Alternate title: Promised Land

Lyrics: Samuel Stennett, 1787.
Music: PROMISED LAND, arranged by Rigdon M. Mcintosh, 1895 is the traditional tune for this hymn.
This minor key tune by Miss M. Durham called THE PROMISED LAND is similar to the one above and may have come before it.
Here’s a tune called JORDAN”S SHORE by J.T. White.
William Walker’s Sacred Harp tune is called SWEET PROSPECT.
Or listen to the Indelible Grace version here, music by Christopher Miner. (This tune is also sung by Jars of Clay on the album Redemption Songs.)

Theme: The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground. Joshua 3:17

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

Chorus:
I am bound for the promised land;
I am bound for the promised land.
Oh, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.
OR I am bound, I am bound,
I am bound for the promised land.
I am bound, I am bound,
I am bound for the promised land.

O the transporting, rapturous scene,
That rises to my sight;
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight!

There generous fruits that never fail,
On trees immortal grow;
There rocks and hills, and brookd and vales,
With milk and honey flow.

O’er all those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.

No chilling winds,nor poisonous breath,
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.

When shall I reach that happy place,
And be forever blest?
When shall I see my Father’s face,
And in his bosom rest?

Filled with delight, my raptured soul
Would here no longer stay:
Though Jordan’s waves around me roll,
I’d fearless launch away.

Here’s another version of the lyrics (and tune) found in William Walker’s Baptist Harmony.

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

To see the righteous marching home and the angels bid them come,
And Jesus stands awaiting, to welcome travelers home,
To welcome travelers home, to welcome travelers home.
And Jesus stands awaiting, to welcome travelers home.

Samuel Stennett was an eighteenth century Baptist minister in London. He also wrote the hymn Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned, a hymn my mother was just telling me the other day was one of her favorites. Stennett wrote the verses to this hymn, and it’s been paired with several refrains, especially variations on “I am Bound for the Promised Land.”