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 11 OF 22: OH, TO BE LIKE THEE

Painting of Jesus by Kerry Jackson, at Arlington Avenue Baptist Church.

Oh, to be like Thee! Blessed Redeemer, 

This is my constant longing and prayer.

Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures, Jesus,  

Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Full of compassion, 

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, 

Seeking the wandring sinner to find.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Lowly in spirit, 

Holy and harmless, patient and brave; 

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches, 

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! While I am pleading, 

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love; 

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling, 

Fit me for life and heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee, 

Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art!

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness; 

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

NOTES ON HYMN

• This is another song in the Worship & Service Hymnal I grew up with that I didn't know until later in life; in this case, Becky - who grew up with this song - introduced it to me.
• If you are not familiar with this song, the final stanza is the chorus. It has the same meter as the verses. My hunch is that the lyricist, Thomas Chisholm, wrote a poem with multiple verses and the musician decided to make one verse the chorus. The same is true of another song Chisholm wrote the lyrics to that you're probably more familiar with: "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
• In case you're interested in the meter, it's 10,9,10,9. You can interchange tunes between this song, "I Must Tell Jesus," and "Heavenly Sunlight." I also wrote a poem I intended to be a song (nobody ever attempted to set it to music) called Sola Scriptura."
• As I mentioned, Becky grew up with this song while in the Church of Christ. I included the four verses from the Worship & Service Hymnal, but there's a fifth verse in the Church of Christ hymnal.