Scripture Verse

There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel. Numbers 24:17

Introduction

portrait
Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676)

Words: Paul Ger­hardt, in Jo­hann Ebel­ing’s edi­tion of his Geist­liche An­dach­ten, Fünf­te Dut­zet, 1667 (Kommt, und lasst uns Chris­tum ehr­en). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Kel­ly, Paul Ger­hardt’s Spi­ri­tu­al Songs (Lon­don: Al­ex­an­der Stra­han, 1867), pag­es 24–25.

Music: Ve­ni­te Lau­di­te, ano­ny­mous (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Kel­ly (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Come, and Christ the Lord be prais­ing,
Heart and mind to Him be rais­ing,
Celebrate His love am­az­ing,
Worthy folk of Christ­en­dom.

Sin, death, hell, may all be griev­ing,
Satan shame feel to him cleav­ing;
We sal­va­tion free re­ceiv­ing,
Cast our ev­ery care away.

See what God for us pro­vid­eth,
Life that in His Son abid­eth,
And our wea­ry steps He guid­eth
From earth’s woe to heav’n­ly joy.

His soul deep­ly for us feel­eth,
He His love to us re­veal­eth,
He who is in the hea­vens dwell­eth
Came to save us from our foe.

Jacob’s star His ad­vent maketh,
Soothes the long­ing heart that ach­eth,
And the ser­pent’s head He break­eth,
Scattering the pow­ers of hell.

Op’d hath He and free­dom gained us
From the pris­on that con­tained us,
Where much grief and sor­row pained us,
And our hearts were bowed with woe.

O blest hour when we re­ceiv­èd
From the foe who us de­ceiv­èd
Liberty, when we be­liev­èd,
And Thee, grac­ious Spi­rit, praised.

Beauteous In­fant in the man­ger,
O be­friend us! be­yond dan­ger
Bring us where is turned God’s an­ger
Where with an­gel hosts we’ll praise.