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, and mean, and lowly, lived on earth our Savior holy.
3
And thro' all his wondrous childhood he would honor and obey, love and watch the lowly maiden in whose gentle arms he lay: Christian children all must be mild, obedient, good as he.
4
And our eyes at last shall see him, thro' his own redeeming love; for that child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heav'n above: and he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.
5
Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing by, we shall see him, but in heaven, set at God's right hand on high; when like stars his children crowned all in white shall wait around.
H.J. Gauntlett (1805-1876)
In de stad van koning David / C.F. Alexander (1818-1895), H. van 't Veld (1932) - UM37
Op 't geluid der hemelkoren / Isaäc da Costa (1798-1860) - SZ7
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning / Onbekend - Traditioneel