SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 21 OF 22: HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING (MERRY CHRISTMAS)

 

"All of Creation Worships" by Jeff Reynolds

Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth and mercy mild - 

God and sinners reconciled!"

Joyful, all ye nations, rise, 

Join the triumph of the skies;

With th'angelic host proclaim,

"Christ is born in Bethlehem."

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

Christ, by highest heav'n adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord:

Late in time behold Him come, 

Offspring of a virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail th'incarnate Deity!

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

Hail the heav'nborn Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings, 

Ris'n with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by, 

Born that man no more may die;

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

Come, Desire of Nations, come!

Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman's conq'ring seed, 

Bruise in us the serpent's head.

Adam's likeness now efface,

Stamp in thine image in its place;

Second Adam from above, 

Reinstate us in Thy love.

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

NOTES ON HYMN

• First off, Merry Christmas! Or for you guys, Joseph Christmas! 
• How many of you following have read through the first three verses, and then pause to see a fourth you've never seen before? Growing up with the Worship & Service Hymnal, I only knew the first three.  But then I attended a church whose hymnal (Praise! Our Songs and Hymns) included the fourth verse. Cyberhymnal includes a fifth.
• This is another hymn written by Charles Wesley. I had a Calvinist joke that Wesley believed you had to earn your salvation so he made the music for this song hard to sing. Uh, not Wesley's fault. I don't know what tune they sang this to during Charles' lifetime, but he died before the composer to this song was born. That composer? Felix Mendelssohn. And do you expect Classical composers to write easy songs to sing? By the way, Mendelssohn was raised Lutheran and also composed the Reformation symphony.
• By the way, my favorite hymn word writer is Charles Wesley. My favorite classical composer is Mendelssohn. No wonder I love this song.
• This song's meter is a 7,7,7,7 double. One interesting thing? Another Wesley song, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" has a 7,7,7,7 meter, which adds a lot of "Alleluia"s ot it. So you could sing "Christ The Lord is Risen Today" to Mendelssohn's tune, dropping the alleluias and using two verses for each round. Or you can sing "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" to the tune of "Christ the Lord is Risen Today, with the alleluias and doubling the verse number. 
  

 

 

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 20 OF 22: COME, THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS

Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, Indianapolis. Note at the base of the tree are shoebox gifts. We donate these to the Metropolitan Baptist Center every Christmas, which they take to women's shelters for their children (each box has the gender and age range listed).

Come, Thou long expected Jesus, 

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us, 

Let us find our rest in Thee.

 

Israel's strength and consolation, 

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear desire of every nation, 

Joy of every longing heart.

 

Born Thy people to deliver, 

Born a child and yet a king.

Born to reign in us forever, 

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring. 

By Thine own eternal Spirit 

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit, 

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

NOTES ON HYMN

• This is an Advent hymn. By now, I think you all might know the difference between an Advent song and a Christmas song? I had chose 5 songs I wanted to use for the Advent and Christmas seasons, and putting them with the weeks seemed natural for most of them. This one is not as obvious with the theme "Adevent of Love", but it definitely fits.
  
• The tune of this song is Hyfrydol, written by Rowland Huw Pritchard. Hyfrydol is the only thing Cyberhymnal lists Pritchard writing, which I find hard to believe because of how good that tune is. The Worship & Service Hymnal included three songs besides this one with the tune, the best known of those I'd guess to be "Our Great Savior" (with the chorus, "Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Friend!"). Additionally, it suggests this tune as an alternate for Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," and Elton Trueblood suggested this tune for a song he wrote he called "Baptism By Fire" which is printed in his excellent book "The Incindiery Fellowship." (I learned about the book when the Baptist Hymnal 1991 set the lyrics to a different tune and used the first line "God Whose Purpose Is To Kindle" as the title.
• The lyrics to this song are written by Charles Wesley. It's not unusual to see hymns with Wesley's words have music composed by musicians not yet born when Wesley died. 
• One question I have for Mr. Wesley is how many verses this song has. There are only two verses to this song, but was Wesley's original thought for a pair of verses to be set to a 8,7,8,7 Doubled tune, or a quartet set to 8,7,8,7? Honestly, looking at the words, it gives me an impression it was written with four verses. Yet combining the verses to this tune produces a beautiful song.
• Final comment: I will admit I have questions on whether Christmas trees should be on a church's platform. However, in the case of the one at Arlington Avenue Baptist Church (above photo), it also serves as a reminder of preparing shoe-box gifts for the Baptist Center where they are distributed to the children of mothers in rescue shelters. This fits Advent of Love, does it not?
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 18 OF 22: O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM (ADVENT OF PEACE)

Cincinnati Zoo Nativity Scene

 

O little town of Bethlehem,
    How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
    The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
    The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
    Are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary,
    And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
    Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together,
    Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King,
    And peace to men on earth!

How silently, how silently,
    The wondrous Gift is giv’n;
So God imparts to human hearts
    The blessings of His Heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming,
    But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
    The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
    Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
    Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
    The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
    Our Lord Emmanuel!

 

NOTES:

• This song is being posted on the 2nd Sunday of Advent - Advent of Peace. I mentioned last week about the differences between Advent songs (expecting Christ's coming) and Christmas songs (about Christ's birth). This is definitely a Christmas song, but I thought it would be appropriate looking at God's peace.
• Did you notice anything not completely typical about this nativity scene photo? It was a mild December day, and the person who kept the rabbit decided to let him out while she was cleaning up that area. I thought that the rabbit added to the peaceful look.
  
• You may have noticed, but "sin" is rarely mentioned at Christmas time (and not much if any more the rest of the year). What I like about this carol is it doesn't keep up with that (should I say sinful) tendency. It mentions in the third verse that we're "in this world of sin," and in the last verse it exhorts us to "Cast out our sin." 
• Speaking of verses, I consulted Cyber-hymnal to see if there were any besides the four I'm familiar with. The answer is "yes." The fourth verse is not included in my post, as it isn't in the hymnals I'm familiar with. You can click here to see the missing verse.
• One other bit of info on the Cyber-hymnal page (besides a picture at the bottom of the Church of the Nativity) is this about Phillips Brooks (who wrote the words to this hymn): "Brooks wrote about his horse­back jour­ney from Je­ru­sa­lem to Beth­le­hem, where he as­sist­ed with the mid­night ser­vice on Christ­mas Eve, 1865:
   
  
  'I re­mem­ber stand­ing in the old church in Beth­le­hem, close to the spot where Je­sus was born, when the whole church was ring­ing hour af­ter hour with splen­did hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voic­es I knew well, tell­ing each oth­er of the Won­der­ful Night of the Sav­ior’s birth.'
  
  
  

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.
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 10 OF 22: O FOR A HEART TO PRAISE MY GOD

Kookaburas, Louisville Zoo

O for a heart to praise my God, 

A heart from sin set free,

A heart that always feels Thy blood 

So freely shed for me!

 

A heart resigned, submissive, meek, 

My great Redeemer's throne,

Where only Christ is heard to speak, 

Where Jesus reigns alone;

 

A lowly, humble, contrite heart, 

Believing, true, and clean,

Which neither life nor death can part 

From Christ who dwells within.

 

A heart in every thought renewed, 

And full of love divine;

Perfect, and right, and pure, and good, 

A copy, Lord, of Thine!

 

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart; Come quickly from above,

Write Thy new name upon my heart, Thy new, best name of Love.

 

NOTES ON HYMN

• This is the second hymn by Charles Wesley included in this series. It won't be the last. Wesley is only one of two hymn writers I'll be including more than one song by, the other being Isaac Watts.
• Does this song at all make you think of another of Wesley's classics, "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing?" Both of them are written Common Meter (8,6,8,6). In the Worship and Service Hymnal I grew up with, both songs are set to the tune Azmon, though for this song it also suggests a couple of other tunes, including Arlington, which is usually associate with "Am I A Soldier Of The Cross."
• In the above mentioned hymnal, it only included four verses for this song, omitting the third verse I included. The Cyberhymnal lists nine verses for "O For A Thousand Tongues" and eight for this one, so I selected one of the other verses to include when Becky and I sing it.
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 6 OF 22: I WANT A PRINCIPLE WITHIN

Living Word Bible Church, Indianapolis; on sign: "Understanding the Bible. Independent, Non-Denominational, Dispensational."

I want a principle within Of watchful, godly fear,

A sensibility of sin, A pain to feel it near.

Help me the first approach to feel Of pride or wrong desire;

To catch the wandering of my will, And quench the kindling fire.

From Thee that I no more may stray, No more Thy goodness grieve,

Grant me the filial awe, I pray, The tender conscience give.

Quick as the apple of an eye, O God, my conscience make!

Awake my soul when sin is nigh, And keep it still awake.

Almighty God of truth and love, To me Thy power impart;

The burden from my soul remove, The hardness from my heart.

O may the least omission pain My reawakened soul,

And drive me to that grace again, Which makes the wounded whole.

NOTES ON THIS HYMN:

• The words were written by my favorite hymn lyrist, Charles Wesley (brother and co-founder of the Methodist Church of John Wesley).
• The meter of this hymn is Common Meter Double (8,6,8,6,8,6,8,6). Becky and I are not familiar with the tune associated with it, so we sing it to the tune of other songs, such as "Faith Is The Victory," "My Faith Has Found A Resting Place (No Other Plea)," "I Sing The Mighty Power Of God," and "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear."
• I knew some of Wesley's hymns have more verses than are normally printed - for example, "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing," has 5 verses in the hymnal I'm most familiar with, 9 on Cyber Hymnal's page, and originally over twenty (with what we consider the first verse being actually the sixth or seventh verse) - so I looked on Cyber Hymnal of a pair of Wesley songs that had three verses each: this one and "Soldiers of Christ, Arise!" The total number of verses for this song? Three! For "Soldiers of Christ?" Sixteen. 
• As I was setting the date for this hymn, I realized it's 9-11. I'm following the planned format, of putting the first 16 songs in alphabetic order by title, and I'm sticking to it. But doesn't this song reflect spiritually the vigilance September 11th motivated us to have?
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 5 OF 22: HE WAS NOT WILLING

Globe statue, International Learning Center (IMB, Southern Baptist), Rockville, VA

 

"He was not willing that any should perish;" 

Jesus enthroned in the glory above,

Saw our poor fallen world, pitied our sorrows, 

Poured out His life for us, wonderful love!

Perishing, perishing! Thronging our pathway, 

Hearts break with burdens too heavy to bear:

Jesus would save, but there's no one to tell them, 

No one to lift them from sin and despair.

"He was not willing that any should perish;" 

Clothed in our flesh with its sorrow and pain,

Came He to seek the lost, comfort the mourner, 

Heal the heart broken by sorrow and shame.

Perishing, perishing! Harvest is passing, 

Reapers are few and the night draweth near;

Jesus is calling thee, haste to the reaping, 

Thou shalt have souls, precious souls for thy hire.

Plenty for pleasure, but little for Jesus; 

Time for the world with its troubles and toys, 

No time for Jesus' work, feeding the hungry, 

Lifting lost souls to eternity's joys.

Perishing, perishing! Hark, how they call us; 

"Bring us your Savior, oh, tell us of Him! 

We are so weary, so heavily laden, 

And with long weeping our eyes have grown dim."

"He was not willing that any should perish;" 

Am I His follower, and can I live

Longer at ease with a soul going downward, 

Lost for the lack of the help I might give?

Perishing, perishing! Thou wast not willing; 

Master, forgive and inspire us anew;

Banish our worldliness, help us to ever 

Live with eternity's values in view.

NOTES ON THIS HYMN:

• I've only seen a few hymnals with this hymn; out of our collection, there's just one (Inspiring Hymns that has it. And only one church I've attended has sung this song. What would it be like if this somber reminder was sung more often?
• The words and music were both written by Lucy Jane (Rider) Meyer (1849-1922). The Cyber Hymnal lists the names of eight hymns she wrote. She served as a teacher (including in chemistry) and principal. She and her husband, Josiah Shelley Meyer, opened the Chicago Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions in 1885, where she served as principal till 1917. She also started The Message periodical in 1886 (later renamed The Deaconess Advocate) which she edited until 1914. If that's not enough, she also started the Methodist Deaconess Association in 1908.  
• One thing that amused me. When I turned to this hymn, #466 in Inspiring Hymns, I noticed the hymn on the previous page (#464): "The Star Spangled Banner."
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 4 OF 22: GOD MOVES IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY

The Point Church and Community Center, Greenwood, IN

God moves in a mysterious way 

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea 

And rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; 

The clouds you so much dread

Are thick with mercy and shall break 

With blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 

But trust upon His grace;

Behind each frowning providence 

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast, 

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste, 

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err 

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter, 

And He will make it plain.

NOTES ON HYMN

• This song is in a hymnal used in two churches I attended and at the college chapel, and yet I was unfamiliar with this song until Becky introduced me to it.
• Becky learned this song because one of her college professors hosted a gathering every Tuesday night, and he had them sing this song each week.
• The above hymnal contained five verses, which is how I learned it. Cyberhymnal includes another verse (the second). I'm including a link to their page below so you can see that verse if you wish.
  
• This song, like "Am I A Soldier Of The Cross" (part 1 of this series) is common meter (8,6,8,6). You can sing this to the tunes of many songs like "Amazing Grace" or "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing" or the verses of "Oh, How I Love Jesus" or "Joy to the World! The Lord Has Come!"
• One other song you can sing this hymn to the tune is the theme of Gilligan's Island. I sang the first verse to that tune and smiled at the end, thinking of the storm. Then, I sang the next verse and the following, and something hit me. This song's theme is weeping is for the night, but joy comes in the morning. The original tune reflects the weeping; singing it to Gilligan's Island captures the joy part. So I may sing that song to Gilligan but not as a joke anymore.
• The lyrics to this song were written by William Cowper, who also wrote the words to "There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood" (which, by the way, is another common meter song). Cyberhymnal mentions the story behind the song, so you can click here to see the story and the original second verse that my hymnal omitted. 😞