O Word of God Incarnate

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O Word of God incarnate

Author: William Walsham How (1867)
Tune: MUNICH (Mendelssohn)
Published in 480 hymnals

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	O Word of God Incarnate

Piano/Organ
	Chorale Prelude on Munich

Choral
	A Hymn to God: Creator

Representative Text

1 O Word of God incarnate,
O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth, unchanged, unchanging,
O Light of our dark sky,
we praise Thee for the radiance
that from the hallowed page,
a lantern to our footsteps,
shines on from age to age.

2 The church from her dear Master
received the gift divine,
and still that light she lifteth
o'er all the earth to shine.
It is the golden casket,
where gems of truth are stored;
it is the heav'n-drawn picture
Of Christ, the living Word.

3 It floateth like a banner
before God's host unfurled;
it shineth like a beacon
above the darkling world.
It is the chart and compass
that o'er life's surging sea,
'mid mists and rocks and quicksands,
still guides, O Christ, to Thee.

4 O make Thy Church, dear Savior,
a lamp of burnished gold,
to bear before the nations
Thy true light as of old.
O teach Thy wand'ring pilgrims
by this, their path to trace,
'til, clouds and darkness ended,
they see Thee face to face.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #347

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Author: William Walsham How

William W. How (b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, 1823; d. Leenane, County Mayo, Ireland, 1897) studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and Durham University and was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. He served various congregations and became Suffragan Bishop in east London in 1879 and Bishop of Wakefield in 1888. Called both the "poor man's bishop" and "the children's bishop," How was known for his work among the destitute in the London slums and among the factory workers in west Yorkshire. He wrote a number of theological works about controversies surrounding the Oxford Movement and attempted to reconcile biblical creation with the theory of evolution. He was joint editor of Psalms and Hymns (1854) and Church Hymns (1871). While rec… Go to person page >

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Related Texts

First Line:	O Word of God incarnate
Title:	O Word of God Incarnate
Author:	William Walsham How (1867)
Meter:	7.6.7.6 D
Language:	English
Notes:	Spanish translations: See "O Verbo humanado" by Elida Falcón, "O Verbo encarnado" by Angel Arroyo Rivera, "O Verbo encarnado" by George Paul Simmonds
Copyright:	Public Domain

Year A, Christmas season, Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year A, Christmas season, Christmas Day by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #459 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #757.
Year A, Epiphany Season, Sixth Sunday
This is recommended for Year A, Epiphany Season, Sixth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year A, Holy Week season, Tuesday of Holy Week
Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Day by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #459 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #757.
Year B, Easter season, Fifth Sunday
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 14 (19)
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 20 (25)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 20 (25) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #459 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #757.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 23 (28)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 23 (28) by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #459 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #757.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 29 (34)
Year C, Advent, First Sunday
Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Day by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #459 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #757.
Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Day
Year C, Epiphany season, Third Sunday
Year C, Holy Week season, Tuesday of Holy Week
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 24 (29)

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Notes

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Ps. 119:105, 130, John 1:1-14
st. 2 = 2 Tim. 3:15-17
st. 3 = Matt. 5:14-16, 1 Cor. 13:12

The prevalent image in this hymn is light: God is the Light; his Word is a light for our path; and we, the church, must be a light for the nations. The author, William W. How (b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, 1823; d. Leenane, County Mayo, Ireland, 1897), first published it with a subhead quotation from Proverbs 6:23: "For the commandment is a lamp: and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life" (KJV). Some hymnodists have stated that the song is based on Psalm 119:105, which contains nearly the same imagery: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Using intriguing word play, the hymn praises Christ as the "Word of God incarnate" and as the "Light" who has given us Scripture (often referred to as God's Word) as a "light" ("lantern") to guide the church (st. 1-2) and to inspire it to be a "lamp" for shining God's "light" to all the world (st. 2-3). The text also includes travel imagery: "footsteps" (st. 1), "chart and compass," "voyage" (st. 2), and "pilgrims" (st. 3).

Singing this text, we pray that the church, the people of God, will always be led by the Scriptures to seek Christ, to whom the Scriptures point, and to bring the good news of his Word to the nations. This text was first published in the 1867 addition to Psalms and Hymns (1854), a supplementary collection How edited with Thomas B. Morrell.

How studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and Durham University and was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. He served various congregations and became Suffragan Bishop in east London in 1879 and Bishop of Wakefield in 1888. Called both the "poor man's bishop" and "the children's bishop," How was known for his work among the destitute in the London slums and among the factory workers in west Yorkshire. He wrote a number of theological works about controversies surrounding the Oxford Movement and attempted to reconcile biblical creation with the theory of evolution. He was joint editor of Psalms and Hymns (1854) and Church Hymns (1871). While rector in Whittington, How wrote some sixty hymns, including many for children. His collected Poems and Hymns were published in 1886.

Liturgical Use:
As a sung prayer for illumination and for the preservation and mission of the church.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988
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O Word of God Incarnate. Bishop W. W. How. [Holy Scriptures.] Written for and first published in the 1867 Supplement to Morrell and How's Psalms & Hymns. It has been repeated in a large number of hymn-books in Great Britain and America, and is one of the author's most popular hymns. It is usually given unaltered and unabridged as in Church Hymns, 1871.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

MUNICH (Mendelssohn)

MUNICH has a colorful history. Traces of it run as far back as 1593 in the Dresden, Germany, Gesangbuch in conjunction with the text 'Wir Christenleut." A version from a Meiningen Gesangbuch (1693) is still used in Lutheranism for "O Gott, du frommer Gott." Felix Mendelssohn's adaptation of that tun…

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CHENIES (Matthews)

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Psalms and Hymns to the Living God (2023), p.408

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