"Lobt Gott, ihr Christen" (#30)

German text in the Gesangbuch:

Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich,

in seinem höchsten Thron,

der heut aufschleußt sein Himmelreich,

und schenkt uns seinen Sohn.  :,:

Er kömmt aus seines Vaters Schoß

und wird ein Kindlein klein;

er liegt dort elend, nackt und bloß

in einem Krippelein.  :,:

Er aüßert sich all sein Gewalt,

wird biedrig und gering,

und nimmt an sich eins Knechts Gestalt,

der Schöpfer aller Ding.  :,:

Er liegt an seiner Mutter Brust,

ihr Milch ist seine Speis,

an dem die Engel sehn ihr Lust,

denn er ist Davids Reis, :,:

Das aus seim Stamm entsprießen sollt,

in dieser letzten Zeit,

durch welchen Gott aufrichten wollt

sein Reich, die Christenheit.  :,:

Er wechselt mit uns wunderlich,

Fleisch und Blut nimmt er an,

und gibt uns in seins Vaters Reich

die klare Gottheit dran.  :,:

Er wird ein Knecht und ich ein Herr,

das mag ein Wechsel sein!

Wie könnt es doch sein freundlicher,

das Herze-Jesulein?  :,:

Heut schleußt er wieder auf die Thür

zum schönen Paradeis;

der Cherub steht nicht mehr dafür.

Gott sei Lob, Ehr und Preis.  :,:

Nikolaus Hermann, 1560.

My prose translation:

Praise God, you Christians altogether,

On His holy throne,

Who to-day opens His heavenly kingdom,

And gives us His Son.  :,:

He comes out of His Father's bosom

And becomes a small child;

He lies there miserably, naked and bare

In a manger.  :,:

He shows all of His power,

Becomes humble and small,

And takes on Himself the form of a servant,

The Creator of all things.  :,:

He lies on His mother's breast,

Her milk is His food,

In Whom the angels see their desire,

For He is David's branch,  :,:

That should spring from his lineage

In this last time,

Through which God wants to establish

His kingdom, Christianity.  :,:

He exchanges with us wonderfully.

He takes on flesh and blood

And in His Father's kingdom gives us to

The clear Godhead.  :,:

He becomes a servant, and I a lord

That [such] an exchange may be!

How can it be friendlier,

The heart of Jesus?  :,:

To-day He opens again the door

To the beautiful paradise;

The cherub no long stands before it.

To God be extolment, honor, and praise.  :,:

Nikolaus Hermann, 1560.

The line "und nimmt an sich eins Knechts Gestalt" ("And takes on Himself the form of a servant") comes from part of Philippians 2:7:  "nahm Knechtsgestalt an" ("taking the form of a servant").

The only translation that my dictionary provides for "Reis" (the only translation that fits this context, at least) is "twig."  I took this a bit further and translated it as "branch" because it seems to be a reference to Isaiah 11:1:  "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit."

The eighth verse refers to Genesis 3:24:  "He [God] drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."  In the hymn text, however, it's a single cherub, not cherubim.

The phrase "Lob, Ehr und Preis" was a bit difficult to translate because "Lob" and "Preis" both mean "praise."  For some variation, I went with "extolment," although it's not a very common word.

This hymn appears as "Praise God the Lord, Ye Sons of Men" in The Lutheran Hymnal (#105) and as "Let All Together Praise Our God" in Lutheran Worship (#44) and The Lutheran Service Book (#389).  In all of these, and as the Gesangbuch notes, the text is sung to "its own melody."  Here's the TLH arrangement:

I'm still not sure what :,: means, but here at least, it seems to indicate a repetition of the last line.