My new favorite Christmas carol is Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. I've been learning over the last few years more and more about Christmas. God's people had been waiting for the Messiah. After Malachi, there was 400 years of hearing nothing from God. Talk about trusting God! Those people waited a long time for God's promise to be fulfilled. Read the words to this song with those thoughts in mind.
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 ev'ry longing heart
Born Thy people to deliver
Born a child, and yet a King
Born to reign in us forever
Now Thy gracious Kingdom bring
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone
By Thine all sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne
Israel's strength and consolation
Hope of all the earth Thou art
Dear desire of every nation
Joy of ev'ry longing heart
Come Jesus Come
So now, as we celebrate the fact that He did come even after 400 years of silence from God. He came, He lived, He died, & He rose again. AND He will also come again. We wait in expectation of His return. I get very tired of the fallenness of this world, and so let's reflect on Him . . . He is coming again to restore His kingdom. So I'm longing for the expected Jesus! Merry Christmas!
we sang this in church recently, and I had to put it in my journal. Amazingly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting Charles Wesley's great Christmas hymn and for your insightful comments.
ReplyDeleteToday is the 302nd anniversary of Wesley's birth. That makes an interesting comparison to the 400 Silent Years between Malachi and Matthew. Because of Wesley's large contribution to our hymnody, we've had nearly 300 Singing Years.
To learn more about him, I invite you to check out my daily blog on hymn history, Wordwise Hymns.