Pleasant are Thy Courts Above

Henry Francis Lyte (1834)

How do you know when Scripture is a living presence, a flowing spring welling up in the hearts of the faithful? When they compose hymns that do not merely repeat a verse, but that meditate upon it and allow it to resound with other verses and other scenes in Scripture, so that the result is a subtle commentary on the text, and a moving and thoughtful work of art. That’s what we have in Henry Francis Lyte’s hymn, “Pleasant are Thy Courts Above,” sung best to the lilting and utterly lovely melody Maidstone.