"O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (TLH #171b)

"What Is the World to Me"

About a year ago, "What Is the World to Me" was one of the hymns in church, and I noticed a small feature in the third verse.  The fifth line is "I have a higher good," sung to this phrase from the tune "Was frag' ich nach der Welt":

The first syllable of "higher" is sung to the highest note in this phrase (C), giving something of a sense of its meaning.

LSB #534 "Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Revelation 1:5-6, 5:11-14, 7:9-17; 1 Corinthians 5:7b

Revelation 1:5-6:  "5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen."

Revelation 5:11-14:  "11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!'  13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!'  14 And the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the elders fell down and worshiped."

Revelation 7:9-17:  "9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'  11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.'

"13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?'  14 I said to him, 'Sir, you know.'  And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

"15 'Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'"

1 Corinthians 5:7b:  " For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

+++

The text is public domain:

Lord, enthroned in heav'nly splendor,
First-begotten from the dead,
You alone, our strong defender,
Lifting up Your people's head.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus, true and living bread!
Jesus, true and living bread!

Though the lowliest form now veil You
As of old in Bethlehem,
Here as there Your angels hail You,
Branch and flow'r of Jesse's stem.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
We in worship join with them;
We in worship join with them.

Paschal Lamb, Your off'ring, finished
Once for all when You were slain,
In its fullness undiminished
Shall forevermore remain,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Cleansing souls from ev'ry stain;
Cleansing souls from ev'ry stain.

Life-imparting heav'nly manna,
Stricken rock with streaming side,
Heav'n and earth with loud hosanna
Worship You, the Lamb who died,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Ris'n, ascended, glorified!
Ris'n, ascended, glorified!

+++

The three texts from Revelation appear throughout the hymn.  The first line ("Lord, enthroned in heav'nly splendor") seems to draw from all of them, but the second line ("First-begotten from the dead") is clearly from Revelation 1:5.

The praise and glory in Revelation 5 and 7 appear in "Your angels hail You" and "We in worship join with them" in the second verse and in most of the fourth verse.

The third verse is also drawn from the Revelation texts, but the focus here is on God as the "Paschal Lamb" (Revelation 5:12; 7:10, 14, 17, and also 1 Corinthians 5:7b) and "cleansing souls" (Revelation 1:5, 7:14).

+++

There are numerous other allusions that are uncited.  "Jesus, true and living bread!" at the end of the first verse comes from John 6:48:  "'I am the bread of life.'"

"Branch and flow'r of Jesse's stem" in the second verse refers to Isaiah 11:1:  "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit."

The phrase "Once for all" in the third verse seems to come from Hebrews (9:26, 28; 10:10, 12).  The "forevermore remain" in the next line seems to point specifically to Hebrews 10:14:  "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

The lines "Life-imparting heav'nly manna, / Stricken rock with streaming side" refer to events in Exodus 16 and 17.  In John 6, Jesus refers to the manna and connects it to the "bread of life" - "50 'This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven....'"  1 Corinthians 10, referring to the exodus, says, "3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink.  For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."

"O Welt, sieh hier" (TLH #171a)

There are two tunes for TLH #171 "Upon the Cross Extended," hence the "a."

"Now That the Daylight Fills the Sky"

"Now That the Daylight Fills the Sky" was one of the hymns in an online church service I watched about a month ago.  I don't think I've ever sung (or even heard) this hymn before, but I found a few interesting features in it.  It's sung to the tune "Laurel."  Here's the first phrase:

The first line is, of course, "Now that the daylight fills the sky."  "Daylight" is sung with a melisma (D F# G), musically giving something of a sense of abundance (for "fill[ing] the sky").  The fourth verse is a doxology, which begins, "All praise to You, creator Lord!"  That "All" is also sung with a melisma (D E), for a sense of entirety.

There's a similar feature in the second line of the fourth verse:  "All praise to You, eternal Word!"  Here's the notation:

The specific melisma for this "All" is different (A B), but the idea is the same.  Additionally, "eternal" is sung with a melisma (G# A F# F#), giving a sense of duration.

LSB #533 "Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Luke 2:68-79, 1 John 1:1-2, Isaiah 12

Luke 2 ends at verse 52.  I think the intended citation is Luke 1:68-79:  "68 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.  76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.'"

1 John 1:1-2:  "1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us"

Isaiah 12:  "1 You will say in that day:  'I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

"2 'Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.'

"3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  4 And you will say in that day:  'Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

"5 'Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.  6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.'"

+++

While it's not one of the citations listed in the hymnal, Isaiah 61:1 (which Jesus quotes in Luke 4) seems to be the primary source:  "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."  The resemblance is seen most clearly in the lines "Jesus has come! Now see bonds rent asunder! / Fetters of death now dissolve, disappear" in the second verse and "Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress, / Brings forth the pris'ners triumphant, unharmed" in the third verse.  The same sort of idea is present in Luke 2:71, 74 and Isaiah 12:2, but the imagery in the hymn matches that in Isaiah 61.  Even "bring[ing] pleasure eternal" in the first verse seems to be the hymn's rendering of "bring[ing] good news to the poor."

1 John 1:1-2 seems to appear in the line "God-head, humanity, union supernal" in the first verse and in the repeated "Jesus has come" that begins and ends each verse.

"Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End" in the first verse comes from Revelation 22:13:  "'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'"  And "Take the crown He has for you!" in the fourth verse refers to Revelation 2:10:  "'Do not fear what you are about to suffer.  Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.  Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.'"

"Southwell" (TLH #170)

Since this is a shorter tune, I went through it three times.

"Oh, What Their Joy"

On Worship Anew in September last year, one of the hymns was "Oh, What Their Joy," and the same recording was recently re-used.  Both times, I noticed a few small features in the hymn.

The second line of the second verse is "Blessings of peace shall forever abound," sung to this musical phrase from the tune "O quanta qualia":

"Forever" and "abound" are both sung with melismas (A A G A and C B C respectively), musically giving a sense of duration for "forever" and proliferation for "abound."

The last line of the first verse is "God shall be all, and in all ever blest," sung to this phrase:

Here, "all" is sung with a melisma (A G), for a sense of significance, and "blest" is sung with a melisma (G F) for a sense of the duration of that "ever."

LSB #532 "The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Hebrews 2:10; 1 Peter 4:16; Philippians 2:9-11, 3:10-11

Hebrews 2:10:  "For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."

1 Peter 4:16:  "Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name."

Philippians 2:9-11:  "9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Philippians 3:10-11:  "10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

+++

The text is public domain:

The Head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty Victor's brow.

The highest place that heav'n affords
Is His, is His by right,
The King of kings and Lord of lords,
And heav'n's eternal Light;

The Joy of all who dwell above,
The Joy of all below
To whom He manifests His love
And grants His name to know.

To them the cross, with all its shame,
With all its grace, is giv'n;
Their name an everlasting name,
Their joy the joy of heav'n.

They suffer with their Lord below,
They reign with Him above,
Their profit and their joy to know
The myst'ry of His love.

The cross He bore is life and health,
Though shame and death to Him:
His people's hope, His people's wealth,
Their everlasting theme.

+++

The sources are a bit difficult to identify in this one.

The text from Philippians 2 seems to be the source for the first two verses, although the names "The King of kings and Lord of lords" come from Revelation 19:16:  "On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."

Hebrews 2:10 seems to appear in the third, fourth, and sixth verses, and the fourth and fifth verses seem to combine the ideas in 1 Peter 4:16 and Philippians 3:10-11.

"Teshiniens" (TLH #169)

I play the higher of the two bass parts on guitar, but the two notes of the Amen cadence fall below its range (Eb and D).  I just played those two notes an octave higher.

"I Lay My Sins on Jesus"

"I Lay My Sins on Jesus" was one of the hymns in church last month, and I noticed a small feature in the third line of the third verse:  "His right hand me embraces."  The line is inverted so that "me" is somewhat literally "embrace[d]" by words on either side.

LSB #531 "Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 1:18-20, Ephesians 2:13-18, Revelation 5:9-14

Isaiah 53:  "1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  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.  6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

"7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  8 By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?  9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

"10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.  11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."

1 Peter 1:18-20:  "18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you"

Ephesians 2:13-18:  "13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.  17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.  18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."

Revelation 5:9-14:  "9 And they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'  11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!'  13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!'  14 And the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the elders fell down and worshiped."

+++

The text is public domain:

Hail, Thou once despised Jesus!
Hail, thou Galilean King!
Thou didst suffer to release us;
Thou didst free salvation bring.
Hail, Thou universal Savior,
Bearer of our sin and shame!
By Thy merit we find favor:
Life is given through Thy name.

Paschal Lamb, by God appointed,
All our sins on Thee were laid;
By almighty love anointed,
Thou hast full atonement made.
All Thy people are forgiven
Through the virtue of Thy blood;
Opened is the gate of heaven,
Reconciled are we with God.

Jesus, hail! Enthroned in glory,
There forever to abide;
All the heav'nly hosts adore Thee,
Seated at Thy Father's side.
There for sinners thou art pleading;
There Thou dost our place prepare,
Ever for us interceding
Till in glory we appear.

Worship, honor, pow'r, and blessing
Thou art worthy to receive;
Highest praises, without ceasing,
Right it is for us to give.
Help, ye bright angelic spirits,
All your noblest anthems raise;
Help to sing our Savior's merits,
Help to chant Immanuel's praise!

+++

The first two verses come from Isaiah 53, although the second verse also incorporates the other cited texts.  The text from 1 Peter 1 and Revelation 5:9 appear in the lines "Paschal Lamb... All Thy people are forgiven / Through the virtue of Thy blood," and the text from Ephesians 2 appears in the line "Reconciled are we with God."

The first half of the third verse and the fourth verse come from Revelation 5.

The second half of the third verse comes from Romans 8:34:  "Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."  The line "There Thou dost our place prepare" refers to John 14:2-3:  "2 'In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.'"

"Vexilla Regis" (TLH #168)

I went through the tune three times.

The text that goes with this is "Vexilla Regis prodeunt," translated into English as "The Royal Banners Forward Go."  A more accurate translation is "The banners of the King go forward."