This is narrative as it mentions some parts and details of the story, and also reflective as it shifts and tells us what these things mean. Once in Royal David’s City (CW 50) is best known for being the processional for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, where the first stanza is always sung by a young boy. Long ago I saw an interview with one of the choir directors who said that a single child’s voice in this large chapel is a metaphor of the still small voice of the Christ-child coming into a large and dark world.
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.
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.
We often think about the lowliness of the birth of Jesus. His mother “wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” Archaeologists have found mangers from that time, and there is one pictured here. They were made of clay or stone with the trough carved or indented on the top, and they were all found on streets next to a place to tie an animal. (See the stone on the far end with the hole carved for a rope or a strap to be tied.) It makes me wonder, was there a “lowly cattle shed”? Or was the baby Jesus born out on the street and laid in a public feeding trough “because there was no room for them in the inn” (or “because there was no guest room available”). That would have made the Christ-child much easier for the shepherds to find. “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” The Gospel of Luke nowhere mentions a barn or stable of any kind. Only a manger. If there was only the manger and no stable or stall, we see the depth of Jesus humility here at the very beginning. That means it was even more “poor, and mean, and lowly” than we usually imagine.
And, through 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.
For He is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.
These two stanzas are not in my denomination’s hymnal, yet they do have a basis in Scripture. In Luke 2:51-52 we are told that after Jesus visited the temple with his parents at age twelve, he went back to Nazareth and was obedient to them. The emphasis here seems to be more on Jesus as example. We know that Jesus is more than that. He lived his life as our substitute and Savior. He fulfilled the commands of God that we have often failed to keep, and for that, he is our perfect Savior, whose goodness covers our sin.
Hebrews 2 tells us how Jesus was like us in every way except without sin. He endured the human experience. Since Joseph disappears after Luke 2 and Mary alone is mentioned later in the Gospels, we can assume Jesus experienced the death of his stepfather. And what would life have been like for a perfect, holy child, growing up among sinners? What would school have been like? Was he teased or bullied because he refused to do evil and insisted on doing his best? Perhaps his school years were a preview of the suffering he would face on Good Friday? Really, we know none of those things. We do know that he endured weakness and pain for us, and despite it all, he remained our holy and faithful High Priest and Savior.
And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through 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.
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;
Where like stars His children crowned
All in white shall wait around.
Here is reflection, telling us what it all means. He is our Savior who has opened heaven for us. There we will see him. This child is our Gift, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a public feeding trough… and this Gift keeps on giving with his gifts of grace and truth, life empowered by his forgiveness now, and life with him forever.
Even though Once in Royal David’s City is always the processional hymn for King’s College’s Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, the setting is sometimes varied. The performance above is more traditional. Below it is performed with a different harmony and descant.
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