Messiah: No. 16 And suddenly there was with the angel

The text is from Luke 2:13:  "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,"

"Herr Jesu Christ, dich" (TLH #125)

"Tell Out, My Soul, the Greatness of the Lord"

About a year ago, I sang "Tell Out, My Soul, the Greatness of the Lord" in church and noticed something about the last phrase:

(The tune is "Woodlands.")

The last two lines of the hymn (in the fourth verse) are "Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord / To children's children and forevermore!"  "Forevermore" is sung to the last four notes:  a quarter note (D), a dotted half note (E), a quarter note (D), and a whole note (D), for a total of nine beats.  "Forevermore" is held longer than any other word in the hymn, providing a sense of duration.

LSB #484 "Make Songs of Joy"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  1 Corinthians 15:55-57, Isaiah 53:4-5

1 Corinthians 15:55-57:  "55 'O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?'  56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Isaiah 53:4-5:  "4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."

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The verses from 1 Corinthians appear in the hymn's third and fourth verses.  The third verse starts with the line "O death, where is your deadly sting?" and the fourth verse with the line "And where your victory, O grave."

The verses from Isaiah appear in the hymn's second verse:  "Our life was purchased by His loss... He died our death upon the cross."

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The first verse seems to come from Colossians 1:18:  "And he is the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent."  The hymn draws on Christ as "the head" and His resurrection:  "Make songs of joy to Christ, our head... He lives again who once was dead!"

Messiah: No. 15 And the angel said unto them

The text is from Luke 2:10-11:  "10 And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.  11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'"

"Nun freut euch" (TLH #124)

"O God, Our Help in Ages Past"

The hymn tune I recorded this week was "St. Anne," used for "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."  While looking at the hymn, I noticed a connection between the text and the last musical phrase:

The first and the last (sixth) verse both end with the line "And our eternal home."  "Home" is sung to the tonic note (a C in C major), so there's "home" in the text and home in the tune.

LSB #483 "With High Delight Let Us Unite"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Isaiah 52:9-10, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, Mark 16:15

Isaiah 52:9-10:  "9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.  10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."

1 Corinthians 15:20-23:  "20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  23 But each in his own order:  Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ."

Mark 16:15:  "And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.'"

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The hymn has three verses, and each verse is drawn from one of the Biblical citations.  The verses from Isaiah appear in the hymn's first verse, particularly at the beginning ("With high delight / Let us unite / In songs of great jubilation") and the end ("To all earth's ends / Good news to save ev'ry nation").

The verses from 1 Corinthians appear in the hymn's second verse, which is about Christ's resurrection and victory over death.  Mark 16:15 is in the third verse:  "His honor speed / By word and deed / To ev'ry land, ev'ry nation."

Messiah: No. 14 There were shepherds abiding in the fields

The text is from Luke 2:8-9:  "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."

The shape of this phrase is interesting.  Visually (and I suppose also audibly), it goes really well with the text.  "Keeping watch over their flock by night" forms an arc, as if to symbolize the shepherds' watching, and the highest note in the phrase occurs over "flock," the object over which they're watching.

"St. Anne" (TLH #123)

"Glory Be to Jesus"

I recently watched the Worship Anew program from 25 August (Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost).  The Epistle reading was from Hebrews 12, and I think part of this appears in the fourth verse of "Glory Be to Jesus":

Abel's blood for vengeance
Pleaded to the skies;
But the blood of Jesus
For our pardon cries.

In my original post on the Biblical sources, I wrote that this verse comes from Genesis 4:10:  "And the LORD said, 'What have you done?  The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.'"  But this contrast between Abel's blood and Jesus' blood is specifically mentioned in Hebrews 12:24:  "and [you have come] to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  While Genesis 4:10 is important as far as the context, this verse from Hebrews seems to be the actual source for this hymn verse.

LSB #482 "This Joyful Eastertide"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  1 Corinthians 15:17-20, 51-52; Revelation 14:13

1 Corinthians 15:17-20:  "17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

"20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

1 Corinthians 15:51-52:  "51 Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."

Revelation 14:13:  "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this:  Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'  'Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!'"

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The text is public domain:

This joyful Eastertide
Away with sin and sorrow!
My love, the Crucified,
Has sprung to life this morrow:

Had Christ, who once was slain,
Not burst His three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain:
But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;
But now has Christ arisen!

Death's flood has lost its chill
Since Jesus crossed the river;
Lover of souls, from ill
My passing soul deliver:

Had Christ, who once was slain,
Not burst His three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain:
But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;
But now has Christ arisen!

My flesh in hope shall rest
And for a season slumber
Till trump from east to west
Shall wake the dead in number:

Had Christ, who once was slain,
Not burst His three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain:
But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;
But now has Christ arisen!

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1 Corinthians 15:17-20 (particularly verse 17) appears most clearly in the refrain:  "Had Christ... Not burst His three-day prison, / Our faith had been in vain."  The resurrection is mentioned in verse 20 ("Christ has been raised from the dead"), which seems to be the source for the second half of the hymn's first verse:  "My love, the Crucified, / Has sprung to life this morrow."

The other two Biblical citations appear in the third verse.  "My flesh in hope shall rest / And for a season slumber" seems to be drawn from "the dead... rest[ing] from their labors" in Revelation 14:13, and "Till trump from east to west / Shall wake the dead in number" comes from 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.  (Incidentally, "from east to west" is a merism.)

Messiah: No. 12 For unto us a child is born

The text is from Isaiah 9:6:  "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

"Nun lasst uns Gott, dem Herren" (TLH #122)

"With the Lord Begin Your Task"

Last year, I noticed that there are seven cross inscriptions in the tune "Fang dein Werk," used with the text "With the Lord Begin Your Task."*  I feel that there might be some significance in there being seven (a Biblical number of completeness) and that there might be some connections between these inscriptions and the hymn text, but I found only one instance that I can make an argument for.

Here are the third and fourth phrases of the tune (which are just a repetition of the first and second phrases):

In the second verse, the text here is "On the Lord cast ev'ry care; / He is your salvation."  There's a cross inscription for "your salvation," illustrating that the Lord has won our salvation through His crucifixion and resurrection.

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*As it appears in The Lutheran Hymnal, the first line of the original German text is "Fang dein Werk mit Jesu an" ("With the Lord begin your task" or - more literally and more prosaically - "Begin your work with Jesus").  Apparently, this line was just shortened to get the title for the tune, but because the title omits the "an" at the end, it actually means "Catch your work."  ("Begin your work" would be "Fang dein Werk an.")  Anfangen is one of a class of German verbs called separable prefix verbs where - when conjugated - the prefix is moved to the end of the clause.  Because the "an-" isn't in the title, the verb looks like the imperative form of fangen, which means to catch.

LSB #481 "Scatter the Darkness, Break the Gloom"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Matthew 28:5-6; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 20, 54-57

Matthew 28:5-6:  "5 But the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.  Come, see the place where he lay.'"

1 Corinthians 15:3-8:  "3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:  that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve."

1 Corinthians 15:20:  "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

1 Corinthians 15:54-57:  "54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  'Death is swallowed up in victory.'  55 'O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?'  56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

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The text from Matthew appears (somewhat indirectly) in the first verse:  "Sun reveal an empty tomb... Christ has risen from the dead!"

The first two texts from 1 Corinthians 15 (verses 3-8, 20) could also be cited for "Christ has risen from the dead!" but I think all three texts from this chapter show up more clearly in the second and third verses.  "He who for us, so cruelly treated" in the second verse seems drawn from "Christ died for our sins" (verse 3), and "Where is your sting, O death and grave?" (also in the second verse) is straight from 1 Corinthians 15:55.

"Life from death, our Lord is bringing" (in the third verse) seems to come from 1 Corinthians 15:20, and "Christ has gained the victory" (the last line in the third verse) comes from verses 54-57.

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"Bearing the standard from on high / As the Lamb of God to die" in the second verse comes at least in part from John 1:29:  "The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'"

Messiah: No. 11 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light

The text is from Isaiah 9:2:  "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined."

"Culbach" (TLH #121)