Your king comes in low cloaks
Your King comes in low covers is an Advent song and the only poem by Friedrich Rückert that has found its way into the Protestant church hymn book.
Lore
Gustav Schwab and Albert Knapp discovered the work for the Württemberg Hymnal Commission, first published in 1834 in the collected poems of Friedrich Rückert , which objected to the following phrases (verse 1, lines 4f.):
Carry
branches of peace towards him, sprinkle his path with May
as well as the present wording which was perceived as offensive (verse 2, lines 4f.):
The lords of
the earth want to block the way to your throne,
which one sought to mitigate by the following historicizing phrase:
Often the lords of
the earth wanted to block your way to your throne.
Rückert declared himself in agreement with the intended changes in an answer to Schwab: "... I am satisfied with everything you make of it and wish nothing but better summer weather ...", so that it became part of the Württemberg hymn book in 1841/42.
In today's Evangelical Hymnal EG (No. 14), verse 2 is reproduced in the original Rückert version.
The song can also be found as number 371 in the Evangelical Reformed hymnal of Switzerland . The text differs slightly in some places from that in the EC. There are also small differences in the setting of punctuation marks (see below).
content
The song takes up the Gospel of the first Sunday in Advent . It differs significantly from the traditional ecclesiastical vocabulary and imagery of its time through an intense, poetically rich and unusually pictorial language.
Verse 1 illustrates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem ( Mt 21 : 1-9 Lut ).
- When they came near Jerusalem, after prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, Go to the village that lies before you, and you will soon find a donkey tied up and a colt with her ; untie her and lead her to me! And when someone tells you something, say: The Lord needs you. Immediately he will leave it to you. But this was done so that what was said by the prophet would be fulfilled, who said: "Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king comes to you meekly and rides on a donkey and on a colt, the boy of a pack animal." The disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and put their clothes on them, and he sat on them. But a very large crowd spread their clothes on the road; others cut branches from the trees and scattered them on the path.
The phrase "lower sheaths" takes up the motif of the humiliation of the Son of God, as it is pictorially expressed in the Philippian hymn ( Phil 2: 6–8 Lut ):
- He, who was in divine form, did not consider it a robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself and assumed the form of a servant, was like men and recognized as man in appearance. He humbled himself and became obedient until death.
The following stanzas sing of the approaching ruler of peace, promised by the prophet Isaiah ( Isa 9,5 Lut ).
- For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, and rulership rests on his shoulder; and it is called Miracle Council, God-Hero, Eternal Father, Peace Prince.
The stanzas 2 to 4 describe the deeds of the king of peace, the stanzas 5 to 6 formulate the request for the coming of the Lord and a final peace.
melody
The song has a formally unusual structure, which is used less in spiritual than in secular poetry (e.g. Schiller's Der Ring des Polykrates ). After less successful attempts to add an existing way of singing to the song , the created by Johannes Zahn in 1853 by Johannes Zahn has become the morning song Gottlob, now the night has disappeared by Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen since the Evangelical Church Hymns (1950) used.
text
Evangelical hymn book
1. Your king comes in low
cloaks; the heavy Es'lin fulden carries him; receive
him gladly, Jerusalem!
Carry peace
palms towards him, sprinkle the path with green stalks;
so it is pleasant for the gentleman.
2. O mighty ruler without armies,
mighty fighters without spears,
o Prince of peace of great power!
The lords of
the earth want to block your way to your throne,
but you win it without a battle.
3. Your kingdom is not of this earth,
but all earth kingdoms are subject
to that which you found.
Armed with the words of faith,
your band will go to all parts of
the world and make your way.
4. And wherever you come
, the waves of the sea level out,
the storm is silent, threatened by you.
You come so that
the new covenant may be established on an outraged earth ,
and you beat sin and death in fetters.
5. O Lord of great grace and faithfulness,
O now you come
to us again, we who are deeply disturbed.
It is necessary that you come down here yourself
to renew your peace,
against which the world revolted.
6. O let your light triumph on earth,
succumb to the power of darkness
and extinguish the glimmer of discord, so
that we, the peoples and the thrones, may
dwell together again as brothers
in your great father's house.
Reformed hymnal
1. Your King comes in low
cloaks , meekly on the Eslin fountain;
receive him gladly, Jerusalem.
Carry peace
palms towards him, sprinkle the path with green stalks:
so it is pleasant for the master.
2. O mighty ruler without armies,
mighty fighter without spears,
o prince of peace of great power.
The lords of
the earth want to block the way to your throne;
but you win it without a battle.
3. Your kingdom is not of this earth;
but all the kingdoms of the earth are subject
to that which you found.
Armed with the words of faith,
your band will go out to the four places in
the world and make your way.
4. And wherever you come
, the waves of the sea level out,
the storm is silent, threatened by you.
You come so that
the new covenant may be established on an outraged earth ,
and you beat sin and death in fetters.
5. O Lord of great grace and faithfulness,
O you come
to us again now , we who are deeply disturbed.
It is necessary that you come down here yourself
to renew your peace,
against which the world revolted.
6. O let your light triumph on earth,
succumb to the power of darkness
and extinguish the glimmer of discord, so
that we, the peoples and the thrones,
may dwell
in harmony in your great father's house.
literature
- Johannes Kulp (edited by Arno Büchner and Siegfried Fornaçon): The songs of our church. A handout for the Protestant church hymn book ; Handbook for the Evangelical Church Hymnal. Special tape; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1958; P. 35 f.
- Ulrich Parent (T.), Martin Rößler (M.): 14 - Your king comes in low covers . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 5 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-50326-1 , pp. 22–27 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
Individual evidence
- ^ Kulp, p. 36