Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

“Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” is a Lenten hymn by Claudia Frances Hernaman, first published in 1873 in The Child's Book of Praise: A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse. Hernaman wrote the hymn as a devotional reflection on the forty days during which Christ fasted and prayed in the wilderness. The hymn follows the biblical account of Christ's temptation and applies His experience directly to the spiritual life of the believer. It asks Christ to teach His people to mourn their sins, remain close to Him, resist temptation, and live according to His holy Word.

The first stanza looks to Christ's fasting and prayer and asks believers to learn from His example. The second stanza focuses particularly on Christ's confrontation with Satan and His victory over temptation. The worshiper therefore does not merely remember Christ's wilderness experience, but asks for strength to fight against sin and to conquer temptation through Christ. This corresponds closely with Hebrews 4:15-16, which presents Christ as One who was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin, and therefore as the One to whom believers may come for grace and help.

The third stanza turns to Christ's hunger and thirst and asks for grace to die to self and live by God's Word. The hymn thus presents Lent as a season of repentance, self-denial, spiritual discipline, and renewed dependence upon Christ. The fourth stanza extends the prayer through the whole period of penitence and Passiontide, asking Christ to abide with His people in both life and death. The final stanza looks beyond suffering toward “an Easter of unending joy,” giving the hymn a clear movement from repentance and suffering toward resurrection hope and eternal joy.

The hymn is written in Common Meter and is most commonly paired with ST. FLAVIAN, a historic tune derived from John Day's Psalter of the sixteenth century. Hymnary records the hymn in many hymnals and consistently associates it with Lent, repentance, Christ's temptation, spiritual strength, and the Christian's struggle against sin.