This Thursday, one of the pieces you’ll hear sung is the beautiful Christmas hymn “All My Heart This Night Rejoices.” Chorale has been putting in good, hard work to sing the first two stanzas of the hymn; but originally, this hymn had fifteen verses in total (some of which are usually left out of English hymnals). We are fortunate to have all of them accessible in our own TLH 77.
This hymn was written by the beloved author Paul Gerhardt around 1653, and we still sing it to its original tune composed by Gerhardt’s friend and frequent collaborator Johann Crüger. While the hymn may be long (characteristic for Gerhardt), it’s well worth it to sing it through in its entirety. Its length allows for some beautiful delving into Christ’s incarnation, its purpose, and its implications, all while being incredibly devotional and comforting. Not only does it show Jesus as the lowly infant on Christmas day, but also as the Conqueror of sin and death, and the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Besides this, Gerhardt is able to masterfully weave into this hymn the proper response of the Christian to the Incarnationleaving all despair for sin behind, clinging to Christ as our Savior, and being confident in the forgiveness we have in Jesus, even to death.
The tune is masterfully crafted in its own right. It begins sweetly, just as the hymn does, then leaps up in joy in the next few lines of melody. It takes a more confident turn as it touches a bit into a minor key, then finally comes back to rest in the final line; really, in just one verse of the melody, we are in a sense taken through the entire hymn. Crüger shows in this hymn exactly what a Lutheran tune should do: beautifully encapsulate the meaning and the emotions of the text without being overpowering or overdramatic.
What a joy that our students are able to learn hymns like this in our school, not only to sing them in church for us to hear, but also so that they can carry on singing the truth of God’s Word for the rest of their lives.
1 All my heart this night rejoices
As I hear Far and near
Sweetest angel voices.
“Christ is born,” their choirs are singing
Till the air Ev’rywhere
Now with joy is ringing.
2 Forth today the Conqueror goeth,
Who the foe, Sin and woe,
Death and hell, o’erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver;
His dear Son Now is one
With our blood forever.
6 He becomes the Lamb that taketh
Sin away And for aye
Full atonement maketh.
For our life His own He tenders
And our race, By His grace,
Meet for glory renders.
10 Hither come, ye heavy-hearted,
Who for sin, Deep within,
Long and sore have smarted.
For the poisoned wounds you’re feeling
Help is near, One is here
Mighty for their healing.
15 Dearest Lord, Thee will I cherish.
Though my breath Fail in death,
Yet I shall not perish,
But with Thee abide forever
There on high, In that joy
Which can vanish never.
Blessed Advent and Merry Christmas!
In Christ,
Mr. Hahn
