Lyrics
At the name of Jesus
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess Him
King of glory now;
'Tis the Father's pleasure
We should call Him Lord,
Who from the beginning
Was the mighty Word.
Humbled for a season,
To receive a name
From the lips of sinners,
Amongst whom He came.
Faithfully He bore it
Spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious
When from death He passed.
In your hearts enthrone Him;
There let Him subdue
All that is not holy,
All that is not true.
Crown Him as your Captain
In temptation's hour;
Let His will enfold you
In its light and power.
Kindred, this Lord Jesus
Shall return again,
With His Father's glory,
With His angel train;
For all wreaths of empire
Meet upon His brow,
And our hearts confess Him
King of glory now.
Public domain hymn text (published 1870). Words by Caroline M. Noel. Based on Philippians 2:9-11.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Caroline Maria Noel, the daughter of an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer, wrote poetry in her late teens before setting it aside for two decades. She returned to writing only in her forties, after years of increasingly severe illness had left her largely bedridden — a condition that persisted for the last twenty-five years of her life. Rather than stop writing, Noel turned her verse specifically toward comforting others in similar circumstances, publishing a collection in 1861 titled The Name of Jesus and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely.
"At the Name of Jesus" — originally beginning "In the Name of Jesus" — appeared in the enlarged 1870 edition of that same collection. Noel intended it specifically as a processional hymn for Ascension Day, its text built directly on Paul's description in Philippians 2 of Christ humbled to the point of death and then exalted to a name above every name, before whom every knee will one day bow.
The hymn moves through that same arc across its four verses: Christ's eternal identity as the Word, His humbling among sinners, a call to enthrone Him personally in the heart, and finally His promised return in glory — the same movement from humiliation to exaltation that Paul himself traces in the passage the hymn is built on.
Noel died in 1877, having spent the final quarter-century of her life largely confined to her bed, writing devotional verse meant to strengthen others facing similar suffering — a biography that gives added weight to a hymn whose central figure was Himself, in Noel's own words, "humbled for a season" before being raised up in glory.
