The words of this hymn are attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), an influential abbot who wrote many meditations. I found that attribution questioned by Garcia Grindal on her blog dedicated to hymns. She says Arnulf of Leuven, Abbot of Villers-la-Ville, (1200-1250) is the author of the original poem, and it sounds so much like Bernard who could blame us for misattributing it to him.

Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth of Martinsburg, Virginia, a Lutheran scholar and musician, translated the poem into English.

Wide open are Thy hands,
Paying with more than gold
The awful debt of guilty men,
Forever and of old.

Ah, let me grasp those hands,
That we may never part,
And let the power of their blood
Sustain my fainting heart.

Wide open are Thine arms,
A fallen world t’embrace;
To take to love and endless rest
Our whole forsaken race.

Lord, I am sad and poor,
But boundless is Thy grace;
Give me the soul transforming joy
For which I seek Thy face.

Draw all my mind and heart
Up to Thy throne on high,
And let Thy sacred Cross exalt
My spirit to the sky.

To these, Thy mighty hand,
My spirit I resign;
Living, I live alone to Thee,
And, dying, I am Thine.