Because Christmas is coming, I’ve decided to take a break from my daily review of modern worship songs and focus on Christmas hymns for a month. I’ve started with Advent.
Advent hymns emphasize waiting, longing, and preparation, while Christmas hymns celebrate fulfilment, joy, and Christ’s birth.
Today’s hymn is Come Thou Long Expected Jesus:
What does it mean by “long expected Jesus”? Well, Jesus didn’t just appear out of the blue. The Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah. It’s thought that there are over 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. It’s true that some are debatable. Someone might see something as a prophecy that was never intended to be. But it’s clear that there are many, even by what Jesus himself said to his disciples.
- Luke 4:17–21 In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah 61
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” and declared, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” - Matthew 5:17 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” - Luke 24:25–27 – After the resurrection, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained to the disciples
“what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” - Luke 24:44–46 – Jesus told His disciples,
“Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” - John 5:39–40 – Jesus said to the Jewish leaders,
“These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
And when you read the gospels, the writers regularly refer to events fulfilling Old Testament Scriptures. Some seem quite cryptic, but others, such as Isaiah 53 very obviously apply to Jesus.
Isaiah 53:3
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
But why does the hymn ask Jesus to come if He has already come? At Advent, churches celebrate the incarnation, the first coming of Jesus into the world, but they also look to the second coming, which will occur in the future. And from the very beginning, the church was encouraged to have a sense of expectancy. It’s true that some verses reference going to be with Christ when we die, but most New Testament verses focus on the public return of Jesus.
So, is there anything specific that I like about the hymn?
My favourite line is the following:
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
If I was depending on my own merits, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near the glorious throne of Jesus. But I’m not depending on my own merits. I can approach the glorious throne because I belong to Jesus.
Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley wrote the hymn. It’s one of 6,000 hymns that Charles Wesley composed. He composed it after reflecting on Haggai 2:7 and the social needs he saw in Britain.
Haggai 2:7
I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty.
It’s quite common for Christians to long for the return of Christ when we see the state of the world. And the very last couple of verses in the Bible make reference to his return:
Rev 22:20-21
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Hibernia Gospel 