Ride On, Ride On in Majesty is a Palm Sunday hymn by Henry Hart Milman, an English clergyman and later Dean of St. Paul's, published in 1827. It follows Jesus on the donkey into Jerusalem while the crowds cry Hosanna, and keeps reminding the singer where the road leads: In lowly pomp, ride on to die. The hymn is built on Zechariah 9:9, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and on the Gospel accounts of the triumphal entry. It ends with the cross turning into a crown: Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.
Most Palm Sunday hymns stay with the palms and the shouting. Henry Milman's hymn does something harder. Every verse begins with the same joyful cry, Ride on! ride on in majesty! and every verse then looks past the crowd to what is waiting at the end of the week: death, the angels watching in sorrow, the Father waiting on His throne. Milman wrote it as a young vicar in Reading for Reginald Heber's collection of hymns for the church year, and it has been sung on the Sunday before Easter ever since. Below are the five verses as printed in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), then 12 KJV passages on the King who rode into Jerusalem to die and rose to reign.
Ride On, Ride On in Majesty: the words
Verse 1
Ride on! ride on in majesty!
Hark! all the tribes Hosanna cry;
O Saviour meek, pursue Thy road
With palms and scattered garments strowed.
Verse 2
Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp, ride on to die:
O Christ, Thy triumphs now begin
O'er captive death and conquered sin.
Verse 3
Ride on! ride on in majesty!
The angel armies of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see the approaching Sacrifice.
Verse 4
Ride on! ride on in majesty!
The last and fiercest strife is nigh:
The Father on His sapphire Throne
Awaits His own anointed Son.
Verse 5
Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp, ride on to die;
Bow Thy meek Head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.
Words: Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), written about 1820 and published in Reginald Heber's Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827). Text copied from Hymns Ancient and Modern (London, 1861), hymn 87, for the Sunday next before Easter, checked against Christ in Song (Philip Schaff, 1869) and Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894), hymn 425 (Internet Archive scans). Milman's own words in verses 3 and 4 were The winged squadrons of the sky and Expects His own anointed Son; most hymnals sing the 1861 lines printed here. Public domain.
Ride on in majesty: the King comes to Jerusalem
1. Zechariah 9:9
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass."
Five hundred years before Palm Sunday, Zechariah told Jerusalem to rejoice: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Kings rode horses into battle. A king on a donkey came in peace. When Jesus sent His disciples for a colt in the village ahead, He was choosing to fulfill this prophecy in public, and Matthew and John both quote it. Milman's phrase In lowly pomp captures the paradox: real royalty, real majesty, carried on the humblest animal in Israel. See our Bible verses about Palm Sunday.
2. Matthew 21:8-9
"And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."
Matthew describes the scene: a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. Then the crowds before and behind cried, Hosanna to the Son of David. Milman's first verse puts us in that road: Hark! all the tribes Hosanna cry; with palms and scattered garments strowed. Strowed is the old form of strewed, the word the KJV spells strawed. Hosanna means save now, a prayer as much as a shout of praise. The crowd asked more than it knew. Within days Jesus would answer their prayer in a way none of them expected.
3. John 12:13
"Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord."
John alone tells us the branches were palm branches: the people Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Palms were a sign of victory in Israel, waved at feasts and at the triumph of a deliverer. That is why the day is called Palm Sunday. John adds that the disciples did not understand all this at first, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered the prophecy and saw that it had been written of Him. Milman's hymn helps us sing the day with the understanding they gained afterward.
4. Luke 19:38
"Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest."
Luke records the disciples' song as Jesus came down the Mount of Olives: Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. It echoes the angels at Bethlehem, who sang glory to God in the highest and peace on earth. When the Pharisees told Jesus to silence His disciples, He answered that if they held their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Milman's repeated cry, Ride on! ride on in majesty! is the church joining that song. The King deserves praise, and His people should not be quieter than the stones would be.
In lowly pomp ride on to die: the road to the cross
5. Luke 9:51
"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,"
Long before Palm Sunday, Luke tells us, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Jesus knew what waited for Him there. He had told His disciples three times that He would be rejected, killed and raised. The triumphal entry was not an accident of popularity. It was the last stage of a journey He had chosen. Milman's line O Saviour meek, pursue Thy road describes a man walking toward the cross on purpose. Meek does not mean weak. It means strength under control, power that will not use itself for its own protection.
6. Philippians 2:8
"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Paul describes the whole road of Holy Week in one sentence: he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The next verses tell what followed: God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name. That is the shape of Milman's hymn. Four verses lead down toward mortal pain, and the last line turns upward: Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign. The hymn calls Jesus O God in that line. The One who bowed His head on the cross was not merely a good man. He was God the Son, choosing to die. See our Bible verses about humility.
7. Isaiah 50:6
"I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting."
The servant of the Lord in Isaiah says, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Within a week of Palm Sunday, every part of that verse came true. Soldiers struck Jesus, spat on Him and mocked Him as a king. Milman's fifth verse prays, Bow Thy meek Head to mortal pain, and the word gave in Isaiah matters. No one took Jesus' life from Him. He laid it down. The same Jesus who accepted the crowd's palms accepted the soldiers' blows, both for the sake of the people He came to save.
8. Luke 19:41-42
"And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."
Only Luke tells us that in the middle of the celebration Jesus stopped. when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! The crowds were cheering, but the city as a whole would reject Him. Milman's third verse imagines the angel armies looking down with sad and wondering eyes. Heaven saw more clearly than the crowd. Palm Sunday is a joyful day, but it is honest joy, mixed with the tears of a King who loves people who do not yet know Him.
Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign
9. Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews explains why Jesus kept riding on. There was joy on the other side of the cross: the joy of finishing the Father's work and bringing many sons to glory. Milman's fourth verse sets the scene in heaven, The Father on His sapphire Throne awaits His own anointed Son. Hebrews tells us how that waiting ended. Jesus is now seated there, and those who look to Him are given strength to keep going too.
10. Colossians 2:15
"And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."
Paul says that at the cross Christ, having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. The picture is a Roman triumph, a victorious general parading his captives through the streets. Milman's second verse uses the same image: O Christ, Thy triumphs now begin o'er captive death and conquered sin. On Palm Sunday the procession looked like a small parade of peasants. On Good Friday it looked like a defeat. But in God's eyes the real triumph was the cross itself, where sin, death and the devil were led away as captives. See our Bible verses about victory.
11. Psalms 24:7
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in."
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. This psalm was probably sung when the ark of God was carried up to Jerusalem, and Christians have long read it of Christ entering the city on Palm Sunday and entering heaven at His ascension. The gates are told to lift their heads to make room for a King too great for them. Milman's hymn moves from one gate to the other, from the gates of Jerusalem in the first verse to the throne of heaven in the last. The King of glory went in by way of the cross.
12. Revelation 19:16
"And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."
At the end of Revelation, John sees Christ ride out of heaven on a white horse, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. The donkey of Palm Sunday has become the white horse of His return. The crowd that shouted Hosanna for a week and then went quiet is replaced by the armies of heaven following Him. Milman's last line, Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign, looks ahead to this. The King who rode in lowly pomp to die will one day ride in open glory, and every knee will bow.
A short prayer
Lord Jesus, King of glory, You rode into Jerusalem in lowly pomp, knowing that You rode to die. Thank You for setting Your face toward the cross for me. Forgive me when I cheer for You on Sunday and turn away from You by Friday. Teach me Your meekness, strength that gives itself for others. Let me see the triumph hidden in the cross, where You conquered sin and death. Ride on in my heart, and reign there now, as You will one day reign over all the earth. Hosanna in the highest. Amen.
Go deeper: a SOAP study prompt
Pick one verse above and write: - Scripture: copy the verse by hand. - Observation: what does it say? Who is speaking, to whom? - Application: what does it mean for you today? - Prayer: turn it into a two-line prayer.
New to this method? See our Bible study guide or pick a Bible reading plan.
Get the free Lent Bible reading plan · Print the free Easter coloring pages · Memorize Zechariah 9:9 with Scripture memory cards
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote Ride On, Ride On in Majesty?
Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), an English poet, historian and clergyman who later became Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, wrote it around 1820. It was first printed in Reginald Heber's posthumous collection Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827).
When is Ride On, Ride On in Majesty sung?
It is a Palm Sunday hymn, sung on the Sunday before Easter, which falls on March 21 in 2027. Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) set it for the Sunday next before Easter, right after All Glory, Laud and Honor, and many churches sing the two together in the Palm Sunday procession.
What Bible passage is Ride On, Ride On in Majesty based on?
The hymn is based on the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19 and John 12, and on the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Its later verses look ahead to the cross (Philippians 2:8) and to Christ's triumph over death (Colossians 2:15).
Why do some hymnals print winged squadrons instead of angel armies?
Milman's original 1827 words were The winged squadrons of the sky in verse 3 and Expects His own anointed Son in verse 4. Hymns Ancient and Modern changed these to The angel armies of the sky and Awaits, and most hymnals since have sung the 1861 wording. Both versions are in the public domain.
Sources: All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), public domain in the United States. References were checked against the KJV text from bible-api.com.
Related: All Glory, Laud and Honor · Lent Hymns · Holy Week Timeline · O Sacred Head, Now Wounded · When I Survey the Wondrous Cross · Palm Sunday · Jesus as King · Lent
Explore more: All Bible verses by topic · KJV Bible verses · Verse of the day · Prayers · Bible study · Bible reading plans
