We wait in hope for hope to come (website only)
We wait in hope for hope to come:
promised of old; the righteous one.
Help us to watch, expect and pray
and then to greet Messiah’s day.
We read the story of your plan:
this world redeemed by heaven’s Son.
Grace breaks upon the present time;
mercy and hope through David’s line.
We hear the prophet’s voice ring clear:
‘changed hearts and lives are needed here’.
So, when the Spirit fires your Church,
make us a sign for all who search.
We go to share this great Good News:
heirs of the promise – we will choose
to live in hope that all may sing
praises to Christ, the infant king.
Words © 2013 Gareth Hill Publishing/Song Solutions CopyCare, 14 Horsted Square, Uckfield, TN22 1QG www.songsolutions.org
Metre: 88.88 (Long Metre)
Suggested tunes: Gareth suggests "Deep Harmony" (StF 90); "Niagara" (StF 596) is more upbeat; "O Waly Waly" (StF 607) adds a reflective, arguably more personal, dimension to the words.
Ideas for use
This hymn summarises some of the key themes of Advent. You might consider using it as your "theme song" for the season – singing it each Sunday of Advent. This is a good way of helping a congregation to become familiar with a new hymn. In this case, the repetition will reinforce the Advent message of watching, expecting and praying.
As well as the three tune options already suggested above, Gareth’s hymn has the advantage that it is written in a meter (88.88) that will allow you wide scope to find a tune that most suits your congregation.
More information
In the opening line of the hymn, Gareth encapsulates the paradox we experience during the Advent and Christmas experience – that it is our task to hope actively and thoughtfully, but that the gift Christ’s incarnation brings to us is itself the hope by which we can truly live.
Verse 1 alludes to Jesus’ teachings and parables about waiting, in particular the “little apocalypse”, expressed in its fullest form in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 24-5. Jesus looks forward to a time of tumultuous change as God’s kingdom upturns the accepted norms of the world. His vision includes the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem:
“… nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs”.
“Keep awake therefore”, Jesus says in verse 42, “for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” In the following chapter, he also tells the parable of the wise and foolish maidens (“virgins”/“bridesmaids”) (Matthew 25:1–13). (Pictured – from St Giles' Church, Oxford)
Overall, Gareth’s words re-balance the tone of warning towards one of expectancy and welcome, focusing on the coming of the Son of Man, and an experience of God’s grace; Messiah’s day is one in which “grace breaks upon the present time”, a day to greet with joyful praise:
– we will choose
to live in hope that all may sing
praises to Christ, the infant king.
More broadly, the first three verses of Gareth’s hymn hold, just beneath their surface, a trinitarian structure. God, with us from before time began and the focus of hope for the children of Israel, is the one who inspires us to ‘watch, expect and pray’ (v1). God in Jesus ‘breaks upon the present time’ (v2). And it is the Spirit’s fire that drives the Church to action, just as the prophets once cried for ‘changed hearts and lives’ (v3).