Hymn for First Sunday of Advent
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Of all the things I think are a good idea, the one thing people keep asking me to do is write more hymn texts, particularly ones inspired by or based on the Lectionary.
    So, I thought I'd better get started on that.

    Here is my first shot at something based on the Readings for First Sunday of Advent (Year B).

    Usual disclaimers:
    -Work in progress
    -Copyright not released (yet)
    -No general arguments about hymnody

    Praise welcome, criticism needed.

    ---------------


    O, God, you are our Father true,
    yet still we wander far from You.
    Come soon, O Lord, in pow'r and might;
    Come set our sinful deeds to flight.

    Redeem us from our sins, we pray.
    Teach us to walk your righteous way.
    Come soon, O Lord, we call your name;
    Let not our hope be put to shame.

    Lord, let us see your righteous face.
    Redeem our fallen, mortal race.
    Come soon, O Lord, to save your own;
    Descend to Earth from Heaven's throne.

    We keep the watch: we know not when
    Our God will come destroying sin.
    Come soon, O Lord, in strength and pow'r,
    our hope is set upon that hour.

    Praise Father, Son, and Spirit blessed.
    Praise Thee, all voices without rest.
    Come soon, O Lord; Come soon, we pray.
    Our hope is set upon that day.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    Very nice, although to "put deeds to flight" doesn't work for me at all as a metaphor. You can hardly make someone's actions get up and run away. Perhaps "To set our errant ways aright" could serve that line better; it would certainly tie more closely with the foregoing phrase about wandering.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    The pronoun for God is you and your throughout most of the text and then shifts to "Thee" in the last verse.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    In addition, "Praise Thee, all voices without rest" is grammatically odd. If "Praise" is an imperative, as in the previous line, and is directed at the "voices," then the object, God, cannot be in the second person ("Thee"). "Praise God" would solve this problem. Or if, instead, the line is just an inversion of the factual statement "All voices without rest praise Thee," then it is confusing, because it sure sounds like it was meant to be an imperative.

    I am also not fond of the repetition of "Come soon" in the penultimate line, since the corresponding phrase in the previous stanza did not have such a repetition. Perhaps "Make haste" could substitute here.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Thanks!

    Those are great ideas, and they all hit on lines/issues I wasn't happy with yet.

    Any more?

    Also- tunes?
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