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A stable lamp is lighted

Richard Wilbur

Hymnary text authority (19 instances)
Not in The Cyber Hymnal™

© 1961 (ren.) 1989 by the author
Wilbur died in 2017; current copyright owner not yet located

1 A stable lamp is lighted
  Whose glow shall wake the sky;
  The stars shall bend their voices,
  And ev’ry stone shall cry.
  And ev’ry stone shall cry,
  And straw like gold shall shine;
  A barn shall harbor heaven,
  A stall become a shrine.

2 This Child through David’s city
  Shall ride in triumph by;
  The palm shall strew its branches,
  And ev’ry stone shall cry.
  And ev’ry stone shall cry,
  Though heavy, dull, and dumb,
  And lie within the roadway
  To pave his kingdom come.

3 Yet He shall be forsaken
  And yielded up to die;
  The sky shall groan and darken,
  And ev’ry stone shall cry.
  And ev’ry stone shall cry
  For hearts made hard by sin;
  God’s blood upon the spearhead,
  God’s love refused again.

4 But now, as at the ending,
  The low is lifted high;
  The stars shall bend their voices,
  And ev’ry stone shall cry.
  And ev’ry stone shall cry
  In praises of the child
  By whose descent among us
  The worlds are reconciled.
    

Tunes:
This text has most frequently been set to the tune ANDÚJAR, composed by David Hurd, © 1984 by GIA Publications; the second most frequent setting is to TOLLEFSON, composed by Paulette Tollefson and © 1969 by several Lutheran denominations. I would also set it, as in Rejoice in the Lord, to ES IST EIN ROS to provide a better known tune.