“Here Was A Man”
Here was a man, a man
Who was born in a small village
The son of a peasant woman
He grew up in another small village
Until he reached the age of thirty
He worked as a carpenter
Then for three years
He was a traveling minister
But he never traveled more
Than two hundred miles from
Where he was born and
Where he did go he usually walked
He never held political office
He never wrote a book
Never bought a home
Never had a family
He never went to college
And he never set foot inside a big city
Yes, here was a man
Though he never did one on the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He had nothing to do with this world
Except through the divine purpose
That brought him to this world
While he was still a young man
The tide of popular opinion turned against him
Most of his friends ran away
One of them denied him
One of them betrayed him
And turned him over to his enemies
Then he went through the mockery of a trial
And was nailed to a cross between two thieves
And even while he was dying
His executioners gambled
For the only piece of property
That he had in this world
And that was his robe his purple robe
When he was dead
He was taken down from the cross
And laid in a borrowed grave
Provided by compassionate friends
More than nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today he’s a centerpiece of the human race
Our leader in the column to human destiny
I think, I’m well within the mark when I say
That all of the armies that ever marched
All of the navies that ever sailed the seas
All of the legislative bodies that ever sat
And all of the kings that ever reigned
All of them put together have not affected
The life of man on this earth
So powerfully as that one solitary life
Here was a man
(Joy to the world, the Lord is come)
About Johnny Cash Lyrics
Artist: Johnny Cash
Related songs: The Gifts They Gave Lyrics
Album: The Christmas Spirit
Release date: November 1963
Label: Columbia Records
Born: February 26, 1932, Kingsland, Arkansas, United States
Died: September 12, 2003, Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Graduation date: 1950
Edited works: I Walk the Line: Very Best of Johnny Cash, MORE
Hall of fame inductions: February 8, 1960, 1977, 1992, 2011
Grandchildren: Jakob William Leventhal, Anna Maybelle Cash, MORE
Songwriting partners: June Carter Cash, Bob Dylan, MORE