A highlight through 2022 continues to be having breakfast on Wednesdays with my mother. Others are offering all kinds of wonderful care and so, after a good chat together, we focus on a Bible reading, a prayer — and a hymn. I wander through Wikipedia, finding background details to the hymn to read — and then it is off to YouTube to find a singalong version (hoping nobody drops by…).
This past week I selected this hymn. Have a slow read through it. And yes, try to get beyond the word ’empire’ in verse 1 🙁 — by which I suspect he just means the kingdom of the King.
The hymn-writer, Sylvester Horne, died in the year that World War 1 started (1914), which itself was the beginning of an horrific 6-8 years for the peoples of the world (see here). Imagine singing this hymn in congregational worship during those years — and our years now aren’t so great either…
1. I love the hope in the verses
It is captured in the fourth-to-last word of every verse: when — ‘when Jesus is King’. This speaks of the future and this is supported by the frequency of the word shall through the verses. Then in the final verse the when becomes an and to affirm that the day is certain. It will arrive, as surely as ‘the dawn of the day’ — and on that day ‘all things shall be in the splendour of spring’. Love it. Dawn and Spring, the two pictures of the certainity of hope which God has embedded into the 24 hour day and the 12 month year (well, for some of us anyway, as much of the world does not experience ‘spring’!).
2. I love the realized eschatology (!) in the chorus
Big words, I know, but seriously, the witness to Jesus in the Gospels is that this time when Jesus reigns as King is both in the future and in the present. It is ‘realized’. It is ‘already-not yet’, as they say. We glimpse it now. Hints of it are to be seen now among his people — like a firstfruit, or a downpayment, of what is to come. So, whereas the verses focus on the ‘not yet’ (with the shall and when words), I see the chorus to be about the ‘already’, the present, as we bellow, ‘Come let us sing … Jesus our King’.
3. I love the specifics in the verses
We gain this picture of what life looks like when Jesus reigns. Gather it all up: ‘life and salvation … joy to the nations … races long severed his love shall unite … justice and truth … kingdom of peace … freedom … wisdom … foe shall be friend … sword shall be sickle … souls shall be saved … doubts shall not darken … hell hath no terrors … death has no sting … knowledge and fear of the Lord … all harmonious … Satan is vanquished.’
What a catalogue of the things for which we long! Oh yes, ‘Kingdom of Christ, for Thy coming we pray,’ And what is it that we go on to pray? ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’. Churches do not need more mission statements because here it is. Take a close look at heaven, in places like the book of Revelation (and this hymn!) and, in the power of the Spirit, for the sake of Christ and to the glory of God, and for the restoration of creation and the redemption of the peoples of the world, quietly get on with incarnating this catalogue into communities of faith.
4. I love the belonging in the chorus
One of the ways in which God’s people suffer is by scattering. On a global macro-scale, think of Ukraine now — and of Syria of not so long ago. It is very common. People are scattered to places where they do not belong. And this happens on a local micro-scale as well, within families and communities. I’ve returned to 1 Peter for a season. In the opening two verses, it describes the people of God as ‘scattered in the world … who have been chosen’ (with the entire Trinity getting involved). So, yes, scattered in the world, but also gathered to God, precious and special to him, chosen (and so “choice”, as we we say in New Zealand). It is beautiful. This is why we also bellow, in the chorus, ‘This is our song, who to Jesus belong’.
5. I love the momentum in the tune, as verses transition to chorus
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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Another one from my childhood. Thanks for bringing it back to me! 🙂
Maybe we should singalong together on YouTube together as well 🙂