HYMN FOR ADVENT 2 Hail to the Lord's Anointed
- Gracia Grindal
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
(1803-1887)
Text: James Montgomery 1771-1854 Tune: George Webb (1803-1877)
1. Hail to the Lord's Anointed,
great David's greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed,
his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,t
o set the captive free;
to take away transgression,
and rule in equity.
2. He comes with succor speedy
to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy,
and bid the weak be strong;t
o give them songs for sighing,
their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying,
are precious in his sight.
3. He shall come down like shower
supon the fruitful earth;
love, joy, and hope, like flowers,
spring in his path to birth.
Before him on the mountains,
shall peace, the herald, go
,and righteousness, in fountains,
from hill to valley flow.
4. To him shall prayer unceasing
and daily vows ascend;
his kingdom still increasing,
a kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never
his covenant remove;
his name shall stand forever;
that name to us is love.
REFLECTION
This prophetic hymn is based on Psalm 72, but it is drenched in other Scriptures as well. The first lines are references to Psalm 110 which Jesus uses to good effect in his debate with the Saducees and Pharisees. Not only does Jesus use it, but the New Testament writers used it often to show how Jesus was David’s Son and the Son of God—great David’s greater son. For Christians the Old TEstament is all about the New Testament from Eve’s being told she will have a son who will get back at the serpent who has just deceived her. When she has Seth, she speaks clearly of the hope she has that this son would be the one. It was the hope of many Jewish women to be the mother of Messiah. So Mary reading the prophecies in the book she is almost always reading in the great paintings of her annunciation is among those women who have heard and hope they will be the one. How shocking it must have been after all those years for her to hear the angel saying God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah!
In a way the hymn then tells us what John the Baptist is preaching when he shouts out at his audience. Things are going to change, a new ruler has come who will make all things new. Montgomery believed that. We may find it harder to believe this good news and only hope for it dimly in the face of all the violence and oppression around us. But there are writers who are making the argument that even though Jesus is not ruling from some palace or presidential dwelling, he is still King. And his rule over the past millennia has already changed the world. The writer of the book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, Tom Holland, goes through the centuries since Christ and shows how empires and rulers have been changed by the Christian gospel. The fight against infanticide, slavery, the abuse and trafficking of children, while still grave problems, are something that most people know needs to be stopped. Of course, there still is evil, but the Gospel has already begun to change much in the world, he argues. Christians await the coming of Christ when all things will be made new. As Montgomery says in his hymn, “The tide of time shall never his covenant remove; his name shall stand forever; that name to us is love.” Look around in these dark times and look to Christ to believe it. Our God is love which he sent down in person at Christmas. His power is in weakness: A baby to change the world. And he did!
HYMN INFO
James Montgomery lived just after the time of the Wesleys. Born in Scotland to Moravian missionaries who left him for the West Indies, he was orphaned when they died while he was at school. He became editor of the Sheffield Iris, a paper that often took radical positions. Montgomery was jailed once for praising the fall of the Bastille. He was also a strong opponent of slavery and the treatment of chimney sweep boys in England. He devoted much of his time to the writing of poetry and hymns, of which he is said to have written over 400. Several of his books of hymns were published before and around mid-19th century in England. Songs of Zion (1822), The Christan Psalmist (1825) and Original Hymns (1853.)
LINKS
Schola Cantorum of St. Peter’s in the Loop, Chicagohttps://youtu.be/l6dGmfAL5DY?si=9eDUoOUwsJ8b6w1i
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Jesus the Harmony would make a nice Christmas present. It can be read devotionally over the entire year, one poem for every day.
Blurb
"With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." --Jill Baumgartner, Poetry Editor, Christian Century, and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College
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