HYMNS OF ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS 

You are accustomed to finding your favorite Christmas carols among your collection of records, or CD’s, or if you are into the more modern way of listening to recordings on the music channels of your T.V. or downloading on your electronic device. Martin Luther and his family did not have special Christmas music available in such forms.   

Instead, Martin Luther sat down and penned the words of the Christmas carol “From Heaven Above to Earth I come.” Not only did he write the text, he also composed the music for it. I guess you could say this carol was Luther’s special Christmas gift to his family for their family celebration of Christmas on Christmas Eve, 1535. 

Luther based the fifteen (in today’s hymnals) verses of this hymn (carol) on the words of St. Luke, chapter 2, verses 9-20. His hymn tells what happened the night the Angel announced Christ’s birth to the shepherds. Luther, through his pen, leads you with the shepherds from their flock to the manger: “Then with the shepherds let us go To see what god for us has done In sending us His own dear Son.” In the next verse he urges you to “. . . lift up your eyes And see what in the manger lies. . .”   

Yes, the shepherds saw a baby in that manger that night so many years ago. They asked, “Who is this child, so young and fair? It is the Christ child lying there,” Luther answered.   

You might ask, how could God, Jesus’ Father, permit His only begotten Son, to be born in a stable and laid in a manger for his first crib? St. Paul answers that question in Philippians 2:2-8: “Who (Jesus), being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”  

All that occurred on that most holy night was God’s plan being carried out for the salvation of sinners. Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it. (John 3:17)   

So, Luther concluded this beloved Christmas carol (hymn) with these three stanzas: 

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,  
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,  
A quiet chamber set apart  For You to dwell within my heart. 

My heart for very joy must leap,  
My lips no more can silence keep.  
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue  
That sweetest ancient cradlesong: 

Glory to God in highest heav’n,  
Who unto us His Son has giv’n!  
While angels sing with pious mirth  
A glad new year to all the earth.  

(Martin Luther, 1535. Public Domain) 

[For all the verses of From Heaven Above to   Earth I Come see Lutheran Service Book 358 or TLH 85] 

From Heaven Above to Earth I Come // LSB 385