Christmas and Advent Hymns and their Story

“Savior of the Nations Come”

This hymn is attributed to Ambrose of Milan [339-497], has gained him the title the “father of Latin hymnody”. In 1523, Dr. Martin Luther translated it into German, that all his people of Wittenberg could sing their praise to the Lord, as they begged for Christ to come to them again that Christmas.
It begins as a call for the Virgin’s Son to come and make His home among us and for all creation, heaven and earth, to marvel at Him; after all, He was here from even before the time as we are told in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The verses that followed serve as our “Christmas Creed”, as we sing about a maiden found with child, and that God Almighty Himself was there upon his throne.
The seventh verse, uses the image of light, the light that now shines from the manger into the night, the light of Christ, which shatters the darkness, the light into which “faith now abides”. The final verse praises the Holy Trinity and all it’s work done for us on the first Christmas. We sing of Jesus, who came in human flesh to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil; for the “Word of God made flesh, woman’s offspring pure and fresh”, literally came to us.

Savior of the Nations Come, Virgin’s Son make here Thy home!
Marvel now, O heaven and earth, that the Lord chose such a birth.