free thine own from Satan's tyranny.
From depths of hell thy people save,
and give them vict'ry o'er the grave.
O come, thou Dayspring,
come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadow put to flight.
O come, thou Key of David,
come and open wide our heav'nly home.
Make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.
O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
and order all things far and nigh.
To us the path of knowledge show,
and cause us in thy ways to go.
O come, Desire of nations,
bind all peoples in one heart and mind.
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease.
Fill the whole world with heaven's peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
This song has been playing in my mind and heart and mouth for two weeks. Each time I hear of something that breaks my heart, the song erupts again: Mourning and Rejoicing.
After the first verse (which I covered in the previous post), the song continues the pattern of addressing God through a particular title, then petitioning, still longing, for God to come and fulfill our human needs.
Verse 2 is my salvation-song. I am reminded of the glorious deeds of Jesus overcoming sin, evil, and death through cross and tomb. The cry is for all people, not just me, to be free from Satan, saved from hell, and victorious over the grave. The cry is for resurrection, for hope, for a new world of possibility. Perhaps even beginning now?
These words can be "safely" reserved for the life beyond physical death, or for the world to come at the end of time as we know it, but might it be okay and in fact good to long for this salvation-reality NOW? The world seems to be falling apart. I am not sure whether that is true or false, or whether that is simply my perception, or whether it has been steadily falling apart forever, or whether these are truly "birth pains" for a new creation coming... (Mark 13:8, Matthew 24:8)
...Yet again, I am greeted with the twisted smile of a few more mass shootings, some suspicious slayings of black folks by police officers, the now normal protests of various natures and the deep struggle I feel to both get involved and remain apart, war, terrorism, racism, sexism, and on and on...and of course the accompanying media outrage from every perspective that simply exacerbates suffering...
It is appropriate that after each cry for Immanuel to come, I am met with "Rejoice!" We fill the symbolic shoes of Israel in exile... for I remain, now and always, a stranger in this world, struggling to walk the line and follow the leader.
Verse 3 is the meteorological verse. God is the Dayspring, the source of light and hope and clarity that rises in our lives and in the life of the world. What a great title for God! So full of life and possibility! It minimizes the power of the nighttime terrors, as if they are just dark clouds that the sunshine drives away. I hate the fact that the weather affects my mood so much. Perhaps it is part of why my wife calls me "grumpus" on certain days. And yet the sun brings the opposite effect.
Verse 4 looks toward the way I live my life. God is the Key of David. Keys open doors or gates, which lead to something new and different. The way to heaven is unlocked by Immanuel, Jesus, our true Way home... As I long for my own personal entry into the kingdom of heaven, I also long for the kingdom of heaven to come here and make itself known in the reality of the world we live in.
Verse 5 seeks Wisdom. Wisdom orders, and divine order puts all things in their proper place, defeating chaos through understanding. I am lost so often day-by-day. I am well aware of how much I do not understand, and at the same time bewildered that some other people seem to think they understand so much...
Which brings us to... verse 6... Desire of nations... I am sure there are many nations which would take offense to hearing that they desire Jesus. I see Jesus as the fulfillment of the point of nations in general. The Kingdom of God, with Jesus as High King is the best, greatest possible government there could ever be. All human governments are pale imitations of that Kingdom. Thus, all nations long for the kind of divine order that Jesus brings, yet are bound to fail in making it so. The Kingdom of God for which we long in characterized by unity in understanding, the elimination of petty arguments, and the overwhelming presence of peace.
Peace is not the absence of war and conflict, but the presence of Immanuel, God-with-us.
It is for this Kingdom, this world, this reality that I long. Come, Lord Jesus...
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