The Hymnal 1982 102
Once in royal David's city
- Tune
- irby
- Author(s)
- Cecil Frances Alexander, 1818-1895; James Waring McCrady, b. 1938
- Composer(s)
- Henry John Gauntlett, 1805-1876; Arthur Henry Mann, 1850-1929
- Meter
- 8.7.8.7.7.7
More information available on ritesong or Hymnary.org.
1. 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.
2. 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, the scorned, the lowly lived on earth our Savior holy.
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4. For he is our lifelong pattern; daily, when on earth he grew; he was tempted, scorned, rejected, tears and smiles like us he knew. Thus he feels for all our sadness, and he shares in all our gladness.
5. And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love; for that child who seemed so helpless is our Lord in heaven above; and he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.
6. Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing round, we shall see him; but in heaven, where his saints his throne surround: Christ, revealed to faithful eye, set a God's right hand on high.