’Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here

’Tis good, Lord, to be here,
Thy glory fills the night;
Thy face and garments, like the sun,
Shine with unborrowed light.

’Tis good, Lord, to be here,
Thy beauty to behold
Where Moses and Elijah stand,
Thy messengers of old.

Fulfiller of the past,
Promise of things to be,
We hail Thy body glorified
And our redemption see.

Before we taste of death,
We see Thy kingdom come;
We fain would hold the vision bright
And make this hill our home.

’Tis good, Lord, to be here.
Yet we may not remain;
But since Thou bidst us leave the mount,
Come with us to the plain.

Author: Joseph Armitage Robinson

Year: 1888

This hymn is a metrical paraphrase of the Transfiguration account. It is most commonly attributed to J. Armitage Robinson (later Dean of Westminster), who wrote it for the 1888 supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern. Some later hymnals have printed it anonymously or with slight textual variants, but Robinson is the accepted author.