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 Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending.
I’ve only really discovered these Advent hymns in recent years. This is one of my favourites, musically. I don’t know what the significance of the word “clouds” is, but I suppose it’s just urging us to look to the sky which is the path that Jesus will take when he returns:
Revelation 1:7
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
It was written by Charles Wesley back in 1752, one of 6,000 hymns that he wrote. By the 19th century, it was regarded as one of the “Great Four Anglican Hymns,” alongside Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and two others.
Let’s walk through each verse.
Hymns don’t often mention trains 😀. I’m a big fan of trains, but trains as we know them today didn’t exist in Wesley’s time. It’s basically a train of people. Several Bible passages teach that the dead will rise and those still alive will meet Jesus in the air as he returns.
1. Lo! he comes with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain!
Thousand, thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of his train.
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
God appears on Earth to reign.
1 Thessalonians 3:13
May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
Jude 14-15
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
We tend to think of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as a happy occasion, but it all depends on whose side you are on. This second verse emphasizes the fact that he will come as a judge. Many of those responsible for his crucifixion repented and will be saved, but some didn’t. And in the centuries since the crucifixion, many have refused to repent and avail of his salvation. All will face the Messiah.
2. Ev'ry eye shall now behold him,
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold him,
Pierced and nailed him to a tree,
Deeply wailing,
Deeply wailing,
Deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.
The risen Jesus showed his scars to doubting Thomas. Perhaps Thomas wondered if Jesus was some kind of a ghost. Jesus emphasized the continuity between himself post-resurrection and before. I don’t know if the body of Jesus will still have the scars, but we will still have the memory of what he did for us. This is emphasized in the book of Revelation.
3. The dear tokens of his passion
Still his dazzling body bears,
Cause of endless exultation
To his ransomed worshipers;
With what rapture,
With what rapture,
With what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars.
Revelation 5:9
9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
This final verse focuses on the joy of the return of Jesus. The whole world will see Jesus for who he truly is, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
4. Yea! Amen! let all adore thee
High on thine eternal throne!
Savior, take the pow'r and glory,
Claim the kingdom for thine own.
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Everlasting God come down.
Revelation 5:12-13
12 In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
Hibernia Gospel 