"Silent Night! Holy Night!" (Trinity Hymnal 210)

Hymn of the Month, December 2016
Researched and written by Rev. Nicholas Davelaar

Many of the hymns we sing are gems of wisdom, guidance, and admonition, drawn from God’s Word and set to music so that the word of Christ might dwell in us richly. Let’s take some time to dig into another of these this month, “Silent Night! Holy Night!”
 
History

In the mid-19th century, the Royal Prussian Court Chapel in Berlin began a search for the creator of “Silent Night.” People were singing it throughout Europe, in the original German and in many translations, but no one seemed to know who wrote its words or composed its tune. During the course of its search, the Court Chapel contacted the Benedictine monastery in Salzburg, which led them to a certain Franz Gruber. Gruber then responded with a letter, dated December 30, 1854 (shown above):

“On December 24th in the year 1818 the curate of the newly erected parish-church St. Nicola of Oberndorf, Mr. Joseph Mohr, handed over a poem to the deputy organist, Franz Gruber (at that time also teacher at Arnsdorf) with the request to compose a suitable melody for two solo voices with choir and the accompaniment of one guitar.

“The latter handed his simple composition over to the musically trained clergyman as requested—an exact copy of the original is attached hereto—[and] his composition was produced immediately on Christmas Eve with great applause.

“Mr. Joseph Mohr, the originator of this and other spiritual poems, died on December 4, 1848….

“Franz Gruber [is] at present choir-conductor and organist at the parish-church of Hallein....

“In view of the fact that this Christmas song had reached the Tyrol [region] first by means of a well-known man from Zillertal and has appeared since then in a slightly different form in a collection of songs at Leipzig, the originator considers it a favor to be able to enclose the song in its original version.”

In this letter—the only known statement by either Mohr or Gruber concerning their famous hymn—we hear Gruber not only describe the birth of “Silent Night,” but also allude to its spread. In 1819 a master organ builder named Karl Mauracher came to their church in Oberndorf to work on the organ (this has led many to assume that Mohr requested Gruber to compose a melody accompanied by guitar because the organ was broken). That organ builder—the “well-known man from Zillertal”—took a copy of Mohr and Gruber’s Christmas carol with him when he headed home. He shared it with other people, and in the 1830s the hymn went viral, particularly after appearing in print in 1838.

As for Mohr and Gruber, they went their separate ways soon after the Christmas of 1818. The young Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) was reappointed elsewhere, while Gruber (1787-1863) remained around Salzburg the rest of his life.

All that noted, perhaps the most valuable yet least mentioned part of the story of “Silent Night” is the context in which it was written and first sung. In 1818 Oberndorf was in the grips of a terrible economic depression. The economy of Oberndorf had long depended on salt and the salt trade, but that trade had declined during recent Napoleonic wars (1792-1815) and never fully recovered. Additionally, in 1816 the Congress of Vienna had split the Principality of Salzburg between Bavaria and Austria, with the result that Oberndorf was now separated from Laufen, which had long been its town center (Oberndorf being more or less a bedroom community). Simply put, the people who first heard and sung this Christmas carol were boat builders, laborers, and the families thereof experiencing troubled times, who would not have sung of the incarnation of the Son of God with the sentimental spirit common today, but instead with far more of a sense of appreciation and need.
 
Sources: UMCDiscipleship.org, Stillenacht.at, Hymnary.org, Inmozartsfootsteps.com, and The Psalter Hymnal Handbook.
 
Overview
In spite of the sentimentality that many people add to it, “Silent Night” is a solid hymn that expresses awe and wonder at the incarnation of the Son of God. With its simple yet beautiful lyrics, it leads us in acknowledging and responding to the coming of the Son of God to save us from our sins.
 
Verse 1
Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace,
sleep in heavenly peace.
 
This and each of the following verses begin the same way, namely by describing the night of Jesus’ birth as both a silent night and a holy night. What reason do we have to believe that it was a silent night? In what sense was the night of Jesus’ birth a silent night? It was silent insofar as it was a seemingly uneventful night in a land that was relatively peaceful and calm. We don’t know all that was going on that night in Bethlehem and the surrounding regions; there was certainly some nighttime activity and noise, especially given the extra bustle surrounding the Roman census underway. That noted, the Bible paints a picture of a land at rest, seen most notably in Luke 2:8. There we hear about “shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over the flocks by night.” From that and the rest of Scripture we get the idea that the night of Jesus’ birth was just another night, and yet—at the same time—a holy night as well. The night was holy, meaning set apart from other nights, because the Virgin Mary had just given birth to a holy infant, whom we will identify in the next verse.

For now we close this verse simply by looking on at the virgin mother and child and bidding the child sleep in heavenly peace. That final statement is likely not a command or a statement of great theological significance so much as it is an expression of our joy at the birth of this child. To this day it’s not unheard of for a parent to say or at least think such a statement when gazing upon his or her sleeping newborn, and not out of a desire that the newborn sleep (especially because the baby already is), but rather as an expression of the parent’s own joy. In that same spirit and yet with infinitely greater wonder, we finish this opening verse by looking on Virgin Mary’s newborn and bidding him sleep in heavenly peace.
 
Verse 2
Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight!
Glories stream from heaven afar,
heav'nly hosts sing alleluia;
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!
 
In this second verse we shift our attention from the Virgin Mary in the stable (Luke 2:1-7) to the shepherds in the fields nearby, and more specifically to the heavenly host that appeared to them, announcing the birth of the Savior (Luke 2:8-14). Luke 2:9-10 tell us that “an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Here in verse 2 we summarize that encounter, emphasizing especially the message of those final words: Christ, the Savior, is born!
 
Verse 3
Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love's pure light
radiant beams from thy holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth!
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth!
 
This verse goes beyond the news of the angel and draws in other Bible passages to lead us in acknowledging and marveling at the birth of Jesus. Who was and is this baby according to Scripture? He is the Son of God (John 3:18; Heb 4:14; 1 John 4:14). He is the one from whose face love’s pure light beams radiantly (John 1:4; 1 John 4:10). He is the one whose birth marks the dawn of redeeming grace, that is to say, the fullness of time in which God sent his Son to redeem sinners (Gal 4:4). We who profess this Jesus as our Lord and Savior most often focus on and rejoice in his crucifixion and resurrection, but far be it from us not to acknowledge and marvel at his earlier coming!
 
Verse 4
Silent night! Holy night!
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
with the angels let us sing
alleluia to our King;
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!
 
In this final verse we respond to the birth of the Jesus by asking God to help us worship him. Our plea isn’t worded as well as it could or should be—on the surface it sounds as if we praying to the star the Magi saw (Matt 2:1-2)—but so long as we understand the star as God’s means to lead the Magi to Jesus, we’re not likely to be confused. Our plea, faithfully prayed, is to the Father, asking him to work in our hearts that we might worship the Savior he sent, our King.

Is that your prayer? Is that your prayer not only this month, but for the year to come?