This Scottish Paraphrase goes back to 1745. The Scottish landscape of mountain and glen is in the background; so are the Jacobite rebellions and the desire for peace and harmony between nations.
"The biblical phrases are incorporated into the verses with a dignified rhetoric that is in the best tradition of metrical Psalmody." This Scripture paraphrase of the eschatological vision of Isaiah, combined with the tune Glasgow, is one of the most powerful peace hymns I know.
Long before the more recent Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, the Scottish hymn and liturgical tradition produced a deeply contextual theology of peace between nations and longed for reconciliations.
(The hymn was sung at the close of the funeral service for Scotland's first First Minister, Donald Dewar.)
1 Behold! the mountain of the Lord
in latter days shall rise
on mountain tops above the hills,
and draw the wondering eyes.
2 To this the joyful nations round,
all tribes and tongues, shall flow;
up to the hill of God, they'll say,
and to his house we'll go.
3 The beam that shines from Zion hill
shall lighten every land;
the King who reigns in Salem's towers
shall all the world command.
4 Among the nations he shall judge;
his judgements truth shall guide;
his sceptre shall protect the just,
and quell the sinner’s pride.
5 No strife shall rage, nor hostile feuds
disturb those peaceful years;
to ploughshares men shall beat their swords,
to pruning-hooks their spears.
6 No longer hosts, encountering hosts,
shall crowds of slain deplore:
they hang the trumpet in the hall,
and study war no more.
7 Come then, O house of Jacob! come
to worship at his shrine;
and, walking in the light of God,
with holy beauties shine.
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