The Lord is in His Holy Temple, by Andrew Dittman, Choirmaster, Chapel of the Cross

Every year on February 2, the fortieth day of Christmas, we celebrate the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Candlemas. We remember Christ appearing to the aged Simeon, who then sings the Nunc dimittis, as told in the Gospel of St. Luke.

About a year ago, The Chapel Choir commissioned Christopher Hoyt, organist and choirmaster at Good Shepherd REC in Tyler, to write a hymn text (below) to celebrate this feast. Each stanza begins the words of the prophet Habakkuk, “The Lord is in his holy temple,” which you may recognize as one of the opening sentences for morning prayer. Then each stanza goes on to recount the different times Jesus came to the temple: first, at the incarnation (to the temple of human flesh); second, as a forty-day-old baby; third, as a twelve-year-old boy; fourth and fifth, overturning the tables; then destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days; and finally, our petition that Christ would make his temple ever in our hearts.

We look forward to singing this as a hymn or anthem this upcoming Candlemas!

THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE

1. The Lord is in his holy temple.
   Taking to himself our flesh,
   He tabernacles, weak and gentle,
   God incarnate in the crèche.
   Behold how God sojourns with sinners,
   Shares the suff’rer’s pilgrimage!
2. The Lord is in his holy temple.
   Simeon greets the infant Christ.
   Behold the Lamb whose death shall end all
   Shadow, type, and sacrifice;
   The soul’s salvation, Light of Gentiles,
   Israel’s glory, heaven’s price.
3. The Lord is in his holy temple.
   As a boy of twelve he stands,
   Both heeds and questions scribes assembled,
   Searching out his God’s commands.
   Behold, the Word, the source of wisdom,
   Deigns to learn of truth from man!
4. The Lord is in his holy temple.
   Mammon dares not linger there;
   Christ wears no more an aspect gentle,
   But the zealous scourge he bears.
   The Son now scours his Father’s dwelling,
   Making it a house of pray’r.
5. The Lord is in his holy temple.
   Double ruin he foretells:
   These walls and pillars ornamental
   All shall, stone from stone, be felled.
   But greater grief when Christ forsakes his
   Body, and descends to hell.
6. The Lord is in his holy temple,
   Raising it as he had said.
   Behold the temple’s lamp rekindled!
   See it decked with living Bread.
   And we, its living stones, are rescued
   By the blood that he has shed!
7. The Lord is in his holy temple.
   Form our flesh; may it be thine.
   Purge from these courts all that is sinful;
   Light these lamps with fire divine.
   Destroy our former selves and raise us;
   Let us be thy new-made shrine.
   Amen.

Christopher Hoyt, 2024