204. Hymn on 1 Timothy 2:9-15

This hymn has been more or less commissioned by a local Lutheran pastor who is planning an Advent midweek sermon series based on 1 Timothy 2:9-15, broken up into four segments, each cross-referenced with an appropriate lesson from the Old Testament and another from the New. The varying emphases of the four weeks' messages sum up to the overall idea that we can learn a lot about being Christians from the Biblical portrait of womanhood. The structure I'm trying for is an all-purpose opening stanza, an additional stanza for each installment of the four-week series, and an all-purpose concluding stanza. It's a draft in progress, taking feedback from the pastor in question. The tune is the familiar MUNICH, from the Meiningen Gesangbuch of 1693; to the anglophone ear, it is best known as the tune to W.W. How's 1867 hymn "O Word of God incarnate."

Give heed, all saints, comprising
The Lord's accepted Bride,
To Him who, shame despising,
For Her sake bled and died!
By means of His devising
He knit Her to His side
And now, from death arising,
Presents Her justified.

1 Timothy 2:9-10; Ruth 3:1-13; Ephesians 5:25-27

Behold, what the believing
From womankind can learn!
As Ruth, her need perceiving,
Told Boaz her concern,
Redemption thus receiving,
So we to Christ shall turn:
Washed, clothed, anointed, cleaving
To Him who will not spurn.

1 Timothy 2:11-12; Luke 1:26-28; Lamentations 3:25-26

Behold, the bliss afforded
To them who meekly wait!
While precedents are thwarted
And subtle minds debate,
Her simple "Yes" accorded
To Mary's virgin state
The right to be recorded
Our Bridegroom's fleshly gate!

1 Timothy 2:13-15a; Genesis 4:1-15; Galatians 4:4-5

Behold, how in childbearing
Believing Eve felt mirth;
And God, through childbirth swearing
To ransom all the earth,
His only Son not sparing,
Brought life and light to birth,
With ev'ry mother sharing
A sign of priceless worth!

1 Timothy 2:15; Proverbs 31:10-31; 1 Corinthians 11:7-12

Behold, what gifts amazing
The Author of all good
Bestowed, while angels, gazing,
But partly understood!
And now, Her station raising
As but the Bridegroom could,
He comes, already praising
Her faithful womanhood!

O Christ, who have impressed us
With Your redemptive mark—
In holy splendor dressed us,
Saved through baptism's ark—
Cast all that e'er distressed us,
Our sins, into the dark—
As known and loved confessed us—
Your Bride salutes You! Hark!