Lyrics
O Morning Star, how fair and bright!
Thou beamest forth in truth and light,
O Sovereign meek and lowly!
Thou Root of Jesse, David's Son,
My Lord and Bridegroom, Thou hast won
My heart to serve Thee solely!
Holy art Thou,
Fair and glorious, all victorious,
Rich in blessing,
Rule and might over all possessing.
Thou heavenly Brightness! Light divine!
O deep within my heart now shine,
And make Thee there an altar!
Fill me with joy and strength to be
Thy member, ever, joined to Thee
In love that cannot falter;
Toward Thee longing
Doth possess me; turn and bless me;
For Thy gladness
Eye and heart here pine in sadness.
But if Thou look on me in love,
There straightway falls from God above
A ray of purest pleasure;
Thy word and Spirit, flesh and blood,
Thou art my hidden treasure;
Let Thy grace, Lord, warm and cheer me.
O draw near me;
Thou hast taught us
Thee to see since Thou hast sought us!
Here will I rest, and hold it fast,
The Lord I love is First and Last,
The End as the Beginning!
Here I can calmly die, for Thou
Wilt raise me where Thou dwellest now,
Above all tears, all sinning:
Amen! Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus, soon release us;
With deep yearning,
Lord, we look for Thy returning!
Public domain hymn text (1599; English translation 1863). Words by Philipp Nicolai, translated by Catherine Winkworth.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Philipp Nicolai, a German Lutheran pastor, wrote 'O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright' in 1599 while serving a congregation in Unna, Westphalia, during a severe outbreak of plague that killed a large portion of the town, at times requiring Nicolai to conduct as many as thirty funerals in a single day.
Surrounded by that scale of loss, Nicolai wrote a set of meditations for his surviving parishioners on the theme of eternal life, publishing them alongside two hymns, this one and 'Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying,' both of which quickly became foundational texts of the German Lutheran chorale tradition.
The hymn draws its central image from Revelation 22:16, where Christ calls Himself 'the bright and morning star,' pairing that title with 'Root of Jesse' from Isaiah 11, tying together messianic imagery from opposite ends of the Christian Bible within a single opening verse.
Nicolai composed both the words and the striking, soaring melody himself, and the tune's unusual richness and technical demands led later musicians, including Johann Sebastian Bach, who used it in multiple cantatas and chorale preludes, to draw on it repeatedly across German sacred music for generations afterward.
Because of that combined richness of text and tune, German hymnody has long referred to this hymn as the 'Queen of Chorales,' a companion title to 'Wake, Awake,' which is similarly known as the 'King of Chorales,' both written by Nicolai during the same plague year.
Written directly out of a season of mass death, the hymn's focus stays notably fixed on personal devotion and heavenly hope rather than on the surrounding grief itself, functioning less as a lament than as an act of sustained praise offered from the middle of genuine catastrophe.
The hymn remains part of the standard Lutheran chorale repertoire today, and its melody continues to be performed in classical concert settings quite apart from congregational worship, a testament to the musical sophistication Nicolai brought to a hymn written under such difficult circumstances.
