Sunday Hymn Post for Advent III

All This Night My Heart Rejoices

This was a new carol to us, but it's special as it was written by Paul Gerhardt, one of the Christian hymn writers we've been meeting through the Mr. Pipes series. "Though beset by trials and disappointments, Gerhardt's humble devotion to Jesus, the loving Son of God, fills his hymns. His poetry glows with a simple yet hearty sincerity. Perhaps that is why, in Sunday Worship, Germans sing Gerhardt more than any other hymn writer."--Douglas Bond, Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation.

Cyberhymnal includes fourteen verses; The Mennonite Hymnal has only two; I've added some of the "extras" to make it a manageable six.

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, everywhere, now with joy is ringing.

For it dawns, the promised morrow
Of His birth, who the earth rescues from her sorrow.
God to wear our form descendeth;
Of His grace to our race here His Son He sendeth.

Yea, so truly for us careth,
That His Son, all we’ve done, as our offering beareth;
As our Lamb Who, dying for us,
Bears our load, and to God, doth in peace restore us.

Come, then, let us hasten yonder;
Here let all, great and small, kneel in awe and wonder,
Love Him Who with love is yearning;
Hail the star that from far bright with hope is burning.

Shall we still dread God’s displeasure,
Who, to save, freely gave His most cherished Treasure?
To redeem us, He hath given
His own Son from the throne of His might in Heaven.

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.


German words by Paul Gerhardt, translated by Catherine Winkworth. All the verses and the MIDI are at Cyberhymnal.