Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Friday, May 19, 2017

"Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Savior"

During the Good Friday service last month, one of the (many) hymns sung was "Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Savior."  I noticed that the second musical phrase (of the tune "Jesus Christus, unser Heiland") has a cross inscription:


To some degree, the second measure there has a cross inscription too (which is why I included it in my excerpt of the notation), but it's not as clearly delineated as that in the first measure.

I think there's only one instance in the hymn where this cross inscription in the music is meaningfully aligned with the words, and that's the first verse.  The first two lines of the first verse are "Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior, / Turned away God's wrath forever."  The first half of the line "Turned away God's wrath forever" is what's sung to that cross inscription in the music, and Christ's crucifixion is the very thing that "Turned away God's wrath forever."