Advent Through the Lens of Four Christmas Songs

Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Part 1

Isaiah 40.1-8

The Song.

1.  Comfort, comfort ye my people, Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;

Comfort those who sit in darkness, Mourning ‘neath their sorrows’ load;

Speak ye to Jerusalem Of the peace that waits for them,

Tell her that her sins I cover, And her warfare now is over.

2.  Yea, her sins our God will pardon, Blotting out each dark misdeed;

All that well deserved His anger He will no more see nor heed.

She hath suffer’d many a day, Now her griefs have passed away,

God will change her pining sadness Into ever-springing gladness.

3.  For the herald’s voice is crying In the desert far and near,

Bidding all men to repentance, Since the kingdom now is here.

Oh that warning cry obey, Now prepare for God a way;

Let the valleys rise to meet Him, And the hills bow down to greet Him.

4.  Make ye straight what long was crooked, Make the rougher places plain,

Let your hearts be true and humble, As befits His holy reign;

For the glory of the Lord Now o’er earth is shed abroad,

And all flesh shall fee the token That His Word is never broken.

— Johannes Olearius

This lesser known Advent hymn is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1-8, which is a popular passage for the Advent season.  It is, for example, the focus of the opening three movements of Handel’s Messiah.

The writer.

The hymn was written in 1641 by German hymn writer Johann Gottfried, better known by the Latin version of his name, Johannes Olearius. In addition to being a hymn writer, Olearius was at one time a court chaplain, a professor of philosophy, and the author of a commentary on the entire Bible. He published “Comfort, Comfort Now My People” along with three hundred of his other hymns in one of the most important German hymnals of the seventeenth century. Almost two centuries later the English scholar and educator Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn from German into English. During her lifetime, Winkworth published several volumes of translated German hymns. Among her most famous are “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” and “Now Thank We All Our God.” The tune associated with the hymn has appeared under a couple of different names — “Freu Dich Sehr” (“Rejoice Greatly”) and “Thirsting”.  It was composed in 1551 by Louis Bourgeois, choirmaster for John Calvin in Geneva, whose responsibilities included compiling, composing, and arranging music for the Genevan Psalter.*

The meaning.

The hymn follows closely the text and meaning of the Scripture passage. Isaiah 40.1-11 is a kind of prologue to one of the most sublime sustained passages in all of Scripture.  The passage extends from Isaiah 40 all the way through the end of the book, chapter 66.  There is good reason why the passage is so popular during Advent season.  It represents the turning point from the theme of sin and judgment which dominates the first part of Isaiah to the theme of blessing and salvation that characterizes the latter part.  The passage speaks in rich poetic language of the advent of the Messiah, the salvation he brings, and the glorious effect upon Israel and the world.

“Comfort, yes comfort My people!” (Isa 40.1.)

These opening words disclose the overarching theme of the remainder of Isaiah, which is comfort to God’s people (Isa 49.13; 51.12, 18; 52.9; 54.11; 57.18). Everything that follows unfolds what God means by comfort.  “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem” is the literal translation of the Hebrew phrase in Isaiah 40.2, which is rendered in most English versions by the blander phrase, “Speak comfort to Jerusalem.” This is no light comfort God has in mind. God means comfort that reaches the heart of his people because it reaches the heart of their trouble. Our comfort to one another is often limited to tokens of empathy.  It is no less love, but it lacks power to remove the cause of discomfort. It can touch the heart, but it cannot heal the heart. God’s comfort heals the heart precisely because it heals the cause of the heartache. God’s comfort dries every tear precisely because it removes every cause for tears (Isa 65.19; Rev 21.4). God’s comfort replaces tears, not with a stiff upper lip but with laughter (Job 8.21; Isa 51.11). Not the vacuous laughter of fools (Eccl 7.6), nor the weak laughter of an woeful heart (Prov 14.13), but the deep laughter of the heart which has seen God put everything right (Gen 21.6; Psalm 126.2).**

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Sources:

* Roy Hopp, “Hymn of the Month,” in Reformed Worship, Issue #13, December, online at http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=42&id=13.

“Johannes Gottfried Olearius,” Net Hymnal, online at http://nethymnal.org/bio/o/l/e/olearius_jg.htm.

“Oliearius, Johann,” Hymnary, online at http://www.hymnary.org/person/Olearius_J.

** Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, vol. 3, pp. 17-20.