“Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light,” is the full title. Johann Rist wrote the original hymn, and the English translation comes from John Troutbeck.
It’s full of the nativity excitement–what that day and time would be like–based in the Gospels.
“Break Forth, O Beauteous Heav’nly Light” words
The Christmas carol has two stanzas:
1 Break forth, O beauteous heav’nly light,
and usher in the morning;
O shepherds, shrink not with affright,
but hear the angel’s warning.
This Child, now weak in infancy,
our confidence and joy shall be;
the pow’r of Satan breaking,
our peace eternal making.2 Break forth, O beauteous heav’nly light,
to herald our salvation;
He stoops to earth–the God of might,
our hope and expectation.
He comes in human flesh to dwell,
our God with us, Immanuel;
the night of darkness ending,
our fallen race befriending.
Both are odes to the Savior. The first stanza focuses on the nativity. The second looks ahead to who that baby is/will become.
What does the first stanza mean?
Obviously, the “break forth” that begins the song is a herald–something’s happening.
Rist based the first stanza out of Luke 2:8-11:
And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
9 And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone about them, and they were sore afraid.
10 Then the Angel said unto them, Be not afraid: for behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people,
11 That is, that unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:8-11 (1599 Geneva Bible–which Rist would have used)
We’re familiar with the story–and I raised my children to understand you knew you were seeing an angel because of those first words: “be not afraid.”
Just seeing the sky filled with angels in the sky singing, would have been enough to floor me!
But there might have been another reason for the great excitement.
According to Rabbi Jason Sobel, those shepherds keeping watch in the fields by night were the men raising sheep for the temple sacrifice.
Can you imagine what it must have meant for those rough men to discover the sheep they were raising would no longer be needed 33 years later?
What does “break forth” mean for stanza 2?
The most thrilling news of all comes from two Bible passages in stanza 2:
And that Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw the glory thereof, as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father) full of grace and truth.”
1 John 1:14 (1599 Geneva Bible)
and
Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is by interpretation, God with us.
Matthew 1:23 (1599 Geneva Bible)
It’s the good news of salvation–the reason that baby was born!
Immanuel: God with us.
It’s an interesting way God chose to save His people from their sins.
Instead of staying in heaven, Jesus chose to experience the entirety of a human life.
He entered a woman’s womb and was born the normal way in extraordinary circumstances.
“God with us” had to learn how to walk and talk; read and write.
He made himself one of us, so that He could be a perfect Lamb of God for the ultimate sacrifice.
By so doing, Jesus befriended–and saved–our fallen race.
Thanks be to God.
Who was Johann Rist?
Born in Hamburg, Germany in March 1607, Johann Rist was the son of a Lutheran pastor Caspar Rist.
He studied theology, Hebrew, mathematics, and medicine during a time of plagues and the Thirty Years War.
In addition to being a Lutheran pastor in Wedel on the Elbe, Rist was also a playwright and a poet. (Perseus, produced in 1634, was his most famous play).
Rist wrote nearly 700 hymn texts between 1641 to 1656.
He was best known at the time for the hymns he wrote. Johann Sebastian Bach composed three cantatas based on his hymns.
“Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light,” is the most familiar in modern times. It’s used as a liturgical hymn during Advent.
Johann Schop served as musical editor for Rist’s work and composed the music “Ermuntre Dich” for the text in 1641. Bach wrote the melody’s harmonization.
English translator John Troutbeck, an English clergyman, translated oratorios by famous German composers and other German choral texts, in the mid-19th century.
He’s the man responsible for English translations of all of Bach’s major choral works!
Despite that pedigree, “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light,” is an obscure Christmas carol with a theologically rich meaning.
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Obscure, yet theologically rich, “Break Forth,” Christmas carol. Click to Tweet
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