During my prayer and devotion time on Dec 20th, 2024, a short rhyme came to mind as a tool to help me focus my mindset for the day:
May we love Your holy name
More than life and more than pain.
May my love for You extend
To my neighbor to the end.
May my life thus shout Your praise,
This day through the end of days.
But then throughout the rest of the day I kept intermittently adding to it to make it into a hymn. So this is what I ended up with:
Father, You have made this day,
And this flesh to walk Your Way.
With what strength You grant to me,
May I serve you thankfully.
Hail, Creator from of old!
Hail, the Lamb, who makes us bold!
Though You reign from heav’n above,
Here You hear us in Your love.
May we love Your holy name
More than life and more than pain.
May my love for You extend
To my neighbor to the end.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
May my life thus shout Your praise,
This day through the end of days.
May Your words here fill my soul;
Your desires be my goal.
May I love my brother more
Than Your wares I want to store.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Bread this day thus to us send,
Then bring us our labor’s end.
May Your loving pardon be
Cause for my humility.
May I set my neighbors free,
Though this day they injure me.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Judge me thus, not by my debts;
Free me in Your righteousness.
May no test of fun or gain
Pull me back to death or stain.
May my words and deeds this day
Cause no child to fall away.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Lead us thus by paths You know,
Where no tempting thought may grow.
May Your grace deliver me
From our foe’s calamity.
Let the cup of suff’ring pass.
Raise us with your Christ at last.
Hail, O kingdom of Your Son!
Come, O Lord! Your will be done!
Thus deliver us from all
Lawless fruits of Adam’s fall.
May it be, for all is Thine;
None can thwart what You design.
May Your enemies become
But a footstool for Your throne.
Praise the Father, Spirit, Son!
Holy, holy, holy One!
With this life I bend my knee,
Now and through eternity.
It can be put to the tune HUMILITY (“See, Amid the Winter Snow”.)
The main intent of the words as I wrote was as a morning prayer for the present day (so “May my love for You extend To my neighbor to the end” is meant firstly as “to the end of this day”). The prayer is first to love God above all things, and then to apply that love toward my neighbor in the same way as I ask for God to love me (see Mt. 7:11-12; 22:26-40).
The word “Hail” in the refrain is meant in the old sense of a greeting. It greets the coming kingdom of Christ in a couple of ways: First it connects each stanza’s prayer for leading a Godly life, which usually comes right before the refrain, to praying for God’s kingdom to come “here in time”( see Luther’s explanation to the 2nd petition of the Lord’s Prayer). Second, it connects to the prayer for God’s kingdom to come “hereafter in eternity” (ibid) sense that gets represented in the Revelation 22 “Come” that follows in the second line of the refrain. Using a greeting acts as an expression of confidence and certain hope that God grants this prayer, that His kingdom is indeed coming and we greet it in faith (see Heb. 11:13). It is true that “Hail” can evoke “See, Amid the Winter’s Snow” especially when using the same tune. Its use was inspired from that hymn. That might be jarring to some, but I like the depth of meaning. Nevertheless, if one really desires, one could replace the main refrain with the following lines:
Father, let Your kingdom come!
Come, Lord Christ! Your will be done!