He is Lord, He is Lord / You are Lord

This is a short worship-chorus about Jesus, the risen Lord. It is based on Philippians 2:10-11 "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

The author and composer are unknown. American Christian musician Steve Vest states that he composed it, but clarified that there are text-differences between his song and this one. He didn't link to a published version, so it's not been possible to compare the tune - and the folk-process means that slightly different versions of the tune are used around the world anyway.

The earliest publication located so far is Scripture in Song - Songs of Praise - Volume 1, released in New Zealand in 1971.

In some liturgically-focused churches the words are changed to speak to the person of Christ (You are Lord .. You are risen .. You O Christ are Lord).

Churches with more free-format worship have added extra verses, eg He is King, He is love, etc: sometimes these are only different in the first and last lines, and sometimes they introduce different ideas in the other lines too, for example:

He is King, he is King,
He will draw all nations to him, He is King;
And the time shall be, when the world shall sing,
That Jesus Christ is King.

He will come, He will come,
He has promised in His Word that He will come,
Some glad day or night, with great power and might
The risen Lord will come.

If you have any more information about the song, please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of the page.

Downloads

This section may contain affiliate links: I earn from qualifying purchases on these. Free downloads are provided where possible (eg for public domain items).