SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 17 OF 22: O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL (ADVENT OF HOPE)

Angels, live nativity scene, Castleton United Methodist Church, Indianapolis

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
 

NOTES ON HYMN 

• Raise your hands if you realize we're in Advent season? The last 16 weeks I've shared songs in, with one exception, alphabetic order. For the next four weeks, I'll be dealing with the four weeks of Advent, which will be followed by Christmas and New Year's Day.
• What is the difference between an Advent Hymn like this and a Christmas Hymn like "Silent Night?" The former anticipates the coming of the Promised Messiah, the latter focuses on the event of Christ's birth.
• There are different ways of looking at Advent. Some break it up into various actors in the Christmas story (e.g. Prophets, Angels). Others look at various things Christ has brought into our lives. This week, I chose "O Come O Come Emmanuel" for the Sunday that's the Advent of Hope.
  
• How many hymnals have eight verses to any hymn? Not many. Most hymns are trimmed to four or at the most five, and what gets trimmed is fairly uniform. But not always. This hymn, as well as "Crown Him With Many Crowns," "Anywhere With Jesus," and to a lesser extent "Take My Life And Let It Be" often have varying verses, with different hymnals having a different list of verses. So I went to Cyberhymnal and posted all eight verses (which was more than I thought - for some reason, I thought it was seven!) By the way, there are other hymns that have that many verses - "Soldiers of Christ Arise" have 16 long verses.
• This song is what's called plainsong. In those days, a lot of music was sung in unison aca pella without large jumps in the melody.
• Anybody start trying to figure out the meters after I talked about them? If you have, you'd notice the verses are long meter (8,8,8,8). You can take another long meter song (e.g. "All Creatures of Our God and King", "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross", or the Doxology), and sing it to this tune, adding the chorus.