Hymn Reflection: O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth by Martin H. Franzmann
Common Tune: WITTENBERG NEW (Jan O. Bender)
Meter: LMD
O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth is the hymn of the day for the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany in the Lutheran church calendar. It is not an easy one, but it is well worth learning. That is usually the case, isn’t it? Those things that are more challenging are often worth the effort. While the tune is a bit awkward and the text takes some serious concentration, together the two make a majestic hymn that is pure Gospel and a wonderful addition to the Church’s canon of congregational song.
The author of the text is Martin H. Franzmann, a twentieth century Lutheran pastor and theologian who wrote many hymns including this one, and another Lutheran favorite — Thy Strong Word. Franzmann was a professor at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and later served as a tutor in theology at Westfield House in Cambridge, England, where he served until a few years before his death in 1976. The tune was written by Franzmann’s contemporary, the dutch composer Jan O. Bender. If you are a Lutheran, you may know of Bender for his many organ works, and his role in the formation of the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978). He served as a professor of music at many Lutheran colleges including Concordia Teachers College — Seward, Wittenburg University, Valparaiso University, and a handful of others, and was an active recitalist both in the United States and abroad.
The Text
O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth speaks of the self-inflicted death of humankind and their rescue by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Abusing the freedom that God had graciously gifted them, Adam and Eve desired to become like God, disobeying the Almighty’s clear command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). In so doing, their sin infected the world with brokenness and death, imprisoning the human race into a bondage of perpetual disobedience, pain, and suffering. And yet, this was no surprise to God. From the very beginning of time God knew that mankind would disobey him, and in his abounding love intended to sacrifice himself for their redemption. In Jesus Christ, God rescues humankind from their self-inflected “house of doom” (stanza 2).
Stanza 1
O God, O Lord of heav’n and earth,
Thy living finger never wrote
That life should be an aimless mote,
A deathward drift from futile birth.
Thy Word meant life triumphant hurled
In splendor through Thy broken world.
Since light awoke and life began,
Thou hast desired Thy life for man.
Stanza 2
Our fatal will to equal Thee,
Our rebel will wrought death and night.
We seized and used in prideful spite
Thy wondrous gift of liberty.
We housed us in this house of doom,
Where death had royal scope and room,
Until Thy servant, Prince of Peace,
Breached all its walls for our release.
Think about that for a minute. Jesus Christ, the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, left his heavenly throne to become a despised and rejected man (Isaiah 53:3)— a real human being who can identify with our human race in every way. He died a ruthless death in order to atone for the sins of those who had sinned against him — that is, you and me. As stanza 3 puts he came to “drink for us the dark despair that strangled our reluctant breath.” That self-inflicted dark despair that came about in Genesis 2 has been eradicated by the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Stanza 3
Thou camest to our hall of death,
O Christ, to breathe our poisoned air,
To drink for us the dark despair
That strangled our reluctant breath.
How beautiful the feet that trod
The road that leads us back to God!
How beautiful the feet than ran
To bring the great good news to man!
Stanza 4
O Spirit, who didst once restore
Thy Church that it might be again
The bringer of good news to men,
Breathe on Thy cloven Church once more,
That in these gray and latter days
There may be those whose life is praise,
Each life a high doxology
To Father, Son, and unto Thee.
Because of the great love that has been shown to us in Christ, we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to live a life of praise and glory to the Triune God. We do this by striving to love one another just as Jesus loved us (John 13:34–35). As you strive to love your neighbor by serving and forgiving them, bear in mind this beautiful Gospel of Christ as motivation, and perhaps this wonderful hymn of the Church that captures it so well.
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery…therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” — Hebrews 2:14–15, 17–18 (ESV)
Use in Corporate Worship
Because this hymn is on the more difficult side, I recommend that the congregation be “prepped” so that the hymn might have the best chance at being embraced. Perhaps introduce it as an instrumental prelude or offering,¹ followed by a choral arrangement of it on a subsequent week. On the week that it is introduced, consider singing it at a point in the service that the congregation can digest it — in other words, not as an opening/closing or communion hymn (in Lutheran circles, using it as the Hymn of the Day would be ideal)— and having the choir sing the opening stanza. It will be important to reinforce the melody while the congregation is singing, and not to rush.
As always, teaching the congregation about the hymns they are singing is important. Consider writing about the hymn in your weekly newsletter, or including something about it in the bulletin. You may also direct people to this post, or link to it in your publications.
Footnotes
¹ Concordia Publishing House publishes several arrangements for piano and organ, as well as some instrumental descants and keyboard reharmonizations. Morning Star Publishers publishes a setting by Paul Manz.
