Christmas hymn repristination - HUH?

December 21, 2012 by Pastor Jason Ritchie

What is the deal with “O Come Let Us Adore Him?”

I know, I just said that. Or wrote it, I guess.

You see, every year during the Christmas season, one of the most popular songs you hear being sung is the song “O Come All Ye Faithful.” And the chorus goes, “O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great song. Besides personally liking it, when I plan our church worship services for December, I always plan to sing it here and there throughout the season. I think it’s an important song for corporate worship experiences.

But let’s be honest, for many of us it’s become rote. Something we do without thinking about it. Years and years ago, a lot of these classic Christmas hymns got moved over to the same shelf in our heart as all the other collections of words we sing or speak without thinking much about it, like “Amazing Grace” or John 3:16.

That’s why I’m writing about repristinating the Christmas hymns like “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Repristination is the idea of bringing something back to where it started, or making it pure again like it once was. It’s nobody’s fault really, and yet it’s everybody’s fault...”O Come All Ye Faithful” has been recorded by everyone from Nat King Cole to Josh Groban to Celine Dion to Art Garfunkel to the Hanson brothers, and it’s played in every department store, elevator, and Starbucks we find ourselves in as soon as Thanksgiving finishes and the holiday rush begins. How can it not get a little old and tired?

But do we want songs like that to lay sit on the shelf, or impact our hearts like they once did? My encouragement to all of us is to take a fresh look at these lyrics and blow the dust off ‘em this Advent season. First, start with the chorus... “O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” “Adore” means to worship, to have a deep respect for, to love. Wow, OK, if I’m singing that, it should mean a lot, but let’s be honest, sometimes only when we take time to soak in the meaning of what we’re singing do we really get to where spiritual songs move our hearts like they should, or could. In corporate worship, it’s hard enough just to read and put a melody to lyrics as they fly by, let alone consider the meaning of what we’re singing.

So after we’ve mined the depths of what the chorus is saying, I encourage us to read the whole song afresh. When we read lyrics instead of singing them, often they hit us in a different way, with more impact.

So here are the lyrics to this Christmas hymn, the four verses that were translated from Latin and published in 1852, and widely popularized (especially the 1st, 3rd, and 4th). My hope is this blesses your Christmas as you think about what God has done for us in sending Jesus, literally taking on the form of man, that we could know Him and know His righteousness through Christ. Simple. Heartwarming. Beautiful. Christmas.

O Come All Ye Faithful

O come all ye faithful
Joyful and triumphant
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him
Born the King of Angels
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord

God of God
Light of Light
Lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb
Very God
Begotten, not created
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord

Sing choirs of angels
Sing in exultation
O sing all ye bright hosts of heaven above
Glory to God
All glory in the highest
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord

Yea Lord we greet Thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus to Thee be all glory given
Word of the Father
Now in flesh appearing
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord

- This was taken from the Crossroads App, courtesy Crossroads Community Church, Vancouver, WA