Little is known of the origin of this cherished hymn. Associated with it are several popular legends which cannot always be substantiated by research.

One of the best-known accounts is that it was called the Crusaders’ Hymn. Some think that it was sung by the twelfth century German Crusaders, especially by their children, as they made their long and wearisome trek to the Holy Land.

The English adaptation of this hymn was by Richard Storrs Willis, born in Boston, Massachusetts. It is interesting to note that in this collection a notation about the origin of the hymn is made, stating that it was sung by the German knights on the way to Jerusalem.

This statement undoubtedly did much to foster and popularize the Crusader account.

Stanza 1:

Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s Glory, Joy, and Crown!

What did Jesus look like?

If Scripture tells us anything about Jesus’ physical appearance, it is that it was unremarkable and unimportant. The fact that Judas had to point Him out to the soldiers who came to arrest Him, seems to indicate that He was a rather average-looking Galilean Jew.  In fact, His lack of any particular physical attractiveness was predicted in Isaiah 53:2,

“He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.”

And yet He is our “Fairest Lord Jesus,” the most beautiful of all who ever lived. Peter gave us a clue to what kind of beauty this is, when he advised us not to pay so much attention to our own outward attractiveness, but rather to “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious (1 Peter 3:4).”

When it came to the “hidden person of the heart,” this average-looking Man of Galilee was like “light shining in the darkness” (John 1:5). His beauty shone in His words–the beatitudes, the parables, the simple but profound answers, the towering moral teachings that challenge and inspire even those who do not accept Him as Savior–so that even His bewildered opponents had to say,

“No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46).

His beauty shone in His actions–the gentle touch for the outcasts of society, the respect shown to women, the countless acts of healing, the righteous fury that drove out the money changers–until John could only say, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

The first stanza of this hymn, having introduced this wonderful subject, declares our intention to render all “glory and honor” to the One who is the fairest of all who ever lived. He is to be worshiped, as well, because He is “Ruler of all nature.”

Jesus is “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16), who holds “all authority . . . in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). He has an additional claim upon this physical creation:

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (Col 1:16-17).

The second line of this stanza, “O Thou of God and man the Son,” was originally, “Gottes und Mariae Sohn,” literally, “God’s and Mary’s Son.” Perhaps this expression was too “Catholic-sounding” for the translator’s majority-Protestant readership, or perhaps he could not find a better way to fit it into English words, but it is certainly a true factual statement either way. The wonder of the Incarnation is starkly presented, in a fashion similar to John’s understated, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). This Lord of Creation, the fairest of all, is the Son of God and yet is one of us.

Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11).

That is what this stanza tells us to do, giving voice to our desires: “Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor.” There is a subtlety in the original German that does not come across as well in the English: “Dich will ich lieben, dich will ich ehren” means literally, “You I want to love, You I want to honor.” The German “will” is a desire to do something in the present; the English “will” is a determination to do something in the future.  In this case, however, the difference is immaterial; we mean both!

We desire express our love and respect to Jesus because He is the “soul’s glory, joy and crown.”

His birth was announced as “good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10). His resurrection filled the disciples with “fear and great joy” (Matthew 28:8).

Christ is himself the reason for and source of joy:

Likewise Jesus is the source of all the glory of God that we can comprehend, for in the Son of God “we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  His glory can only be claimed as our glory, however, when we acknowledge the supremacy of this truth:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD . . .
(Jeremiah 9:23-24a).

The knowledge of the glory of Christ is the crown for which we strive. There are many crowns, of course, literal and figurative, for which people strive in this world. Paul said, “Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown (1 Corinthians 9:25).  And though Paul spoke of the literal “crowns” or laurels given in the Greek and Roman athletic games, he might just as well be speaking of all the perishable glories and achievements for which many people strive in this life.  But the knowledge of Christ is the “glory, joy and crown” that will never fade away. As Isaiah prophesied, “In that day the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of His people (Isaiah 28:5).

Stanza 2:

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Over the years, however, this stanza evolved into a simple comparison of the beauties of the flowers, fields, and woods to that of Christ.  No doubt the second line refers to the beautiful wildflowers that sprinkle the fields and roadsides in the springtime; they are free gifts from God, yet “even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:29).

In the same way, “the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom 5:15), far surpassing any other sacrifice that could have been made, and so far outstripping the “cunningly devised fables” invented by men for their own salvation, as to beggar comparison (2 Peter 1:16).  But just as we often overlook the beauty of the wildflowers along the roadside, many pass by that free gift of grace without a second thought, or take it for granted once they have secured it.

The stanza concludes by telling us that Jesus “makes the woeful heart to sing.”  He promises comfort to the mourner (Matthew 5:4), and rest to the weary (Matthew 11:28).  When we think we will never sing again, He shows us that we can and will.  King David was a man who saw tragedy and setbacks throughout his life, and he understood this principle when he wrote,

I waited patiently for the LORD;
He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
Out of the miry bog,
And set my feet upon a rock,
Making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
A song of praise to our God.
(Psa 40:1-3a)

The wildflowers in springtime are a cause for joy, and lift my spirits every year; but Jesus is with me all the year round, giving me new reasons to sing every day.  It is a blessing, too, that God placed a direct line from the voice to the heart; sometimes joy in the heart overflows in song, but sometimes we have to reverse the direction and fill the heart with joy from singing!  This hymn itself is a powerful antidote to the melancholy that some of us struggle with, reminding us of simple truths that last.

Stanza 3:

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels heaven can boast.

In this stanza as well, the original hymn was slightly rearranged in translation. The German lyrics from 1842 read, “Fair is the moonlight, fairer still the sunshine,” progressing from the lesser to the greater. You may ask, “Why would someone think the moonlight was more beautiful than sunshine?”  But it really is no matter, because Jesus outshines them all.

The oldest German text presents this idea even more forcefully: “Schäme dich, O Sonne! Schäme dich, O Mond!” (Literally, “Shame on you!”) Compared to the Light of the World (John 8:12), they are insignificant.

The “inconstant moon,” as Juliet called it, has long been a metaphor for changeableness because of its cycle of phases.  In modern times we have learned that the output of the sun is not as constant as was once thought, but actually varies considerably over time.  By contrast, we put our trust in the One “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

“All the twinkling starry host” is a number that long ago passed the ability of our minds to grasp, but recent research by Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University suggests that the current count of 100 sextillion might be low.  His estimate runs to 300 sextillion, or, 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

His revision is an attempt to correct the way previous estimates accounted for the number of stars in certain types of galaxies; using the Keck observatory in Hawaii, Van Dokkum determined that the elliptical galaxies have “10 to 20 times” more stars than previously thought.  Astronomer Richard Ellis of Cal Tech said that Van Dokkum’s findings are stirring up current thinking in astronomy “like a cat among pigeons.”  He notes dryly that perhaps “the universe is more complicated than we think” (Borenstein).

Yes, it is, and in more ways than we think. We should remember that as astonishing as these things are–and I am always glad to learn more about them, to the extent that I can understand them–“the secret things belong to God” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Augustine of Hippo summed up our frustration and admiration thus, in his Confessions, book 1, chapter 3:

To all this I can only say, “Amen. I don’t understand Him either.” Augustine was trying to grasp the magnitude of God’s works, with the scientific and philosophical tools of his day, and we do no better with ours.  All I know is that even if we really were able to comprehend this physical universe, God is so much greater that it would not even be a first step in truly understanding His nature.  We know Him to the extent that He has revealed himself to us.  And it is in Jesus Christ that He has most fully revealed himself, and has drawn us to Him.

There is the even greater mystery, that surpasses all 300 sextillion (or more?) of the “twinkling starry host.”  That is a mighty big number; but how much more incomprehensible is “the breadth and length and height and depth” of “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge!” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Stanza 4:

Beautiful Savior! Lord of the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!

In many hymnals this stanza concludes “Fairest Lord Jesus,” though it is actually the first stanza again, here taken from the translation by Joseph A. Seiss. “Lord of the nations” perhaps harks back to the original “Herrscher aller Herren” (“Lord of Lords”) in the earliest German text, reminding us of Jesus’ authority over humanity–over our souls–and not just over the physical realm.

“Son of God and Son of Man” is parallel to the other translation’s “O Thou of God and man the Son,” but ties more directly into specific Scriptural expressions. Jesus is the Son of God, and claimed to be so while on this earth (John 10:36); but He referred to himself more often by the latter expression, “Son of Man” (John 13:31). Of course, any of us could claim the latter title in a simply literal sense; David used it in the same fashion in Psalm 8:3-4,

When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have set in place;
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

But when the Son of God came to this earth and put on this mortal flesh, He took up that humble name “Son of Man” and gave it a new dignity.  He came to be the new Adam (Romans 5:14), and to make us “new creatures” (2 Corinthians 5:17), the people God intends for us to be.

The stanza ends in a declaration of the intent to praise and honor Jesus because of this wonderful gift, and reads very much like the doxology at the end of Jude:

“To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be
glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time
and now and forever” (Jude 25).