Come We That Love the Lord

Praise for the Lord #111

Words: Isaac Watts, 1707; chorus, Robert Lowry, 1867
Music: Robert Lowry, 1867

Sometimes a hymn can become a favorite on the strength of associations alone, but I think more often it is a really great hymn to begin with that, in combination with those associations, makes an impression that lasts a lifetime. I have loved this hymn since I was a little boy, just for its happy, upbeat tone. But in my teen years, I would remember it as the last hymn I led at the last worship service of the old Northside Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I grew up. And it was one of the songs I chose for my first time leading a worship service at the Brown Trail Church of Christ in Bedford, Texas, on a Sunday when one of the preaching students was delivering what may have been his first sermon there. Little did we know that we would someday be brothers-in-law, and would be blessed to fill those same roles in the same pulpit on many more Sundays!

This hymn originally appeared as hymn #30 in Book II of Isaac Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), the section titled "Composed on Divine Subjects." As usual with Watts's hymns, there were many more stanzas in the original--no fewer than 10 in this case--and later hymnals have culled these into various versions. Click here to see the full original text. Our four-stanza version here includes the stanzas most commonly known, and has only one change from Watts's original wording--"children of the heavenly King," instead of "favorites of the heavenly King," in the second stanza.

Watts gave the superscription, "Heavenly joy on earth," as the theme of his hymn, and it certainly is a hymn of pure joy, though admitting there are challenges in life. Yes, there will be scoffers "who never knew our God," and there are "tears to be dried;" but these are momentary, and our goal is eternal. The joy our God gives us, especially when we gather to sing His praises, swallows these up and overwhelms them.

Stanza 1:
Come we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.

The teachings of Jesus contain "hard sayings"(John 6:60), and these very often come in the form of a paradox. The Teacher who said, "Blessed are those who mourn,"(Matthew 5:4) is the same Teacher who said, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."(John 15:11) But a good definition of a paradox, as the old saying goes, is "truth standing on its head to get our attention." It is well worth our time to investigate what a Christian's joy really is.

First, it is closely associated with the new birth by the Holy Spirit; Paul in fact called it the "joy of the Spirit."(1 Thessalonians 1:6) It is a characteristic of the Spirit-born citizens of Christ's kingdom, exhibiting "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."(Romans 14:17) In Paul's list of the fruits of the Spirit, it is second only to love, the greatest Christian virtue.(Galatians 5:22) Peter called it "inexpressible and filled with glory."(1 Peter 1:8)

But this joy of the Spirit is not a light, giddy euphoria; it is a joy that exists alongside real problems and suffering. Paul said to the Corinthians, "In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy."(2 Corinthians 7:4) He also reported that the churches in Macedonia "in a severe test of affliction" and "extreme poverty" still had an "abundance of joy."(2 Corinthians 8:2) It is a joy that seems instead to thrive in adversity; James made the outlandish statement, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.(James 1:2-3) Perhaps this association is seen most clearly in Paul's blessing to the church in Colossae, "May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy."(Colossians 1:11)

So this is not a giddy, euphoric joy such as we might feel at a sporting event. It is a joy that exists in spite of sorrows, and in full recognition of them, not in their denial. It is a deep, solemn joy, somewhat like we might feel in connection with a graduation, or a marriage, or the birth of a child--full of cheer, yet not unmixed with serious contemplation. But it is also a joy that should be known! The Psalms call on us again and again to sing and shout for joy, and Psalm 107:2 says pithily, "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so." As Isaac Watts expressed so well in another hymn (Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book 1, Hymn #39), unfortunately not so common in modern hymnals but familiar to Sacred Harp singers:

Now let my inward joys arise,
And burst into a song;
Almighty love inspires my heart,
And pleasure tunes my tongue.

It seems no accident that in the the parallel passages on Christian song found in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, the prerequisite for praise is to "be filled with the Spirit,"(Ephesians 5:18) and to "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."(Colossians 3:16) When this true, abiding Christian joy fills our hearts, it overflows in our outward words and deeds.

Chorus:
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.

The chorus, of course, is an addition of the composer, Robert Lowry. Though it is not of a piece with the style of Watts, it is not so jarringly different as is the chorus tacked onto "Alas! And did my Savior bleed?" Lowry took the "marching" image from Watts's final stanza and spread that active, restless metaphor across the entire hymn. He also focused the singer's attention on the Christian's goal, the "city of God," which Watts introduced only in the next-to-last stanza. So if Lowry altered the presentation of Watts's ideas somewhat by adding this chorus, at least it was a sensible interpretation!

Lowry's phrase "marching to Zion" has become an ingrained part of the religious vocabulary of the United States, and a lightning rod in some worthwhile discussions on the role of the church in this world. It is a metaphor that tells the simple truth: "My kingdom is not of this world."(John 18:36) The people of Jesus Christ are " strangers and exiles on the earth."(Hebrews 11:13) But if the body of Christ is sojourning here, with citizenship in another kingdom, does that mean we are (in the words of the secularist) promising "pie in the sky in the sweet by and by" instead of working to make the world better here and now? Some put it even more bluntly: "the beneficiaries of the social system appealed to a future world to encourage their subjects to remain docile."(Yoder, 241)

No one denies that this has been done, just as people have always "twisted" the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16) to suit their own ends. But when we look at the first-century vision of the kingdom, as John Howard Yoder points out,

In the worldview of that time the gap between the present and the promised was not fundamental. What we are now doing is what leads to where we are going. Since the "this-worldly" and the "otherworldly" were not percieved in radical dichotomy, to be "marching through Immanuel's ground" today is to be on the way to Zion.(Yoder, 241)

Jesus set up a kingdom "not of this world," but He also calls on the citizens of that kingdom to be salt and light in this world while we are here.(Matthew 5:13-16) These "good works"(v.16) are not what save us, but they are what obedient saved people do--they feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the prisoners.(Matthew 25:35-36) As Runyon points out, "there is no dichotomy between 'Marching to Zion' and marching from Selma to Montgomery."(Runyon, 52) There is a danger, of course, that the church can become mired in politics (as it can on any issue of this world). There is a danger as well that accommodation to the world can tempt the church to emphasize an earthly mission of good works at the expense of the far less popular mission of preaching of the gospel. The church is about saving first, then about serving. But there is a danger just as perilous, that this becomes an excuse to ignore the crying needs of a hurting world. We can stand to do a lot more of both, and saving and serving work best hand in hand.

Stanza 2:
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heav'nly King
May speak their joys abroad.

(Chorus)

When Watts speaks of those "who never knew our God," who did he mean? He certainly faced atheists in his day. (His hymn "Shall atheists dare insult the cross?" puts forward his point of view firmly!) But there is a wide chasm between a mere assent that God exists, and the Scriptural concept of "knowing God." As James pointed out, "Even the demons believe, and tremble."(James 2:19) The Pharaoh of the Exodus scoffed, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." He came to know better, but it could hardly be said that Pharaoh knew God except that he assented to the Lord's reality and sovereignty.

"Knowing God" in the Scriptural sense begins at that point, but does not end there. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."(Proverbs 9:10) It begins with understanding the unique sovereignty of God over our universe, and our total dependence on Him for all things, spiritual and physical. "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know Me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me; I am the LORD, and there is no other."(Isaiah 45:5-6)

The proper response to this understanding is a desire to know more. As David so beautifully said, "Make me to know Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long."(Psalm 25:4-5) This desire is based in loving trust in God's goodness: "Those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You."(Psalm 9:10)

But those who choose this path must do so seriously, with a commitment of the head and the heart. Lack of consistency was a perennial issue with the ancient Israelites, for which the prophets frequently admonished them. The Lord said through Jeremiah, "I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart."(Jeremiah 24:7) A whole-hearted commitment to knowing God was the ideal, but they often fell short--as do we all. Paul, by contrast, had found this driving desire to know his God: "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."(Philippians 3:8) He was in prison at the time, under threat of execution; but the only thing he cared about was the one thing his enemies couldn't take away.

If we truly come to "know God" in this way, it will affect not only our minds and hearts, but our actions. It is all too easy to fall short here, becoming like those whom Paul said "profess to know God, but deny Him by their works."(Titus 1:16) John likewise warned that, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."(1 John 4:8) There is an interesting application of this principle in Jeremiah's prophecy against Shallum (Jehoahaz), one of the last kings of Judah:

For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: "He shall return here no more, but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again. 

"Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages, who says, 'I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,' who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.  

"Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know Me?"declares the LORD.(Jeremiah 22:11-16, emphasis added)

This passage illustrates another concern we must have about knowing God--the absolute necessity of passing on this knowledge to the next generation. Shallum, an abysmal failure as a spiritual leader, was the son of Josiah, one of the great reformers! But this kind of "failure to launch" happened early and often in the history of Israel: "And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that He had done for Israel."(Judges 2:10) We do well to teach our children to know about God--would that all parents would do that much!--but we need to lead them, as they mature spiritually, to "know God" in the greater sense. If we do not, the leadership of the church falls quickly into the situation of Jeremiah's day: "The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who handle the law did not know Me; the shepherds transgressed against Me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit."(Jeremiah 2:8) King David had this concern on his heart in his final charge to Solomon.

And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.(1 Chronicles 28:9)

It is a tragedy not to know the Lord; but for those who do (better perhaps to say, who aspire to do so), we can rejoice in that knowledge!

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Stanza 3:

The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heavn'ly fields
Or walk the golden streets.

(Chorus)

King David was a man who knew a rough, difficult life, whether as a shepherd in the field, an unintentional revolutionary on the run, or a king defending his throne. But his simple faith served him well (as long as he followed it), and he found a joy in life despite these things. In comparison to those who lived at ease, he could say to his God, "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound."(Psalm 4:7) The Christian likewise gives up certain things, and takes on others, that the worldly person would rather not; but there are joys in abundance, even in this life.

One of those joys is common to every person upon this earth, if we will just learn to see it: "Every blade of grass is a study," said Abraham Lincoln, and there is not a place on this earth where the vibrant life of God's natural world does not show itself in some fashion. Even away from this earth! I recently read that one of the experiments on the International Space Station is a zucchini plant, which is so beloved by the crew that it has its own blog. The 92nd Psalm says, "For you, O LORD, have made me glad by Your work; at the works of Your hands I sing for joy."(Psalm 92:4)

There is even greater joy in God's work of salvation, extending His forgiveness to us. David said, "May we shout for joy over Your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners!"(Psalm 20:5) The 71st Psalm expands this theme: "My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to You; my soul also, which You have redeemed."(Psalm 71:23) This joy leads to other joys, in personal devotions and public worship. The 119th Psalm, that great hymn of praise for the written Word, says, "Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart."(Psalm 119:111) David says, again, "I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD."(Psalm 27:6) Worship here is a foretaste of that heavenly worship we long to reach someday, and we can always find joy in the presence of the Lord. Even when we do not feel joy coming in to the assembly, we can find it once we are there if we obediently seek Him. May we learn to say with the Sons of Korah, "My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."(Psalm 84:2)

One "this-world" joy mentioned often in the New Testament is the joy found in fellowship in the body of Christ. Of course we cannot imagine that they always got along, even in the apostolic age. We see personal conflicts even among the apostles themselves--Paul once disagreed sharply with Barnabas over John Mark,(Acts 15:39) and withstood Peter "to his face, because he stood condemned" by his relapse into discrimination against Gentiles.(Galatians 2:11) But these Christians also rose above these things for the sake of the cause of Christ. Paul spoke later of John Mark as a man "profitable to me for the ministry."(2 Timothy 4:11) Peter called the man who had publicly called him out, "our beloved brother Paul."(2 Peter 3:15) If we will devote ourselves to the cause of Christ, and to the building up of our fellow Christians, we will know that joy of which Paul so frequently wrote, and which John summed up so well: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."(3 John 1:4)

Stanza 4:

Then let our songs abound,
And ev'ry tear be dry;
We're marching through Immanuel's ground
To fairer worlds on high.

(Chorus)

John records that in the hours before Jesus' arrest in Gethsemane He gave the disciples a series of discourses to strengthen and encourage them for what was to come. In the last of these, He referred to the emotional tumult they would soon experience:

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.(John 16:20-23)

If our hope is in Christ, then regardless of what this life brings us, we know our sorrows will give way to joy. The promise is that "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."(Revelation 21:4) I do not pretend to understand how God will heal all the hurts received in this world, but I trust that He knows more about joy than we have ever imagined, and it is a problem safely left with Him. "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning."(Psalm 30:5)

In the meantime, we can press on joyfully, knowing that even here in this world, we are on a march to ultimate victory. If we are Christians, we are on "Immanuel's ground" already--inside the territory of His kingdom, where His authority and protection are unassailable. And as Jesus said later in the same passage from John, "I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."(John 16:33) John remembered these words, no doubt, when he wrote, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith."(1 John 5:4) By faith we can see up ahead the end of our long march, and we can savor a foretaste of the joys to come.
About the music:

Robert Lowry (1826-1899) was a professor of literature at what is today Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and also served as a minister in Baptist churches. He was a music editor for Biglow & Main, frequently teamed with William Doane. Among the songs for which he wrote both music and lyrics are such fine examples of the gospel style as "Nothing but the blood," "Low in the grave He lay," "Shall we gather at the river?" and the lovely "How can I keep from singing?"(Cyberhymnal) His very best musical setting, in my opinion, is that for Fanny Crosby's "All the way my Savior leads me."
I have been unable to determine the first publication of "Marching to Zion," though it appears with the copyright date 1867 in several early hymnals. The earliest instance of the song that I have found is in The Victory, published in 1870 by Biglow & Main, the New York music house for whom Lowry did most of his music editing. "Marching to Zion" was picked up by Ira Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos and Gospel Hymns series, which assured its quick and wide dissemination.

The practice of adding a chorus to an existing hymn goes back (at least) to the large camp-meetings of the early 19th century, such as the famous Cane Ridge Revival. This event was one of those "only in America" situations; despite the racist system of slavery and segregation that was in place, many African American slaves participated in this massive outdoor event. What followed was inevitable; though segregation was maintained formally, musical ingenuity is stubbornly indifferent to color and custom. Isaac Watts could hardly have imagined, a century earlier, that his hymns would be blended with the shout choruses of the descendants of African slaves, or that it would work so well! But the stern language of Isaac Watts suited the apocalyptic message of the preachers, and the fervent singing of repeated choruses suited the spirit of the crowds.(Music & Richardson, 307) Robert Lowry's addition of a chorus to Watts's "Come we that love the Lord" was a successful repeat of that process; though this song was not actually a camp-meeting revival song, it certainly could have been.

Lowry's setting is a military march in 6/8 time, in the American style--somewhat swaggering and boisterous compared to the European origins of that genre. Wind band music had grown hugely during the Civil War, and the decades immediately following saw the rise of the great early bandmasters such as Patrick Gilmore ("When Johnny Comes Marching Home") and Claudio Grafulla ("Washington Grays"). Though John Philip Sousa was still a boy when Lowry wrote "Marching to Zion," the characteristic style was well established.

Of course Watts's original hymn was sung for a century and a half before Lowry's gospel song adaptation, and it was and is associated with a number of other tunes. Chief among these is ST. THOMAS by Aaron Williams, better known among Churches of Christ, at least in the U.S., with the text "Awake and sing the song," or as the older tune for "Rise up, O men of God." The Cyberhymnal page on "Marching to Zion" lists several alternate tunes.

---

References:

Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1972.

Runyon, Theodore H. "Aging and a meaningful future." Gerontology in Theological Education, ed. Barbara Payne and Earl Brewer. Binghamton, New York: Haworth Press, 1989.

Lincoln, Abraham. Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (30 September 1859). Abraham Lincoln Online. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/fair.htm

"Robert Lowry." Cyberhymnal. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/o/w/lowry_r.htm

Music, David W., and Paul A. Richardson. "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story": A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2008.

"The Fruit of Our Lips": A Cappella Praise through the Centuries (Part 1)

One of the regrettable misconceptions held about, and even sometimes within the Churches of Christ, is the idea that a cappella singing in worship is one of "our" peculiarities, as though it were a novel and recent development. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though all do not defend the practice on the same doctrinal grounds, a cappella praise in Christian worship is really the historically dominant practice, and can be found not only in the past but in our own times. In this series of posts I want to highlight some of the great Christian a cappella traditions, past and present.

Chant in the Early Church

There is no real question that the early church sang a cappella. This is the only practice of church music clearly taught by the apostles (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:18-19), and confirmed by their example (1 Corinthians 14:15) and by the example of Jesus Christ himself (Matthew 26:30). The Jewish Christian would be unlikely to have carried over the instrumental practices of the temple into the early church; these were seen as proper to the temple itself (2 Chronicles 29:27), so historically the singing of the synagogue was unaccompanied. The video below is the 22nd Psalm sung according to the Yemenite Jewish tradition.

Perhaps Greek Christians could have adapted the tradition of hymns to Apollo, which were accompanied by the harp-like kithara; but though there may be some influence from the overall style of this genre (Pliny the Younger, c. 112 A.D., described them singing "a hymn to Christ, as to a god"), there is no evidence they used the instrumental accompaniment. (For more on the histoy of a cappella singing in the early church, see the work of musicologist James W. McKinnon.)

The earliest known Christian hymn (so far) for which we have music is the Oxyrhynchus Hymn, found on a scrap of papyrus during the 1918 excavations at the Egyptian city of that name.

A portion of the Oxyrynchus Hymn. The small marks above the line
of Greek text are modified letters indicating notes of the scale.

The text as reconstructed in The MacMillan Book of Earliest Christian Hymns reads:

May none of God's wonderful works

Keep silence, night or morning.

Bright stars, high mountains, the depths of the seas,

Sources of rushing rivers:

May all these break into song as we sing

To Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

May all the angels in the heavens reply:

Amen! Amen! Amen!

Power, praise, honor, eternal glory

To God, the only giver of grace.

Amen! Amen! Amen!

This hymn was an unusual find, because very little music in the ancient Greek letter notation has been found at all. It would be centuries before the modern system of graphic notation (notes moving up and down on a staff) would develop, and for much of this earliest period we simply have lyrics alone. Comparison of surviving oral traditions to the existing manuscript version from later eras sometimes allows a fairly good reconstruction of the music.

Chant in the Orthodox Churches of the Mediterranean World

As Christianity spread, a number of different musical traditions emerged. The biggest difference, of course, was that of language--Christians in the eastern part of the Roman Empire used Koine Greek, whereas the western Christians began to use Latin as their common language. Within each of these areas there were regional traditions as well, and traditions in the vernacular languages of different regions.

The churches in the east remain a cappella to this day, with the exception of the Coptic and Ethiopian churches. There are several different liturgies (written-out orders of service including prayers, scripture readings, chants, etc.) still in use that date back to very early times. The oldest still in use is probably the Liturgy of St. James, which traditionally is said to reflect the practice of the early church in Jerusalem. It is still used by the Syriac Orthodox church (headquarters in Damascus), and occasionally by the other branches of Orthodoxy. The next video shows students from the Malankara (Indian) branch of the Syriac tradition, learning to chant the ancient service.

The Eastern Orthodox churches in the heartland of the old Byzantine Empire used Greek koine liturgies, usually those attributed to John Chrysostom and Basil of Caesarea, both incredibly important figures in the eastern churches of the 4th century. Over the centuries, a great many chants have been added, and the harmony has become more complex, though remaining within the bounds of a certain solemn simplicity. The next video is the 1st ode for Christmas Day, written in the 8th century by Cosmas of Jerusalem. The text was translated by John Mason Neale in his Hymns of the Eastern Church, whom the English-speaking world owes a great debt for the rediscovery of this treasure trove of hymns.

The music in the previous video has the very simplest kind of harmony--long, low notes supporting a more rapidly moving melody in a higher register. This is one of the most common ways to add other voice parts to a melody, and is seen in many different kinds of vocal and instrumental folk music around the world. Decorating chants in this fashion is documented in western Europe toward the end of the first millennium, and was an important stage in the development of more complex harmony singing; but it is very beautiful in its own right!

Chant in the Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe

Missionary efforts from within the Byzantine Empire established Christianity throughout the near East and eastern Europe, and thus there are a cappella Orthodox musical traditions in many other languages besides those of the Mediterranean world. Each country brought its own musical style to bear on the simple framework of harmonized chant; western ears will particularly note the use of a rich variety modal scales, far beyond our typical experience of major and minor! The video below presents the first three Psalms sung by monks of the Romanian Orthodox church.

Many of these Orthodox churches of eastern Europe are well represented in the Americas, in particular the Russian Orthodox community. The different traditions of singing of the Old Slavonic liturgy (shared by many countries) seem to have in common a performance practice that uses very thick harmonies supported by incredibly low bass singing. The lowest notes in this next video go into as many as three ledger lines below the bass staff.

A Cappella Chant in Western Europe

The early church in western Europe also had several different chant traditions, but by the end of the first millennium these had largely yielded to a hybrid liturgy combining the Gallic and Old Roman traditions. The standard language of worship in the west was Latin, though with a few Greek holdovers (such as the "Kyrie eleison"). This drive toward a unified liturgy reflected in part a desire for a unified western Europe in the wake of the collapse of the western half of the Roman empire. Powerful leaders such as Pope Gregory the Great (for whom "Gregorian chant" is named) and the emperor Charlemagne took an active interest in establishing a common rite of worship.

In order to replicate this body of chants, it was necessary to put them in written form and have them taught. At first just the words were given, then around the beginning of the second millennium scribes began to place marks above the words to indicate the rise and fall of the melody. With a system of lines to indicate the degree of rise or fall (a staff), and a letter "C" to indicate middle C (the C clef), a the basics of modern music notation emerged.

One area that still lacked, however, was the notation of rhythm. There is still a certain amount of debate about how to perform Gregorian chant because of this, but the free-flowing, unmetered style is what is best known to most listeners. The following recording is by the monks of the Solesmes Abbey in France, one of the most historically significant institutions in the preservation and modern study of Gregorian chant.

Toward the beginning of the second millennium, the practice of harmonizing chant, known as organum, began to appear in the Gregorian tradition. Just as happened in the east, one of the earliest methods was simply supporting a rapidly moving upper melody with long, low notes. Typically the slow-moving lower voice sang the notes of the original Gregorian chant, while a soloist sang the upper part. Organum was seen as a means to glorify the text for a special occasion; most of the music in a service was still sung as unison chant.

As this music became more and more elaborate, certain monasteries and cathedrals became known for their highly developed musical styles and skilled choirs. The most famous in this time was the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. During the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a distinctive school of organum composition emerged there, eventually expanding the practice to include two or even three voices above the original chant in the slow-moving lowest voice. (One result of this development was that it forced scribes to come up with a method of showing rhythmic values, so that the parts could have some hope of staying together!) The four-part organum below is attributed to the Notre Dame composer Perotin, and probably dates from the early 1200s.

In a later post I hope to look at the more "classical" a cappella choral music that grew out of these early beginnings, particularly in the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox traditions.

Postscript: When Were Instruments Introduced in the West?

A question that naturally arises in the discussion of the music of the medieval Catholic church is the date of the introduction of musical instruments. Bartolomeo Platina, head of the Vatican library in the 15th century, claimed in his Vitæ Pontificum ("Lives of the Popes") that Pope Vitalian (657-72) introduced the organ into the worship service, but this is not well supported. The article on "Organ" in the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that "a strong objection to the organ in church service remained pretty general down to the twelfth century," though the author surmises this was owed to the poor quality of instruments up to that time.(Bewerunge) I believe the evidence supports John Caldwell's theory that the introduction of the musical instruments into Catholic worship occurred in earnest in the late 12th century, coinciding with the development of the more complex part-singing seen in the previous video example.(Caldwell, 14) This does not preclude the possibility of isolated instances prior to that time.

Even at that late date, there is good evidence that this innovation was not welcomed by everyone. There is an oft-repeated quote on this subject from Thomas Aquinas: "Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize." This passage, usually quoted from Bingham's Antiquities, is from Thomas's Summa theologiae, and comes from a context that needs explanation. It occurs in the course of answering the question, "Should God be praised in song?,"(see citation below) in which Thomas was defending the practice of singing itself. The statement quoted above is not from Thomas himself, exactly, but is one of his imagined objections raised to the practice of singing:

Objection 4. Further, in the Old Law God was praised with musical instruments and human song, according to Ps. 32:2,3: "Give praise to the Lord on the harp, sing to Him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new canticle." But the Church does not make use of musical instruments such as harps and psalteries, in the divine praises, for fear of seeming to imitate the Jews. Therefore in like manner neither should song be used in the divine praises.

Thomas's answer to this objection is interesting for what it does and does not say:

As the Philosopher says (Politics viii, 6), "Teaching should not be accompanied with a flute or any artificial instrument such as the harp or anything else of this kind: but only with such things as make good hearers." For such like musical instruments move the soul to pleasure rather than create a good disposition within it. In the Old Testament instruments of this description were employed, both because the people were more coarse and carnal--so that they needed to be aroused by such instruments as also by earthly promises--and because these material instruments were figures of something else.

Though Thomas's purpose in writing was to defend the practice of singing in worship, we can safely deduce this much about his view of instrumental music in worship: he accepted without comment the imagined objector's assumption that it should not be used. Not only did he make no attempt to defend the practice (which must have been known to him in Paris), but rather used an argument based on type vs. antitype, carnal vs. spiritual (Hebrews 8, Colossians 2), to explain why they were not used in the Christian dispensation.

- Click here to read the next post in this series -

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References:

Pliny the Younger. Letter to Emperor Trajan.
http://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/handouts/pliny.html

Bewerunge, Henry. "Organ." Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11297a.htm

Caldwell, John. "The Organ in the Medieval Latin Liturgy, 800-1500." Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , 93rd Sess., (1966-1967), pp. 11-24.

Thomas Aquinas. Summa theologiae, Part II, 2nd part, Question 90. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.SS_Q91_A2.html

Come, Ye Disconsolate

Praise for the Lord #110

Words: Thomas Moore, 1824; altered, Thomas Hastings, 1832
Music: CONSOLATOR, Samuel Webbe, 1792

Yes, it is that Thomas Moore (1779-1852), the famed Irish poet best remembered for his Irish Melodies. Moore gave the world sweet ballads such as "The last rose of summer" and stirring patriotic lyrics such as "The harp that once through Tara's halls." It seems fitting that the two best-known of his songs in the United States reflect both the tears and laughter that so characterize his writing. "The minstrel boy," brought to these shores by Irishmen fighting in our Civil War, has become a part of the funerary traditions of our military, firefighters, and police forces. On the other hand, "Believe me, if all those endearing young charms" is the song that launched a thousand Warner Brothers cartoon gags involving exploding pianos.

But though his fame is by far owed to his secular songs, Moore was also a significant biographer, critic, and historian. A rather nominal Catholic much of his life, he found his early success primarily in English Protestant circles; but by middle age he increasingly identified with the faith of his youth and the plight of his people. His later works included the semi-autobiographical Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion.(Catholic Enc.) And during the period when he was so occupied with his popular Irish Melodies, Moore put forth his efforts in a religious bent as well, issuing his Sacred Songs in two editions, the first in 1816, and the second in 1824.

A search of Hymnary.org shows that many of these were quite popular up into the early 20th century, but "Come, Ye Disconsolate" is the only one now found in common use. By 1903, C. Litton Falkiner could say that the famed poet's hymns "have little to commend them."(Falkiner, 346) I have found relatively little comment on these works in scholarly sources. What caused the indifferent reception of these works in more recent times?

Though Moore obviously wrote his sacred texts to be sung (the original edition had music composed or arranged by Sir John Stevenson, with whom Moore worked so successfully in the Irish Melodies), they freqeuntly range into the sphere of sacred art songs, rather than the humble verse of congregational singing. In his memoir of Moore, Francis James Child said, not disparagingly, that "the Sacred Melodies [Moore] himself regarded as feats of dexterity."(Complete Poetical Works, v.1, lxviii) I suggest the problem was that they were neither fish nor fowl--not quite practical as Sunday-to-Sunday church music, but owing to their subject matter, awkwardly different from his popular nationalist poetry.

Consider, for example, the treatment given the first edition of Sacred Songs by the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, when Moore was in high estimation and his style was squarely in the mainstream. The reviewer cited a want of "that sublime simplicity, that solemn severity, that chastity of thought and expression . . . that inspires our prayers to the creator."("Sacred Songs," 383) By contrast, he claims, Moore's poetry is too clever by half: "The lines are smooth and polished, but there is a luxurious, not to call it a voluptuous tone and spirit, breathing throughout both language and imagery, which does not accord with the intent." As an example, the reviewer cites Moore's paraphrase treatment of Psalm 74:17, "Thou hast made summer and winter."

When youthful spring around us breathes,
Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh,
And every flower the summer wreathes
Is born beneath that kindling eye.

The reviewer notes wisely that "fine sensibility and a brilliant imagination are always in danger of falling into this error."(386) For contrast's sake, compare Isaac Watts's less polished rendering:

Hath not thy power formed ev'ry coast,
And set the earth its bounds,
With summer's heat, and winter's frost,
In their perpetual rounds?

I would never place Watts in the league of Moore as a poet per se; but in this genre, Watts brought to bear a lifetime of deep study and a plain, frank, and humble style that is better suited to the subject. In the same way, Moore's better efforts in the Sacred Songs coincide well with the weightiness of their material. One of the best, and deserving of a revival, is "The bird, let loose in eastern skies," which plays upon a common metaphor in the Psalms (11:1, 55:6); this vivid poetic image was better suited to Moore's strengths. "Come, ye disconsolate" likewise called forth his ability to relate to the disillusioned and hurting, and perhaps foreshadowed his return to faith later in life.

The version of the text most commonly used in the United States was altered by Thomas Hastings for Spiritual Songs for Social Worship, edited by Hastings and Lowell Mason (Utica, N.Y.: Hastings, Tracy, and Williams, 1832). Besides a few minor changes in the first two stanzas, Hastings completely replaced the third stanza. These differences are noted below.

Stanza 1:
Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish;
Come, at the mercy seat fervently kneel;
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heav'n cannot heal.

The second line of Moore's original reads "at God's altar," which Hastings changed to "at the mercy seat." Perhaps Hastings wanted to avoid what could be considered a reference to the literal altars used in Catholic and some Protestant worship traditions. I really doubt Moore meant this literally; though his language strikes Protestant ears as referring to an "altar call," that could hardly have been his intent!

Moore chose the word "disconsolate," which is not common in American English; the Oxford Dictionaries Online define this as "very unhappy and unable to be comforted." It is not just being unhappy and in need of consolation, but implies instead that consolation has been attempted and has failed. It is closer, then, to our more common expression, "inconsolable."

There is something innately incomplete in us, whether we call it the "human condition" or some other philosophical term. My cat eats, drinks, hunts, and sleeps, and by any conceivable measure appears to be content with her lot. (Her hunting is almost always unsuccessful, but the prowling and stalking provide hours of diversion.) We too need the basics of food, clothing, and shelter, but once these are relatively secure, we still want something else. People try to fill up this "something else" by many means--drugs in the literal form, or the drug of accumulation of material wealth, or the drug of power and perceived importance. Sometimes, of course, our better instincts incline us to fill this void with the love of family and friends, or even better, with good deeds for humanity at large.

But the hole is still there; or, stated positively, there is something within us, when it has a chance to awaken, that is meant for more than just survival or physical and emotional comfort. The latter impulses just mentioned--devotion to family and friends, and the desire to do good for humanity--can sometimes be twisted to wrongheaded ends, but they are symptoms of something better. It is the image of God in us, that spark of the soul that is more than the 100 trillion or so cells that make up the human organism.

Though Moore did not provide a Scripture reference as he did to some others of his Sacred Songs--and given his broad style of interpretation, it is hard to read between the lines--a likely Scripture starting point for this hymn seems to be Matthew 11:28-30. Here Jesus directly addresses the "disconsolate" state of the human soul:

Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

Note that Jesus did not promise an unqualified, unlimited freedom; He has a yoke of discipline and burden for us to bear, just as He did himself. The Savior to whom we submit also said, "I seek not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me."(John 5:30) And Moore calls us to "kneel" before God, a posture of humility and servitude that comes hard to many of us. But consider the Beatitudes--Jesus said we are "blessed" if we are poor in spirit, mourning and meek, hungering and thirsting after righteousness.(Matthew 5:1-6) It is this recognition of our need for God, our incompleteness without Him, that is necessary before we can get into a right relationship to Him. We must kneel before He can lift us up.

Stanza 2:
Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure;
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
"Earth has no sorrow that heav'n cannot cure."

Jesus told His apostles shortly before His crucifixion, "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."(John 16:22) This same group of men, according to what history we have of them, all died violent deaths with the exception of John who was exiled. Paul, who was not present of course on that occasion, gives a lengthy list of the trials of an apostle in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. He summed up the privileges of this exclusive fraternity thus: "We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things."(1 Corinthians 4:13) But their joy in Christ was never taken away! Paul, even under threat of death in prison, repeatedly admonished Christians to "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice!"(Philippians 4:4)

Jesus offers hope, as well, but not the flimsy sort of grasping at straws that we sometimes associate with that word. On several occasions when Paul was called on to explain himself before the authorities (Acts 23:6, 24:15, 26:6-7, and 28:20), he placed a certain "hope" at the center of his preaching. In the first two of those instances, Paul said it was a hope associated with the resurrection of the dead; in the second two, he identified it with the promises made to Israel, finally summing it up in Acts 28:20 as "the hope of Israel." To the faithful Jew this "hope" was no nebulous abstraction, it was an article of faith. It was real enough to the Pharisees, in fact, that Paul successfully used it to drive a wedge between them and the Sadducees in his hearing before the Sanhedrin.(Acts 23:6) This hope was a confident expectation in God's deliverance through a Messiah, and a coming age of better things; Paul's message was that Jesus of Nazareth was that Hope of Israel, who became also the Hope of all the world.

Did Romans 15:13 cross Moore's mind when writing this stanza? "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." In John 14 Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as the "Comforter" who abides with Christians forever.(John 14:26) And how many are the blessings of this Spirit! The "gift of the spirit" to each new Christian (Acts 2:38) is far greater than those outward miraculous signs that confirmed the Word at first, and that some (such as the Christians in Corinth) mistakenly overemphasized. In just a single passage, the 8th chapter of Romans, we find these promises:

• "The law of the Spirit of Life has set you free"
• "To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace"
• "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you"
• "By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body"
• "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God"
• "the Spirit helps us in our weakness"
• "The Spirit himself intercedes for us"

Jesus did not leave His followers on their own! We have all the help we need, for the asking, if we will diligently seek it.

Hastings made a couple of minor changes to the second stanza: in the 2nd line, the original reads, "Hope, when all others die" instead of "Hope of the penitent," and in the 3rd line the original reads, "in God's name saying" instead of "tenderly saying." Neither change seems that significant, and I do not see an obvious reason for the alteration.

But the third stanza is another matter! Hastings wrote an entirely different stanza for the conclusion; Moore's original is totally different in theme, and deserving of notice:

Go, ask the infidel, what boon he brings us
What charm for aching hearts he can reveal,
Sweet as that heavenly promise Hope sings us--
"Earth has no sorrow that GOD cannot heal."

The first question is, did Moore mean "infidel" in the archaic sense of a believer in another deity (as it was once used mutually by Christians and Muslims), or in the more modern definition--a person who does not believe in a deity at all? After searching through a few volumes of Moore's works, I found Moore did use the term in both meanings, though with some qualification. When using the term in the older sense, he almost always put it in the mouth of one of his characters, as a revelation of the person's attitude toward others; Moore's own heritage made him take a dim view of bigotry toward those of other beliefs. He did, however, use the term directly to describe the growing numbers of Europeans during the 19th century who rejected religion outright, and I believe this is the point of his original closing stanza to this hymn.

The person who is looking to win a debate will not be impressed with Moore's logic here, but those who have sought and found this answer in their own lives will understand. Rational arguments about the existence of God aside, if there is no God, then... what? I have looked over the edge of that cliff once or twice myself, and it was not fear that caused me to step back from the howling chaos below--it was the decision to live a life full of meaning, despite some questions, rather than a life of no meaning and no answers.

Stanza 3:
Here see the Bread of Life, see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above;
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heav'n can remove.

This stanza, of course, is entirely by Hastings, who is better known as a tunesmith (TOPLADY, ORTONVILLE). The rush of metaphors he introduces--though all quite Scriptural--seems out of character with the rest of Moore's text. Perhaps the best understanding of it is a consummation of the promises of the preceding stanzas, and of the refrain line, "Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove."

The image of the heavenly banquet runs throughout the Bible, as seen in the dramatic invitation of the 55th chapter of Isaiah:

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David.(Isaiah 55:1-3)

Jesus took up this theme in his parables (Luke 14, Matthew 25), illustrating the lavish generosity of God, and at the same time the fact that many would reject His offer through disregard or through negligence. Many were willing to come, of course, when Jesus offered the literal loaves and fishes; but in response to their repeated requests for more, the Savior echoed the words of Isaiah:

Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal.(John 6:26-27)

It is a spiritual feast to which God invites us; Jesus himself is the sweet relief of those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness."(Matthew 5:6) Expanding on His theme in John chapter 6, He said, "Jhn 6:35 ESV - Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst."(John 6:35)

During the summer of 1986 several college friends and I rented an old farm house that was supplied with well water. Among many memories that linger about that place was the taste of that water, which was not quite right--I believe my father suspected it of being "gypsum water," as the country folk call it. No matter how much of that stuff we drank, we remained just as thirsty as before.

That is just what we try to do as humans, in our rebellion against our Creator; there is a spiritual thirst we cannot deny, and we try to quench it with everything in the world, but to no avail. Everything in the world is not enough; we need that true, pure, refreshing water that comes from God's fountain of life. What a joy to know that this is available to every man and woman, perfectly free for the asking!

About the music:

Moore's original publication of this text had a musical setting, by Sir John Stevenson, which I have not been able to find. The tune commonly used in the United States comes from a solo voice setting of the Marian hymn "Alma Redemptoris Mater" by Samuel Webbe, Sr. (1742-1816), published in his Collection of Motetts and Antiphons (London, 1792).(Hymnary.org) Webbe was better known as a composer of light secular choral music, but his sacred collections were quite popular among English Catholics during the early 19th century.(Catholic Encyclopedia) Click here for a later version of Webbe's setting of the Latin hymn.

Thomas Hastings, Lowell Mason's right-hand man in the Boston-centered movement toward the use of more classical church music, arranged this in two parts and matched it to Moore's text in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (Utica, N.Y., 1831). Though I have not been able to examine Webbe's original version, from comparison to the later Catholic version, it appears Hastings did a fair amount of adaptation of the tune, whether by intent or through a faulty copy.

I have not led this hymn much, but I have only heard it sung tediously slowly, and that may be the problem. Looking at these earlier versions--especially Hastings's original, in cut time--I think I have not used the right approach. A quicker feel, in light 2/2 time, makes it a very different hymn, and perhaps suits the tone of Moore's poetry better as well.

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References:

"Thomas Moore." Catholic Encyclopedia (1913). http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10553b.htm

Falkiner, C. Litton. "Thomas Moore." Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature. London: W. & R. Chambers, Ltd., 1903. Volume III, pages 345-350. http://books.google.com/books?id=cxU-AAAAYAAJ

The poetical works of Thomas Moore, with a memoir by Francis James Child, 6 volumes. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1857. Volume 1: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015038095660

"Sacred Songs." The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, volume III (1818), pages 383-387.

"CONSOLAION (Webbe)." Hymnary.org. http://www.hymnary.org/tune/consolation_webbe

"Samuel Webbe." The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913). http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15573a.htm

Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Praise for the Lord #109

Words: Johann Olearius, 1671; translated, Catherine Winkworth, 1863
Music: PSALM 42, Louis Bourgeois's Genevan Psalter, 1551; harmonized, Claude Goudimel, 1565

Johann Olearius (1611-1684) came from a prominent family of Lutheran theologians, including his father Johann (1546-1623), a brother Gottfried (1604-1685), two nephews, and five of his sons, not to mention extended family!("Johannes Olearius") To make things especially confusing, he named all of his sons Johann, with different middle names. Seriously. But in addition to theological writings, our Johann distinguished himself in the area of hymn-writing.

Olearius compiled a massive volume of hymns under the title Geistliche Singe-Kunst (1671), containing no fewer than 1,218 texts; the following year he issued a second volume under the same title, containing 1,340! His own hymns number nearly 300. One of his texts, "Gelobet sei der Herr," was the basis of a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 129). "Comfort, comfort ye my people" is a translation of his Tröstet, tröstet meine Lieben, a stanza of which appears in Bach's cantata Freue dich, erlöste Schaar (BWV 30).("Johannes Olearius") The text of this hymn is obviously drawn from Isaiah 40:1-5, and Olearius stays close to the actual wording of this passage in the 1545 Luther translation. He adds a few lines in the process of rendering this in poetic form, possibly drawing on Jeremiah 31 as well, as noted below.

If you love the old Lutheran chorales such as "O sacred head" and "A mighty Fortress," thank Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878), the translator of this hymn. She is one of the primary reasons that English-speaking Christians outside of the Lutheran denomination have come to know the treasures of that musical tradition. Her chorale translations first appeared in Lyra Germanica (1853); its immediate success led to a second volume under that title in 1858, and the Chorale Book for England (1863), which introduced "Comfort, comfort ye my people."(DNB) Winkworth, who had a thorough classical education and was friends with Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë, had that rare combination of scholarship and artistry required to do such work well. Her other translations in Praise for the Lord are "If thou but suffer God to guide Thee"(#324), "Jesus, priceless treasure"(#361), "Now thank we all our God"(#457,#458), and "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"(#534).

"Comfort, comfort ye my people" comes from the opening words of Isaiah chapter 40, the very beginning point of that section of which Isaiah's authorship has been disputed for more than a century. I claim no authority in this kind of argument except that of common sense; yes, the section from chapter 40 to the end is different in subject matter and style, but there are many reasons that could happen. Perhaps there was a gap of time between Isaiah's writing of the two sections. Anyone who writes much can attest that style and expressions change over time. The different subject matter calls for a different tone as well.

And for that matter, why couldn't a writer adopt a radical shift of style and point of view for the shock effect alone? There is a hilarious story connected to W. A. Mozart's C major string quartet K.465, known as the "Dissonant Quartet" for its strikingly chromatic opening section. One of Mozart's publishers was certain that these had to be wrong notes, so he "corrected" them, to the composer's disgust! In the same way, some higher critics seem unable to make allowance for the genius, not to mention the inspiration, of the writers of Scripture.

How does the modern Christian, living in such a different position from the original writer, and from those in the days when these words were fulfilled, engage with this text and sing it in worship? Olearius wrote this hymn for a specific church festival, the birth of John the Baptizer, celebrated 24 June. I do not suggest we keep sacred festivals not given to us in Scripture, but this hymn would certainly be appropriate in a Bible class or worship service in which the lesson focused on the work of this great forerunner to Christ. This hymn also causes us to reflect upon our own mission, not unlike John's, to spread the news of the kingdom that is already here, and to point people to Christ. Finally, in this hymn calling for preparation for Christ's First Advent, we might pick up a pre-echo of our current situation as we await the Second Advent and the consummation of His kingdom in heaven.

Stanza 1:
Comfort, comfort ye my people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning 'neath their sorrows' load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.

Miss Winkworth followed the grand language of the King James Version in several lines of her translation: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned."(Isaiah 40:1-2a) The 3rd-4th lines are not from Isaiah chapter 40; Olearius's text reads something like, "Comfort those who are afflicted / by the scorn and derision of the foe." I have not discovered a Scripture corresponding to this, though it is obviously much in character of the Isaiah 40 passage. Winkworth goes in a slightly different direction with these lines, referencing Isaiah 9:2, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined."

The Hebrew expression translated "comfort" in Isaiah 40 is nacham, a verb with an interesting range of meanings. Depending on context, it can mean "grieve," "repent," "take pity," or "give comfort."(Strong's H5162) This seems reminiscent of how God's interaction with Israel is described in the Hebrew Testament. The same word is used to describe God "repenting" (Exodus 32:14, KJV), in the sense of a change of heart and thus of future actions, of His initial decision to destroy the nation for the sin of worshiping the golden calf. Moses' desperate pleading caused God to grieve over the planned result, and to show mercy to the people. Time and time again throughout the nation's history, a period of sinful rebellion would end in God's protection being withdrawn, and the result was disaster. But time and time again, God was grieved at the suffering they had brought on themselves, took pity on them, and brought comfort to their affliction.

This is no "comfort," then, in the sense of being "comfortable." Rather, it is the comforting that a parent gives a misbehaving child, who, after receiving the consequences of his actions (not without tears), turns for reassurance and acceptance to the same parent who disciplined him. David might have thought of this richness of meaning in Psalm 23:4, "Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." The shepherd's rod and staff can be weapons for proctection of the sheep, or tools to help the sheep out of a difficulty, but they can also deliver a correcting nudge (or something more substantial) to get the wayward sheep back into safety.

The same background lies behind the "comfort" of the Lord in Isaiah. "I will give thanks to You, O LORD, for though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, that You might comfort me."(Isaiah 12:1) Following the dramatic turn of events in chapter 40, "comforting" is spoken of frequently:

For the LORD comforts Zion; He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.(Isaiah 51:3)

Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.(Isaiah 52:9)

It was John the Baptizer's role to speak this comfort to Jerusalem, but it was a spiritual comforting, not a literal deliverance. The wilderness did not turn into a literal Eden, as in the the verse quoted above; but when John was privileged to publicly announce, "Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!,"(John 1:29) that desert turned into a paradise for those who were seeking the Lord.

Jesus came as a light to those who sat in darkness,(Matthew 4:12-17) as a reliever of burdens of sin,(Matthew 11:30) and a bringer of peace. The peace Jesus brought, however, was complicated. It was not a rapprochement between Judea and Rome, or a revolution against the same; it was an inward peace, and yet would bring about external effects just as surely as an armed revolt. After all, He said himself, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."(Matthew 10:34) Following Christ's path brings about division from this world, sometimes to the point of physical persecution.

But there is peace, regardless of circumstances, in knowing peace with God. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." (Psalm 32:1) It was this "peace on earth"that was promised at Christ's birth: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!"(Luke 2:14) That inner peace remains today for those who are reconciled to God: "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."(Philippians 4:7)

The spiritual "warfare" of Jerusalem (the capital city standing in for the nation itself in this passage) was brought to an end, at least in an ideal sense, with the coming of Christ. The long period of waiting and watching for the Lord's promise was completed, and despite trials and suffering through centuries of upheaval and oppression, God's will would not be thwarted. He had promised that the line of David would not fail, and that a king would reign on that throne forever.(1 Kings 9:5) With the coming of that final and greatest King, and the establishment of a spiritual kingdom that "will never be destroyed,"(Daniel 2:44) those faithful among Israel who had stood at their posts, as watchers on the wall,(Ezekiel 33:7) could see at last the fulfillment of the long years of struggle.

Wonderful as this comfort and peace is, however, we look forward to a day when comfort, release, and peace will be perfected in heaven. In that place, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."(Revelation 21:4) In that place there will be no more sin or temptation, because "there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie."(Revelation 21:27) In that place, "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."(Isaiah 2:4)

The complete hymn has another stanza here, sometimes omitted, based on the second half of Isaiah 40:2, "Tell her that her sins are pardoned; for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins."

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He will no more see nor heed.
She has suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away,
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever springing gladness.

Olearius expands on his main text again in the 3rd-4th lines, possibly referencing Jeremiah 31:34b, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," or Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins." The final two lines seem to echo Jeremiah 31:13b, "I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow." (The resemblance is more obvious in the German original: "Their joy shall day by day be multiplied / And their sorrow into joy be transformed.")

The spiritual situation before Christ was certainly sorrowful. The people had been taken into exile, and returned only as a remnant; prophecy had fallen silent; and there was the lingering memory of Ezekiel's vision of the Glory of the Lord leaving the temple.(Ezekiel 10) Solomon's great dedication prayer acknowledged that the temple meant nothing without the Lord's presence:

But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that Your servant prays before you, that Your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where You have promised to set Your name, that You may listen to the prayer that Your servant offers toward this place.(2 Chronicles 6:18-20)

It was to the temple that sacrifices for sins were brought, and to which the people of Israel turned in prayer for forgiveness:

Whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven Your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart You know, according to all his ways, for You, You only, know the hearts of the children of mankind.(2 Chronicles 6:29-30)

But though that presence had been withdrawn before the exile, Malachi had promised that the Lord would return to His temple,(Malachi 3:1) and Jesus Christ very literally brought that to completion. Then, at His formal presentation, John the Baptizer cried out, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!"(John 1:29) The miracles of Jesus caused some controversy, but the real conflict began when He forgave sins--His enemies objected, in a statement more accurate than they realized, "Who can forgive sins, but God only?"(Mark 2:7) This was the deliverance the nation truly needed, and the deliverance the world needs today.

Stanza 2:
Hark, the voice of one that crieth
In the desert far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance
Since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him,
And the hills bow down to greet Him.

The basis of this stanza is one of the most thrilling passages spoken by any prophet. Handel, the master dramatist of the London opera stage, knew this and made it into a powerful and memorable aria in his Messiah:

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God! Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low."(Isaiah 40:3-4a)

Winkworth's original has "For Elijah's voice is crying"(Chorale Book, #83); our altered version is actually closer to Olearius's original, which follows Isaiah 40:3. Olearius does expand on the text somewhat in the 3rd-4th lines, however, possibly referencing the fulfillment of this prophecy in Matthew 3:1-2, "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" The 5th line is completely Winkworth's; the German original follows Isaiah's "make straight in the desert a highway" at this point. Is there perhaps in Winkworth's "warning cry" an echo of the "midnight cry"of Matthew 25:6? "But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'" This also touches on the similarities and differences between Christ's first and second Advents.

One of the striking elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings (and just one of many Scripture references in that work) is the plot line of Aragorn, the last survivor of a long-lost royal line, who lays claim to a kingdom that has been ruled for centuries by a succession of stewards. The final book of the trilogy, The Return of the King, shows the sad downfall of the last steward, Denethor, whose admirable stand against the forces of evil is tainted by his jealous rejection of Aragorn--the king for whom he was supposed to be preserving the throne. (Admittedly, fans of the book still debate this point in the plot!)

Jesus faced a similar reception from most of the religious leaders among His own people. Malachi chapter 3 begins with these thought-provoking words:

"Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the Messenger of the Covenant in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.(Malachi 3:1-2)

After hundreds of years, the Lord did indeed return to His temple; would those who claimed to be waiting for Him be ready for what they got? John, the herald, warned them:

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.(Matthew 3:10-12)

When the Messiah came, it was a time for rejoicing, but it was also a time for serious decision. Would the people of God believe in their King? If they believed in Him, would they obey? Many of the leadership realized Jesus was at least "a teacher come from God."(John 3:2) But when it came down to it, they decided, "We have no king but Caesar."(John 19:15)

The same question is before each of us today: Will we believe? Will we obey? If so, we will "prepare the way" to receive the King--we will obey what He commands. John's "warning cry" to receive the King still echoes down through the years, but someday there will be another cry: not to repentance, or announcing a kingdom, but declaring the return of the King to judge His subjects. "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God."(1 Thessalonians 4:16) Someday "every knee shall bow."(Isaiah 45:23) The only question is, will I bow to Him now, and let Him be Lord in my life, or will I bow only then when it is too late?

Stanza 3:
Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o'er earth is shed abroad;
And all flesh shall see the token
That His word is never broken.

The final stanza of the hymn comes from the 4th and 5th verses of Isaiah 40. Again Winkworth follows the King James Version closely:

"And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."

The 3rd-4th lines, however, do not appear to come from this passage; I cannot find a specific Scripture to which they relate, though they obviously are in harmony with the text at hand.

One specific choice by Winkworth--the word "token" in the penultimate line--may strike the ear as rather odd. The reason for this peculiar wording likely goes back to her meticulous care to convey the poetic quality of the original text, which in this case includes "double rhyme" (rhyming each syllable in two-syllable words) at the end of each stanza.(Chorale Book, vi) I suspect this happens more naturally in German, because both the declension of nouns and conjugation of verbs tend to add unaccented syllables at the ends of words (e.g. Erde / werde, Fleish kann sehen / muß geschehen in this stanza). It's not so easy to pull off well in English, and my respect for Winkworth's craft has risen another notch!

These words reminds us that repentance is no easy thing. When we build a literal highway, there is a huge amount of planning, time, effort, and expense involved in preparing the road bed. I am reminded of Interstate Highway 540 that connects Fayetteville, Arkansas to Interstate 40, one of the major east-west highways. This western portion of the Ozark mountains is beautiful but rugged country, and I have driven the little state highways through this region with my heart in my mouth; the twists and turns, steep climbs and sharp drops make it like riding rollercoaster, except without the assurance that the ride will end safely. By contrast, Interstate 540 is a broad, level road, where my greatest danger was falling asleep from the pleasant ride. I cannot imagine how much work it took to blast through the hills, build up the grades, put in bridges, and dig the lengthy tunnel required to make this level road.

John's words in Isaiah 40 tell us that this is what Jesus wants to do with us--He wants to make a royal highway into our hearts, by which we can be in constant communion with our Lord. The crooked, twisted parts of our lives can be straightened out. The rough places can be leveled off, and the gaps filled. We cannot do this on our own; we may not even be able to imagine what Jesus can make of us, just as I could not have imagined such a straight and level highway in that part of Arkansas. But this is what Jesus wants to do with our lives. He is willing to start with me "Just as I am," but He doesn't intend me to remain that way!

The "glory of the Lord" was seen on earth again when Jesus was born, revealed first to humble shepherds.(Luke 2:9) "The true Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."(John 1:9) Those who came to know Jesus and heard His words could say, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."(John 1:14) This light and glory was to spread across the world through the teaching of Jesus' disciples; and as the crowd said in Thessalonica, those disciples "turned the world upside down."(Acts 17:6) Paul proclaimed his mission then, and our mission today, in this picturesque passage:

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.(2 Corinthians 4:5-7)

The glory of the Lord shone on this earth one night 2,000 years ago; we need to reflect it in our lives, so that people will know that we "have been with Jesus."(Acts 4:13) But there is a day coming, of course, when the "glory of the Lord" will be seen by every person, and no one will be able to ignore it or turn away:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.(Matthew 25:31-32)

At that revelation, there will be no more time to repent and prepare. And though "all flesh shall see Him together" on that day,(Isaiah 40:5) not everyone will see it the same way. "Who can endure the day of His coming?"(Malachi 3:2) Those who understand and respond to the grace expressed in this promise: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."(2 Peter 3:9) If we have obeyed His gospel and are walking in His light, then we can spend our time here, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."(Titus 2:13)

Here is a very nice a cappella rendition of this hymn, with a slightly different harmonization than what is used in Praise for the Lord, sung by the Chapel Choir of the Conrad Grebel University College (Waterloo, Ontario:(

About the music:

Douen's groundbreaking work on the 16th-century French psalters identifies this tune as one of those provided by Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510-1560) for Psalm 42, "Ainsi qu'on oit le cerf bruire" ("As the deer pants for the water"), in the 1551 edition of the Geneva Psalter.(Douen, 1:649) Douen also notes, "The reader familiar with our Psalter will notice that almost all of the best tunes, the most original and most melodious . . . belong to the first period of the publication, that is to say, to Bourgeois."(Douen, 1:650) Bourgeois (c. 1510-1560) is the best-known of the tune-smiths associated with Calvinist Psalm-singing in Geneva, which in turn carried over to the English-language Psalm-singing tradition. His best-known contribution, of course, was OLD HUNDREDTH.

PSALM 42 is an excellent example of the folk-like tunes that characterized early Reformed psalmody, and there is speculation that Bourgeois adapted this tune from the secular song "Ne l’oseray je dire," found in the Bayeux Manuscript c. 1510.(Fornaçon). Some elements are simple to the extreme, such as syllabic setting of the text (one syllable, one note) and the use of only two different note values (in our version, the quarter note and half note; the whole notes at the ends of phrases are really more like written-out holds). Some elements are quite complex, particularly the variety of phrase lengths, the quickly shifting meters, and the tendency toward syncopation.(Owens, 2) The only leaps in the melody are between notes in the tonic triad (DO, MI, and SOL); otherwise it moves entirely by step, within the range of an octave. The meter is so varied, however, that the version in Praise for the Lord uses no time signature at all. If time signatures had been used, they would have given us:

6/4 | 3/2 | 6/4 | 4/2

(repeat)

6/4 | 3/2 | 6/4 | 3/2

6/4 | 3/2 | 6/4 | 4/2

I suppose this could have been written with a 6/4 3/2 mixed-meter signature at the beginning, and the 4/2 bars given as 3/2 bars with written holds on the final notes.

This particular rhythm is sometimes called "hemiola," referring to the ratio 3:2, because the two beats of 6/4 time (2 dotted half-notes, each worth 3 quarter notes) are replaced by three beats in 3/2 time (3 half notes, each worth 2 quarter notes). It is characteristic of some kinds of folk music, especially for dancing, and was especially common in the secular music of the Renaissance. The Italian "frottola" seemed to use it frequently, as in the video example at the right. No wonder Queen Elizabeth referred to the Calvinist tunes as those "Genevan jigs!"(Owens)
Though the original Reformed practice in public worship was to sing Psalms in a cappella unison, there were many harmonized settings produced as well. The most influential of these came from Claude Goudimel (d. 1572), an accomplished sacred and secular composer whose conversion to Huguenot principles cost him his life in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Goudimel created more complex choral motets based on the Psalm tunes, but also very simple, syllabic works such as the 1565 four-part setting of Psalm 42.(Mancini) This is available online thanks to Christof Biebricher's transcription. In keeping with the practice of the times, the melody was in the tenor voice. The upper parts of Goudimel's original are split up between the alto and tenor in the modern version, but otherwise they are pretty similar.

Johann Schein used this tune for the text "Freu dich sehr" in his 1645 Cantional, and this has become the common name of this tune in the Lutheran chorale tradition.(Terry, 2:165) There are settings of this tune by Johann Crüger and others, which account for the many different harmonizations that are sometimes heard. Michael Owens's Genevan Psalter Resource Center (http://www.genevanpsalter.com/) has a page on the Psalm 42 tune with information about several other settings.

---

References:

"Johannes Olearius (1611-1684)." Wikipedia (German). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Olearius_(1611%E2%80%931684)

"Catherine and Susanna Winkworth." Dictionary of National Biography, reproduced at Eclectic Ethereal Encyclopedia of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. http://www.ccel.org/cceh/archives/eee/winkwrth.htm

The Chorale Book for England, Catherine Winkworth, translator, William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt, music editors. London: Longman, Green & Co., 1863. http://www.archive.org/details/choralebookfore00winkgoog

"Nacham (Strong's H5162)." Genesius's Lexicon, provided through Blueletterbible.org.  http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5162

Douen, Orentin. Clément Marot et le Psautier huguenot, 2 volumes. Paris: Impremiere nationale, 1878. Volume I: http://www.archive.org/details/clmentmarotetl01doue

Owens, Michael E. "The Geneva Psalter." 2008. From The Genevan Psalter Resource Center. http://www.genevanpsalter.com/articles/206-owens-intro

Terry, Charles Sanford. Bach's Chorals, 3 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1917. Volume 2: http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924022453272

Fornaçon, Siegfried. "Psalm 42 aus Genf." Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie, 3 (1958-1959), pp. 111-113. Cited in The Hymnal 1982 Companion, ed. Raymond F. Glover. New York: Church Pension Fund, 1994, volume 3, page 127 (see this page also for comparison of the melodies).

Mancini, Donato. "Claude Goudimel." All-Music.com http://www.allmusic.com/artist/claude-goudimel-q7384/biography

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Praise for the Lord #108

Words: Charles Wesley, 1745
Music: Rowland H. Prichard, HYFRYDOL, 1831; arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1951

Charles Wesley's best-known Christmas hymn was his first; "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (originally, "Hark! How all the welkin rings") appeared in the 1739 Hymns and Sacred Poems, the collection that introduced Wesley's hymns to the world. But he returned to the theme of the Incarnation often, reprinting the 1739 hymn as a broadside in 1743 (presumably; no copies survive), and issuing two more Christmas collections in 1744 and 1745.(Maddox, Nativity Hymns)

The first of these, Hymns for Christmas Day, is also sadly not extant, and is known only through its printer's account books. It might have been an early version of the following year's Nativity Hymns, or a collection of Christmas hymns by various authors, or even an entirely different collection of original Christmas hymns by Wesley.(Maddox, Hymns for Christmas Day) Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology dates "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" to 1744, presumably upon the first assumption; many modern sources have followed him, though the hymn cannot be confirmed to have appeared before 1745.

The Nativity Hymns collection consists of 18 hymns, of which "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" is the 10th. Though few in number, these texts are notable for their variety of meters--no fewer than 14 different metrical schemes for 18 hymns--and for their richness of imagery.(Maddox, Nativity Hymns) The rhyme and rhythm of some are quite peculiar, as in the 3rd hymn, "Angels speak, let men give ear," which has the syllable pattern 7.3.3.5 (sometimes 8.3.3.6), or the 6th hymn, "Come all ye joyful nations," which has the syllable pattern 7.7.4.4.7 and the rhyme scheme a b c c b. Unusual stuff for hymns!

Wesley's language is striking as well, getting at the heart of the amazing fact of the God-Man. From the previously mentioned "Angels speak, let men give ear," we have this stanza:

Wrapt in swaths
th’ immortal stranger
Man with men
We have seen,
Lying in a manger.

He touches on the puzzling question of an eternal, omniscient Lord beginning earthly life as an infant, in the 4th hymn, "Glory be to God on high":

Emptied of his majesty,
Of his dazling glories shorn,
Being’s source begins to be,
And God himself is BORN.

The 5th hymn, "Let earth and heaven combine," makes this pithy observation on the Creator of worlds made a mortal child, and sums up the wonder that Wesley saw in this event: "Our God contracted to a span / Incomprehensibly made man."

By contrast, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" is relatively straightforward in structure (8.7.8.7 doubled, rhyming a b a b c d c d) and contains no intentionally jarring language. Instead, Wesley wrote a sweet, uplifting hymn from the perspective of the faithful Jews who were looking for the promised Messiah, and borrows heavily from the language of the Hebrew prophets. Perhaps it was this familiar sound of Scripture that boosted the popularity of this hymn; of all the 18 texts in the collection, only a handful remained in widespread use into the 20th century, and this is by far the most likely to remain for years to come.

Stanza 1:
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!

The expectation of the Messiah among the ancient Jews probably began in earnest with the writings of Isaiah, who gave the most extensive treatment of an ideal future King descended from David. The spiritual nature of Messiah's mission was predominant in Isaiah, bringing peace and justice, redeeming Israel and showing Gentiles the way.(e.g. Isaiah 11) Even the fairly liberal treatment of the subject in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia admits that the concept of the Messiah as a primarily political/military deliverer was "not a characteristic of the Messianic hope until a later stage of its development."("Messiah") But over time, with the frequent political upsets and disadvantages suffered by the Jews during the period following the close of Hebrew prophecy, the aspect of Messiah as an avenging conqueror eventually overshadowed the more complete view given by the totality of Scripture.

These different expectations of the Messiah are seen throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus' life. Even His cousin John, His own herald, seems to have had doubts based on this: "Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?"(Matthew 11:2-3) At Jesus' birth, the people's belief in a political Messiah was very much on the mind of the paranoid tyrant, Herod the Great:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"(Matthew 2:1-6)

And at the end of Jesus' life, it was this concept of a political Messiah that condemned Him to death: in His trial (whether before Annas or Caiaphas Mark does not specify), "Again the high priest asked Him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?'"(Mark 14:61)

The common people looked for the Messiah as well, with a variety of expectations. Andrew informed his brother Peter of Jesus with the words, "We have found the Messiah!"(John 1:41) The description of the people who came to hear John the Baptizer gives us a similar picture: "The people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ."(Luke 3:15) After Jesus began His ministry, the crowds that heard Him in Jerusalem debated His Messianic identity with at least as much logic as had their spiritual leaders:

When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"(John 7:40-42)

A correct conclusion, but based on an incorrect assumption. But on at least one occasion, the people were persuaded to the extent of trying to make Jesus their earthly King,(John 6:15) and Jesus' entry into Jerusalem before His death (John 12:12-16) was accompanied by palm branches, a symbol of royalty. Even the fact that He rode on a donkey was in fulfillment of the description of the future King given in Zechariah 9:9.

If the people saw Him as their rightful King, they were on the right track but thinking on the wrong plane. Christ told Pontius Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world,"(John 18:36) and it is no surprise that the worldly, practical-minded Roman did not know how to respond. But to be fair, even some of His own disciples were not always clear on this point, as they asked before His ascension, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"(Acts 1:6) The Lord's simple words in Luke 17:12, "The kingdom of God is within you," took time to understand.

On the other hand, there were those who understood more of the spiritual nature of the Messiah's reign. Even the rather flippant Samaritan woman Jesus encountered in John chapter 4 had a vague concept of the Messiah as a spiritual teacher: "When He comes, He will tell us all things."(John 4:25) This understanding is most clearly seen in Simeon, a man "waiting for the consolation of Israel,"(Luke 2:25) who spoke these beautiful words over the infant Jesus at the temple:

Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation that You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel.(Luke 2:29-32)

Simeon's words might reflect the language of the Messianic prophecy in the 9th chapter of Isaiah:

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.(Isaiah 9:1-2)

It seems likely that Wesley's words in this first stanza are derived from these passages. The very next words in Isaiah chapter 9 are,

You have multiplied the nation; You have increased its joy; they rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as on the day of Midian.(Isaiah 9:3-4)

Jesus was "born to set His people free," releasing them from the yoke of oppression. Yet it was not the oppression of Rome He came to break, but the more permanent and deadly oppression of sin. When Jesus spoke of throwing off a yoke, He only said gently,

Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.(Matthew 11:28-30)

Wesley emphasizes freedom from spiritual tyranny of "sins and fears," perhaps referencing Matthew 11 when he says, "Let us find our rest in Thee."

Jesus was the One "long-expected" by the nation, and by Simeon himself, whom God had promised would live to see the Messiah.(Luke 2:26) Jesus was "Israel's Strength and Consolation" that Simeon had waited for.(Luke 2:25) Wesley also references the prophecy to Zerubbabel from the 2nd chapter of Haggai:

For thus saith the LORD of Hosts: "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.

"And I will fill this house with glory," saith the LORD of Hosts. "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine," saith the LORD of Hosts. "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former," saith the LORD of Hosts, "and in this place will I give peace," saith the LORD of Hosts.(Haggai 2:6-9)

Though the import (and translation) of Haggai's phrase "desire of all nations" is debated today, Wesley would certainly have taken it to mean Christ, as expressed in his words, "Dear desire of every nation," which intersects nicely with Simeon's prophecy of "a light to the Gentiles."

The first stanza is a reflection upon the ancient Jews' earnest expectation for the coming of the Messiah into the world. The second stanza speaks to our own individual need to accept His reign in our lives.

Stanza 2:
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.

Wesley turns here, as he so often did in the Nativity Hymns, to the incongruities of the scene at Christ's birth. The King of Kings was a baby; "God contracted to a span," as Wesley said in another hymn, the Creator of the Universe lying in the span of His mother's arm. As if there could be further shock in this scene, He is laid in a feeding trough for lack of a bed, having been literally "born in a barn." My grandfather Hamrick, one of ten children in an Oklahoma pioneer family, slept in a shed with his brothers, the two bedrooms of the house being given over to his parents and sisters. There is no shame in that necessity; but if God wanted to show us that He was coming down to the level of the very least among us, there could be no greater demonstration than the place of Christ's birth!

And for the first royal reception of the King of Kings upon this earth, He was honored with a visit from shepherds who had been watching their sheep in the fields at night--which denotes them as men who either had not enough means to hire someone to do this for them, or as the ones who had so been hired. Again, there is no shame in that or in any other kind of honest work; but if God wanted to show us that He cares not for earthly dignity, but rather for honest and open hearts, there could be no greater demonstration than in the honors brought by these first visitors on that blessed night!

For it is a kingdom "not of this world,"(John 18:36) not enforced externally by force of law and arms, but willingly accepted into the heart and mind:

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."(Luke 17:20-21)

When Christ's kingdom comes into a person's heart through obedient faith, it is a "gracious kingdom," as Wesley says, both in the sense of beauty and mildness but also in the literal sense of a "kingdom of grace:"

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. . . . So that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.(Romans 5:17,21)

As subjects of this gentle sovereignty, we must remember to Whom our allegiance lies, and to Whom we in fact belong: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."(1 Corinthians 6:19-20) Our King has "put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."(2 Corinthians 1:22)

In one sense, songs about Christ's birth are a reflection back on a fixed event in the past--a historical reality that we did not ourselves witness. But as we sing such songs, we remember the importance of what Jesus' incarnation still means for us today, and will for eternity. And though we also see the coming of His kingdom as an event that took place in that generation of the first century, we ourselves must decide at some point whether we will allow that kingdom to come into our own hearts. Even after becoming Christians, we decide every day whether to submit to the reign of that long-exepected Messiah, with all its blessings. "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful."(Colossians 3:15)

About the music:

The Lord blessed Wales with an abundance of great tunesmiths, and HYFRYDOL is one of the best from that tradition. The harmonization is by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a modern English composer who respected the beauty and diversity of folk music. For a discussion of this tune and its setting, see my post on "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus."

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References:

Maddox, Randy L., editor. Hymns for Christmas Day (1744). Charles Wesley's Published Verse. Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke University. http://divinity.duke.edu/sites/default/files/documents/cswt/25_Hymns_for_Christmas_Day_%281744%29.pdf

Maddox, Randy L. Nativity Hymns (1745). Charles Wesley's Published Verse. Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke University, 2009. http://divinity.duke.edu/sites/default/files/documents/cswt/31_Nativity_Hymns_%281745%29.pdf

"Messiah." Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10729-messiah