"From East to West"

About two weeks ago, KFUO tweeted the first two verses of "From East to West":

"Behold, the world's creator wears
The form and fashion of a slave;
Our very flesh our maker shares,
His fallen creatures all to save."

Hear Christ for you at https://t.co/CNJZkzVCPV! #Christmas pic.twitter.com/4Rf8upvY4G

— KFUO Radio (@KFUOradio) January 3, 2021

(The plain text is the second verse; the verse in the image is the first.)

At first, I noticed only that "From east to west" and "from shore to shore" are both merisms, but then I lookt at the tune and found a few more features.  Both are in the last phrase of the tune "Vom Himmel hoch":

The second verse ends with the line "His fallen creatures all to save."  "All" is sung with a melisma (F E), musically giving something of a sense of entirety.  The fifth verse is a doxology and ends with the line "And Holy Ghost eternally."  Here, "eternally" is sung with a melisma (G F E D C), musically giving a sense of duration.

"From Heaven Above to Earth I Come"

Last November, I listened to a box set of Bach's organ works performed by Peter Hurford.  While listening to "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her," BWV 700, I was thinking about "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come" (the text that accompanies the original tune) and noticed a small feature.

Here are the first two musical phrases:

In Lutheran Worship, the text here in the first verse is "From heav'n above to earth I come / To bring good news to ev'ryone!"  (The text is from Luke 2:10:  "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.'")  The three syllables of "ev'ryone" are each sung to a different pitch (G F E), musically giving something of a sense of breadth.

Of the three main hymnals I have, this is unique to Lutheran Worship.  The Lutheran Hymnal and The Lutheran Service Book both have "From heav'n above to earth I come / To bear good news to ev'ry home."

"Vom Himmel hoch" (TLH #85)

"Vom Himmel hoch" (TLH #70)

I tried #69 but ended up skipping it because I couldn't figure out the time signature.  Some measures have twelve beats; some have nine; one has eleven.