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COME, YOUR HEARTS AND VOICES RAISING

Scripture Verse

Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. Luke 2:15

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). Com­po­site trans­la­tion from Ger­man to Eng­lish.

Music: Quem Pas­tor­es me­lo­dy in a ma­nu­script from Hoh­en­furth (now Vyš­ší Brod, Czech­ia), 1410 (🔊 ).

Lyrics

Come, your hearts and voic­es rais­ing,
Christ the Lord with glad­ness prais­ing;
Loudly sing His love am­az­ing,
Worthy folk of Chris­ten­dom.

Sin and death may well be groan­ing,
Satan now may well be moan­ing;
We, our full sal­va­tion own­ing,
Cast our ev­ery care away.

See how God, for us pro­vid­ing,
Gave His Son and life abid­ing;
He our wea­ry steps is guid­ing
From earth’s woes to heav’n­ly joy.

Christ, from Heav­en to us des­cend­ing
And in love our race be­friend­ing,
In our need His help ex­tend­ing,
Saved us from the wi­ly foe.

Jacob’s Star in all its splen­dor
Beams with com­fort sweet and ten­der,
Forcing Sa­tan to sur­ren­der,
Breaking all the pow­ers of hell.

From the bond­age that op­pressed us,
From sin’s fet­ters that pos­sessed us,
From the grief that sore dis­tressed us,
We, the cap­tives, now are free.

Oh, the joy be­yond ex­press­ing
When by faith we grasp this bless­ing
And to Thee we come con­fess­ing
That our free­dom Thou hast wrought!

Gracious Child, we pray Thee, hear us,
From Thy low­ly man­ger cheer us,
Gently lead us and be near us
Till we join th’an­gel­ic choir.