Sunday, December 9, 2012

The King Shall Come

This is one of my favorite Advent hymns.  Our family has performed a version of it a few times, together.  If I were really ambitious, I might make an audio file and embed it here, but really, it works pretty well just as a poem. . .

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The King Shall Come
(translated from Greek by John Brownlie)

The King shall come when morning dawns,
And light triumphant breaks.
When beauty gilds the eastern hills,
And Life to Joy awakes.

Not, as of old, a little child,
To bear and fight and die,
But crowned with glory as the sun
That lights the morning sky!

O brighter than that glorious morn
Shall dawn upon our race,
The day when Christ in glory comes,
And we shall see His face.

The King Shall come when morning dawns,
And light and beauty brings.
Hail, Christ the Lord! Thy people pray,
Come quickly, King of Kings!

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"Even so; come, Lord Jesus!"

12 comments:

  1. I like the song; I have not heard of it before. I especially like the last line, come quickly King of Kings!!

    betty

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  2. It sure beats "Seeing mommy kissing santa clause!"

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  3. This is a new one for me as well. On a happy note, our high school band performed only Xmas carols during the Xmas parade last weekend. Hoping for good music at the concert this week, too!

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  4. that's not one i am familiar with but great lyrics.

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  5. Corgi - There is a standard 'choral' arrangement, but the one I've done is a more 'modern' one, arranged by a member of our Christian community. . .

    Sailor - Glad you like it. . .

    joeh - Well, that's setting the bar kinda low, but. . . OK, yeah, it does. . .

    Bijoux - Can they do that? ;)

    Our Catholic grade school had a shared-time public-school music teacher, and she couldn't do any 'religious' songs (ie, Christmas carols), because she was being paid by the public school system. . . Stupid, I thought, but what do I know?

    Lime - It's not often that I come across a poem you haven't seen. . .

    ;)

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  6. I think until a parent complains, it's up to the teacher what music is performed. Middle child's middle school choir teacher is Jewish and she always chose Christmas carols. When asked, she said it was because they are more challenging than Jingle Bell variety. She also always had the kids perform negro spirituals in the spring, which are probably the best choir music out there.

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  7. I'd never seen that one, I think. Lovely. Thanks for sharing it.

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  8. Bijoux - Your school district is obviously more tolerant than ours. We got sent a warning note when one of our kids (a kindergartner at the time) got into a 'theological debate' with a Jehovah's Witness classmate. . . The music teacher being Jewish probably provides her a bit of 'cover'. . .

    Suldog - My pleasure; glad you like it. . .

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  9. I might write a post about this! I have a good story about a Jehovah Witness in one of my kid's classes!

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  10. Wow, great stuff! When do we get the recording? ;)

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  11. Bijoux - I'll look forward to that. . .

    Xavier - I said, 'if I were really ambitious'. . . Alas. . .

    But hey, next time we get together, if there's a guitar handy, I can play you the version I know. . .

    ;)

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