I recently came across a song by Johannes Brahms, "O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf," with text based loosely on Catholic liturgy. I found deep meaning in it from the perspective of a Latter-day Saint. Below is a very liberal translation from German, followed by some commentary.
O Savior, tear heaven open!
Hasten down to us from heaven.
Tear off for us the lock and the door;
Rend heaven's gate forevermore!
God, send down dew from heaven,
And manifest Thyself therein.
Break, ye clouds, and rain down
The king of Jacob's house.
O earth, burst open,
That mountains and valleys may become green.
O earth, bring this flower forth;
O Savior, spring up from the earth.
Here we suffer great distress;
Before our eyes looms bitter death.
Come lead us with Thy mighty hand
From misery to the Father's land.
We all desire to thank thee, Lord,
Our Savior now and evermore.
We all desire to praise thee
Forever and eternally.
Catholics (and Protestants too, I suppose) sing this (or something similar) during Advent. In that context, tearing heaven open refers to the coming of the Messiah--both His mortal birth and His Second Coming. But I see another layer of meaning here.
Maybe the most powerful message of the Restoration of the gospel is that revelations and heavenly manifestations happen today, now. Put another way, the Savior's Advent, in a sense, is not just a past event or a future event--it's ongoing, and it can happen individually as well as publicly. The heavens are not closed.
God chooses to manifest Himself sometimes in dramatic impressive thunderstorms, but more often in the dew, which, frequently enough, symbolizes revelation both in the Old Testament and in modern scripture.
The image of the earth bursting open also has special meaning to Latter-day Saints that may not be apparent to others. In addition to the allusion to Christ's Resurrection, we detect a symbolic reference to the Book of Mormon, the tangible fulfilment of the ancient promise that truth will spring forth out of the earth to accompany the righteousness sent down from heaven.
That seems appropriate here, because nowhere is the message stronger than in the Book of Mormon that the Lord manifests Himself to all--in every nation, to every man or woman who seeks Him. Revelation is not confined to biblical history nor to biblical geography, and the Book of Mormon is bold proof. In a very real sense, the Book of Mormon is the tool that the Lord is using to tear open heaven, to tear off the lock, and to rend heaven's gate.
