Johnny Cash Here Was A Man lyrics

(Joy to the world the Lord is come)
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)