Preparing for Sunday

Song Highlight: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

This week’s hymn highlight is the famed Christmas hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The origins of this hymn go all the way back to medieval times. In the 800’s, the church would sing a series of Latin hymns during Christmas Vespers between December 17 - 23. The hymns were put into verse in the 1100s and were published in Latin in 1710. In 1851, the son of an Anglican minister named John Mason Neale translated the hymn from Latin and published the first draft of what we now know as O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  

The hymn is written as a prayer of longing for Christ to come and restore all things. It’s written as if from the vantage point of Israel awaiting the coming of the Messiah before the birth of Christ. We sing it knowing that the Messiah did come as the humble baby in the Bethlehem manger. Our Emmanuel came to redeem not just Israel, but people from all nations who trust in the work that He accomplished on the Cross. Through His perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus ransoms His people from the captivity of sin and death by putting “death’s dark shadow to flight” and being our “King of Peace.” So we sing now looking back at His finished work and putting our hope in Him, the True Israel, knowing that He will come again to bring His people home. In light of such a glorious truth, we too can say “Rejoice! Rejoice!” as we await that glorious day. Come, Emmanuel, come!