8
- Thine Arm, O Lord, in Days of Old — Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old,1 Peter 2:9–10
- Who would true valor see — He who would valiant be1 Peter 2:19–24