Featured Hymn: Blessed Jesus, at Thy word

Featured Hymn: Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word

Author: Tobias Clauznitzer

Translator: Catherine Winkworth

Tune: Liebster Jesu

Bulletin Blurb

In this hymn, we acknowledge our need for the illumination of the Holy Spirit to fully understand God’s message to us. We also recognize and claim the promise of Christ concerning this help: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 ESV).

Worship Notes

Text:

Tobias Clausnitzer was the author of the original German text. It was first published anonymously in 1663 in the Altdorffisches Gesang-Büchlein, but was credited to Clausnitzer in the 1671 edition. The most common English translation is by Catherine Winkworth, which appeared in the second series of her Lyra Germanica in 1858 as “Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word.”

This hymn originally had three stanzas. The first stanza is a petition for a heart that is receptive to hearing the Word of God proclaimed. The second is a declaration of the need for such a work of God in human hearts, and the third is a statement of praise to Christ and a repetition of the plea of the first stanza. In some hymnals, an anonymous doxological stanza is added as the fourth.

Tune:

The German chorale tune LIEBSTER JESU (also called DESSAU) was composed by Johann R. Ahle for an Advent hymn and first published by him in 1664. In its original form, the tune was florid and soloistic in nature, but it was revised for congregational singing and paired with Clausnitzer’s text in the late seventeenth century. The tune was named after this text. (The opening line of the German is “Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier.”)

When/Why/How:

This hymn was written to be sung before the sermon as a prayer for illumination. Two of the stanzas contain allusions to other parts of the liturgy. The first is more apparent in the German text but does not come across well in the translation of the final lines of the first stanza, which refer to an opening liturgy for a Eucharistic service, “Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.” The other is a brief line from the Nicene Creed in the third stanza, “Light of Light, from God proceeding.” LIEBSTER JESU may be used for instrumental music early in the service. The organist could play a setting such as one by Bach, which is found in “Music for a Celebration, Set 2.” Or a brass quintet could play “Blessed Jesus, at Your Word” as a prelude.