LSB #394 "Songs of Thankfulness and Praise"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Isaiah 61:1-3, 1 Peter 1:20, Matthew 11:4-5, Revelation 19:1-16

Isaiah 61:1-3:  "1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and that day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion - to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified."

1 Peter 1:20:  "He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you."

Matthew 11:4-5:  "4 And Jesus answered them [disciples sent by John the Baptist], 'Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.'"

Revelation 19:1-16:  "1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, 'Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgements are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immortality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.'

"3 Once more they cried out, 'Hallelujah!  The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.'  4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, 'Amen.  Hallelujah!'  5 And from the throne came a voice saying, 'Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.'  6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure' - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

"9 And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'  And he said to me, 'These are the true words of God.'  10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, 'You must not do that!  I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.  Worship God.'  For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

"11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse!  The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.  He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."

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The text is public domain:

Songs of thankfulness and praise,
Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise,
Manifested by the star
To the sages from afar,
Branch of royal David's stem
In Thy birth at Bethlehem:
Anthems be to Thee addressed,
God in man made manifest.

Manifest at Jordan's stream,
Prophet, Priest, and King supreme;
And at Cana wedding guest
In Thy Godhead manifest;
Manifest in pow'r divine,
Changing water into wine;
Anthems be to Thee addressed,
God in man made manifest.

Manifest in making whole
Palsied limbs and fainting soul;
Manifest in valiant fight,
Quelling all the devil's might;
Manifest in gracious will,
Ever bringing good from ill;
Anthems be to Thee addressed,
God in man made manifest.

Sun and moon shall darkened be,
Stars shall fall, the heav'ns shall flee;
Christ will then like lightning shine,
All will see His glorious sign;
All will then the trumpet hear,
All will see the Judge appear;
Thou by all wilt be confessed,
God in man made manifest.

Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord,
Present in Thy holy Word -
Grace to imitate Thee now
And be pure, as pure art Thou;
That we might become like Thee
At Thy great epiphany
And may praise Thee, ever blest,
God in man made manifest.

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Although it's not cited, the lines "Manifested by the star / To the sages from afar" refer to the wise men's visiting Jesus in Matthew 2.  Similarly, "Branch of royal David's stem" is uncited but comes from Isaiah 11:1.

The recurring line "God in man made manifest" comes from the 1 Peter verse.

The second verse refers to a number of Biblical stories that are uncited.  "Manifest at Jordan's stream" seems to refer to Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22).  "And at Cana wedding guest... Changing water into wine" refers to Jesus' first miracle (John 2:1-11).

The third verse seems to come from both Matthew 11:4-5 and Isaiah 61:1-3 (cited by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19).  These two selections mention "bring[ing] good news to the poor... bind[ing] up the brokenhearted" (Isaiah) and "the blind receiv[ing] their sight and the lame walk[ing], lepers [being] cleansed and the deaf hear[ing], and the dead [being] raised up, and the poor hav[ing] good news preached to them" (Matthew).  In the hymn verse, these are rendered as "making whole / Palsied limbs and fainting soul" and "Ever bringing good from ill."

The fourth verse seems to describe the same events detailed at the end of the Revelation text.

Aside from the "God in man made manifest" line, I don't think there are any Biblical references in the last verse.

"Nun lob, mein' Seel'" (TLH #34)

I wasn't familiar with this tune, but it wasn't too difficult to record (the harmony part took a few tries, and the bass part more than a few).  I sustained the notes for an extra measure in between the first and second verses (to make the division more clear), so I probably should have done the same in between the second verse and the Amen cadence.

"Jesus, Priceless Treasure"

Last July I noticed a small thing about "Jesus, Priceless Treasure," sung to the tune "Jesu, meine Freude" ("Jesus, my joy" in German).  The last two lines of the third verse are "Earth and all its depths adore Him / Silent bow before Him," and that second line is sung to this phrase:

There's a descent in the tune, which reflects the descent of the "bow[ing]" in the hymn text.

LSB #393 "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly"

Biblical citation in the hymnal:  Luke 2:1-20

Luke 2:1-20:  "1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town.  4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.  7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

"8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  10 And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.'  13 And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!'

"15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.'  16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.  17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.  18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.  19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.  20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them."

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The text is public domain:

Infant holy,
Infant lowly,
For His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing,
Little knowing
Christ the child is Lord of all.
Swiftly winging,
Angels singing,
Bells are ringing,
Tidings bringing:
Christ the child is Lord of all!
Christ the child is Lord of all!

Flocks were sleeping,
Shepherds keeping
Vigil till the morning new
Saw the glory,
Heard the story,
Tidings of a Gospel true.
Thus rejoicing,
Free from sorrow,
Praises voicing,
Greet the morrow:
Christ the child was born for you!
Christ the child was born for you!

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Since there's only one Biblical text cited and no other texts referenced in the hymn (none that I can see, anyway), I have nothing to add to this one.

"Allein Gott in der Höh'" (TLH #33)

I'm familiar with this tune from LSB, but it's ever so slightly different in TLH.  The entire melody in the TLH version alternates between quarter and half notes (I had to change the last half note to a dotted half note so I could started the Amen cadence on the first beat of the measure), but in a couple phrases in the LSB version, a half note is changed into a pair of quarter notes.  This has some interesting implications that I'm going to add to my list of things to write about.

"To Jordan's River Came Our Lord"

One of the hymns in church a couple weeks ago (for the Baptism of Our Lord) was "To Jordan's River Came Our Lord."  I noticed a couple little things about it.

It's sung to the tune "Winchester New," the first phrase of which has a cross inscription:

I don't think there's any connection between this cross inscription and the hymn's text; however, in the sixth verse, the line here is "Now rise, faint hearts, be resolute," so the ascent in the melody (a fourth: F to Bb) connects to the call to "rise."

In the fifth verse, there's a descent in the melody that musically represents "Adam's fall."  The whole verse is:

The Father's word, the Spirit's flight
Anointed Christ in glorious sight
As God's own choice, from Adam's fall
To save the world and free us all.

The third line is sung to this musical phrase:

There's an-other cross inscription here, but I don't think there's any connection between this one and the hymn text either.

Finally, there's a descent in the last phrase that mirrors the descent mentioned in last line of the third verse: the Holy Spirit "Descended on Him from above":

LSB #392 "God Loves Me Dearly"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  1 John 4:9-10, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:4-5

1 John 4:9-10:  "9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

John 3:16:  "'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.'"

Romans 5:8:  "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Ephesians 2:4-5:  "4 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved."

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The text is public domain:

God loves me dearly,
Grants me salvation,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

Therefore I'll say again:
God loves me dearly,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

I was in slav'ry,
Sin, death, and darkness;
God's love was working
To make me free.

Therefore I'll say again:
God loves me dearly,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

He sent forth Jesus,
My dear Redeemer,
He sent for Jesus
And set me free.

Therefore I'll say again:
God loves me dearly,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

Jesus, my Savior,
Himself did offer;
Jesus, my Savior,
Paid all I owed.

Therefore I'll say again:
God loves me dearly,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

Now I will praise You,
O Love Eternal;
Now I will praise You
All my life long.

Therefore I'll say again:
God loves me dearly,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

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Each of the four Biblical texts cited say pretty much the same thing, so it's difficult to distinguish which text the hymn is referring to in any given section.

The name "Redeemer" in the third verse seems to be taken from Job 19:25 where Job says, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth," but the contexts don't have much in common.

"Ich dank' dir, lieber Herre" (TLH #32)

I don't have much to say about this one except that I recorded this earlier than I normally do (on Friday) and that I wasn't familiar with the tune.

"Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning"

Every day from 1 December to 23 December I listened to Christmas music.  One of the albums I listened to was Anonymous 4's The Cherry Tree, and one of the songs on the album is "Star in the East," which (aside from the first verse) is essentially the same as the hymn "Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning."  The melodies are different, and there are a couple different words in the texts.  After listening to the album, I realized something about "Star in the East" that also holds true for "Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning."

Here's the melody to which "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning" is sung in "Star in the East" (one of the lyrical differences is "sons" in place of "stars"):

(As the name would suggest, Anonymous 4 features four singers [and four vocal parts].  I did my best to isolate what I think is the main vocal part here.)

Here's the melody to which "Brightest and best of the stars of the morning" is sung in The Lutheran Service Book (the tune is "Morning Star"):

For both, the notes to which "brightest" (the first syllable, anyway) and "best" are sung have greater values than the surrounding notes (half notes amid quarter notes), and those greater values provide even further emphasis to the superlatives.  In "Star in the East," those notes have the highest pitches in the phrase, which also emphasizes the superlatives.

While looking at the hymn, I also noticed something about the second phrase:

In the second verse, the text here is "Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall," and there's a descent in the melody that musically represents "Low lies His head."

LSB #391 "Rejoice, Rejoice This Happy Morn"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Luke 2:10-14, 20; Luke 1:46-47

Luke 2:10-14:  "10 And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.'  13 And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!'"

Luke 2:20:  "And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them."

Luke 1:46-47:  "46 And Mary said, 'My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.'"

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The text is public domain:

Rejoice, rejoice this happy morn,
A Savior unto us is born,
The Christ, the Lord of glory!
His lowly birth in Bethlehem
The angels from on high proclaim
And sing redemption's story!
My soul, extol
God's great favor;
Bless Him ever
For salvation;
Give Him praise and adoration!

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This hymn consists of a single verse, so the Biblical sources are pretty easy to trace.  Luke 2:10-14 is the source for the first half of the hymn, although "A Savior unto us is born" bears some resemblance to the first part of Isaiah 9:6:  "For to us a child is born...."  "My soul, extol / God's great favor" is from Luke 1:46 (the beginning of the Magnificat).  Finally, "Give Him praise and adoration" comes from Luke 2:20.  For these last two (Luke 1:46 and 2:20), the Biblical sources are in the indicative mood, but the hymn shifts them into the imperative.

"Winchester Old" (TLH #31)

I skipt #30 because while the melody was easily playable, LHC does this weird thing where there's a half rest in one measure adjacent to a quarter rest in the next.  I thought three sequential measures of rests would sound weird if I were to record it.

I'd noticed before that LSB has "Winchester New" but not "Winchester Old," and I'd wondered if such a tune actually exists.  I guess it does.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem"

I follow Roger McGuinn's Folk Den, a series of monthly recordings of folk songs.  For December, McGuinn recorded "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and while I'm not sure it's technically a folk song, I noticed a small thing to write about.

McGuinn's version is slightly different from what I'm used to (he uses the second half of the first verse as a refrain), but - as in The Lutheran Service Book - the second verse begins with the lines

For Christ is born of Mary,
And, gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wond'ring love.

That second line is sung to this musical phrase (according to LSB, the tune is "St. Louis"):

There's a rather large interval between the two syllables of "above."  It spans a sixth, from C to A.  This alone gives a musical sense of "above," but so does the fact that that A note is the highest note in this phrase.

A very minor point: in the fourth verse, the line "Descend to us, we pray" is sung to this same musical phrase, so there's a very slight descent in the notes to which "descend" is sung (just a whole step: G to F).

While looking over the hymn in order to write this post, I found a second small thing to write about.  The second half of the second verse is

O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the king
And peace to all the earth!

The last line is sung to this phrase:

The stars' "sing[ing]... peace to all the earth" is sung to a descending phrase, so there's a musical sense of the stars' "sing[ing]" down to earth.

LSB #390 "Let Us All with Gladsome Voice"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Galatians 4:4-7, 1 Peter 1:8, Psalm 118:15, Romans 5:10-12

Galatians 4:4-7:  "4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'  7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."

1 Peter 1:8:  "Though you have not seen him, you love him.  Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory..."

Psalm 118:15:  "Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: 'The right hand of the LORD does valiantly...'"

Romans 5:10-12:  "10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.  11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

"12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned..."

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The text is public domain:

Let us all with gladsome voice
Praise the God of heaven,
Who, to bid our hearts rejoice,
His own Son hath given.

To this vale of tears He comes,
Here to serve in sadness,
That with Him in heav'n's fair homes
We may reign in gladness.

We are rich, for He was poor;
Is not this a wonder?
Therefore praise God evermore
Here on earth and yonder.

Christ, our Lord and Savior dear,
Be Thou ever near us.
Grant us now a glad new year.
Amen, Jesus, hear us.

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The first two lines ("Let us all with gladsome voice / Praise the God of heaven") seem to come from both Psalm 118 ("Glad songs of salvation"), and 1 Peter 8 ("rejoic[ing] with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory").  "Who, to bid our hearts rejoice, / His own Son hath given" refers to the Galatians 4 text, specifically "God sent forth his Son... to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."

The second verse and the beginning of the third have the same idea as the Romans 5 text.  Both mention that we are "reconciled" and "may reign in gladness" because of what Christ has done for us.