Lo, he comes with clouds descending

 

Behold, he is coming with the clouds 

and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, 

and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.  

Even so.  Amen. 

(Revelation 1:7, ESV)

This is my favourite Advent hymn.  It anticipates Christ's Second Coming, which is one of the major themes of Advent - the others being preparation to celebrate his First Coming at Christmas, and the individual believer's preparation to receive him in their heart.   Michael Dougherty comments that this hymn, which is a complete reworking of a previous hymn by John Cennick, shows "the facility with which Charles [Wesley] uses the English language and how he effortlessly mirrors the images of the book of Revelation . . . " (cf the verse quoted above).  C Michael Hawn comments that "this poem comes as close as poetic verse can in scaling the heights of spendour, majesty, and mystery as described in Revelation."

The earlier hymn was published by John Cennick in the fifth edition of his Collection of Sacred Hymns in 1752.   You can see the text as quoted by John Julian here (scroll to page 681).  Julian goes on to quote Wesley's version of the hymn, which was published in 1758 in Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind.  Modern hymn books follow this text, with one or two alterations.  It's interesting to note that in the Methodist hymn books of 1933, 1983 (Hymns and Psalms) and 2011 (Singing the Faith), the last line of the first stanza is Wesley's "God appears on earth to reign", while the Anglican hymn books from the Ancient and Modern stable, published in 1922, 1950 and 2013 all replace "God" with "Christ" in that line.  (The second and third stanzas, with their references to the Messiah's death, pierced and nailed to a tree, make it clear that Wesley was indeed referring to the Second Person of the Trinity at the end of the first stanza).  The other common change is in the penultimate line of stanza 4, which successive Methodist hymnals have replaced with "Hallelujah!" or "Come, Lord Jesus!", while Ancient and Modern has consistently used, "Alleluia!  Thou shalt reign, and thou alone" for the final two lines.  Other versions use "O come quickly!" (which was the wording in Cennick's version) in the penultimate line.  John Julian's (see link above) entry on Lo, he comes, as published in 1907, gives details of various other reworkings of this hymn, but it seems to me that Wesley's version, with a couple of alterations, is what is in common use today.

Charles Wesley's hymn, as it was first published in 1758

As I said, this is my favourite Advent hymn.  In Anglican hymnals it usually appears in the Advent section.  Methodists place it under Advent in 2011, but in earlier hymn books it was under "The Lord Jesus Christ: his kingdom, present and future" (1933), and "Christ's Coming in Glory" (1983).  But as Hawn (see above) points out, "the context in which it appears in John Wesley's collection [1758] offers a very different understanding of the text."  He goes on to say, "the hymns in Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind address in amazing detail various categories of intercessory prayer."

Lo, he comes appears near the end of Wesley's collection, under the heading "Thy Kingdom Come!"  This is one of the petitions which Jesus commands us to pray near the beginning of the Lord's Prayer.  Hawn comments on the collection, and the place of Lo, he comes within it, 

Charles Wesley, having enumerated a comprehensive list of intercessory needs, establishes that God, in Christ, is the cosmic "monarch" of all earthly kings, nations, institutions, individuals in need, and all religions and theologies, and philosophies found on earth, even if they do not recognize God.

Lo, he comes is almost always sung (at least, in my experience!) to the tune Helmsley, which is attributed in modern hymn books as follows: 'Select Hymns with Tunes Annext (1765)', a book published by John Wesley, where the tune is called 'Olivers'.  It's been attributed to Thomas Olivers (1710-1778), but its origins are obscure.  However, in Hawn's words, "it is a magnificent pairing with this majestic text."  Dougherty comments further,

When sung together, this text and tune help the worshipping community observe with wonder the events of Jesus' crucifixion.  Well-place tune-driven repeats of text create a sense of excitement and urgency.  This drives us toward the . . .  day when we sing,   

Yea, Amen! Let all adore thee,

high on thy eternal throne;

Saviour, take the power and glory,

claim the kingdom for thine own.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

Everlasting God, come down!  

You can hear this hymn here.

For more information about Charles Wesley, see my post on O, thou who camest from above.

Photo by Jeff Jacobs on Pixabay