Musical Advent Calendar - Day 10

Each day, from December 1 to December 25, I will post the text (and translation, if necessary) of an Advent- or Christmas-themed song, along with the URL for a YouTube video containing that song. (Select "Musical Advent Calendar" from the list of labels in the right sidebar to sort all of them out from the other posts on the blog.) You will note that each selection has a text, collectively representing the last 2000 years, and this is intentional. For the more familiar texts (such as popular Christmas carols), I have chosen a variety of interpretations and performers, from professional choirs to contemporary Christian worship leaders. I suggest that you follow the text as the music plays, and reflect on the words that proclaim the First Advent of our Savior, the Lord Jesus.

May our King, who promises to come again, reveal himself to you in a new way this Advent.

DECEMBER 10

Once in Royal David's City

Text by Cecil F. Alexander (1848)

Hymn Tune: "Irby" by Henry J. Gauntlett (1849)

Performed by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RC34N1TfCQ

Once in royal David's city, stood a lowly cattle shed

Where a mother laid her baby, in a manger for his bed

Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little Child

He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all

And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall

With the poor, and mean, and lowly, lived on earth, our Savior Holy

And through all his wondrous childhood he would honor and obey,

Love, and a watch the lowly maiden in whose gentle arms he lay

Little children all must be mild, obedient, good as he

For he is our childhood's pattern, day by day like us he grew

He was little, weak, and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew

And he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness

And our eyes at last shall see him through his own redeeming love

For that Child, so dear and gentle is our Lord in heaven above

And he leads his children on to the place where he has gone

Not in that poor, lowly stable, with the oxen standing by

We shall see him, but in heaven, set at God's right hand on high

When like stars, his children crowned, all in white shall wait around