"COME, THOU ALMIGHTY KING"
The words of the song are as follows:
Come, Thou almighty King, Help us Thy Name to sing, help us to praise!
Father all glorious, o’er all victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of Days!
Jesus, our Lord, arise, Scatter our enemies, and make them fall;
Let Thine almighty aid our sure defense be made,
Souls on Thee be stayed; Lord, hear our call.
Come, Thou incarnate Word, Gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend!
Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success,
Spirit of holiness, on us descend!
Come, holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour.
Thou Who almighty art, now rule in every heart,
And ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power!
To Thee, great One in Three, Eternal praises be, hence, evermore.
Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see, And to eternity love and adore!
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/t/ctak.htm
COMMENTS:
There is a Scripture that says something like this – if the trumpet gives an unclear sound, how will the people know what to do. The trumpet was used to sound the battle cry, it was used to call a “town meeting”. It was used announce specific times for the people. If the trumpeter gives the wrong tune, the people do the wrong thing. If the trumpeter gives a tune the people don’t clearly recognize, they won’t know what they are supposed to do. So, it appears with hymns, that at times the eschatology gets mixed up, or confusion between what has already happened with what is yet to come. Some of what we have just said may apply to this song.
"Come, Thou almighty King, Help us Thy Name to sing, help us to praise! Father all glorious, over all victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of Days!"
Is this the first advent or the second that is in view? Or some in-between appearing? He already came. He already is King. He tells us to yield to Him. If the writer (possibly Charles Wesley) means the second coming, where He WILL come in might power and will rule and reign, then that would surely mean that the first line of this verse is referring to the same event. If that is true, how does the second line relate at all, since that appears to be a request for here and now? And, if that is true, is it setting the stage/tone for the remaining verses? If the writer means something like –“come near” or “come alongside” or some such thing, it seems to me the Biblical principle (which is a Biblical promise) is - "draw near to God and HE WILL draw near to you". Are we reading too much into a simple song? – or, is it in fact just a bit confusing - what exactly are we saying (and meaning) when we sing these words ?
"Jesus, our Lord, arise, Scatter our enemies, and make them fall; Let Thine almighty aid our sure defense be made, Souls on Thee be stayed; Lord, hear our call."
We'll skip commenting on this verse for now.
"Come, Thou incarnate Word, Gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend! Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success, Spirit of holiness, on us descend!"
What “coming” does the writer have in view? It CANNOT be the first, as there was no sword associated with the first. The first two lines of this stanza seem to relate back to the previous stanza. Seems to be invoking God’s judgment on “our enemies”. (Perhaps we do not pray enough for the defeat of THE enemy in his endeavors.) How do the last two lines relate? It seems that the “blessing” of God’s people is linked to the sword of judgment being applied to the enemies, which has truth to it! “Give Thy Word success”? The writer has already defined “the Word”, as the Incarnate Word, so he means Jesus, not the Bible (or so it would seem). The prayer in this stanza is directed TO the Incarnate Word and then prays TO that Incarnate Word that He would give His Incarnate Word success – is that a grammatical conundrum? The last line of the stanza is another “kicker”. It is apparent that a “believer” is singing this hymn / making this prayer / requesting judgment of God on the enemies / etc. It cannot, therefore, be an unbeliever making these requests. Having established that, the Holy Spirit is GIVEN as a SEAL at salvation. If one is a believer, one has the Holy Spirit indwelling and He will NOT be taken away! So, why would a believer ask for God’s Spirit to descend on us? Good question, the Wesleys (and subsequent Methodists and Wesleyans) teach the “second blessing”. IF Wesley wrote this hymn, that may help to explain it a bit. This line of thinking continues in the next stanza.
"Come, holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour. Thou Who almighty art, now rule in every heart, And ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power!"
There is another “old hymn” that is sung – “The Comforter has come”. Well, which is it - has He already come? Or do we pray for Him to come? Or does He come and go? Line 2 – The Bible says that His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God – statement of fact. And the last line? Let God be true and every man a liar – God is faithful Who has promised – etc. God said “I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you”; God said “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, etc. God’s Spirit is given as a [permanent] seal of His PROMISE. In the OLD TESTAMENT dispensation, this writer could pray, like the psalmist, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me” – but in the NEW TESTAMENT, God gives, and promises to never take away. And if we live under the old covenant, then there should still be sacrifices because our sins are not yet taken away. And so on and so forth.
"To Thee, great One in Three, Eternal praises be, hence, evermore. Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see, And to eternity love and adore!" To this phrase we can only say - a hearty Amen!
The words of the song are as follows:
Come, Thou almighty King, Help us Thy Name to sing, help us to praise!
Father all glorious, o’er all victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of Days!
Jesus, our Lord, arise, Scatter our enemies, and make them fall;
Let Thine almighty aid our sure defense be made,
Souls on Thee be stayed; Lord, hear our call.
Come, Thou incarnate Word, Gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend!
Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success,
Spirit of holiness, on us descend!
Come, holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour.
Thou Who almighty art, now rule in every heart,
And ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power!
To Thee, great One in Three, Eternal praises be, hence, evermore.
Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see, And to eternity love and adore!
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/t/ctak.htm
COMMENTS:
There is a Scripture that says something like this – if the trumpet gives an unclear sound, how will the people know what to do. The trumpet was used to sound the battle cry, it was used to call a “town meeting”. It was used announce specific times for the people. If the trumpeter gives the wrong tune, the people do the wrong thing. If the trumpeter gives a tune the people don’t clearly recognize, they won’t know what they are supposed to do. So, it appears with hymns, that at times the eschatology gets mixed up, or confusion between what has already happened with what is yet to come. Some of what we have just said may apply to this song.
"Come, Thou almighty King, Help us Thy Name to sing, help us to praise! Father all glorious, over all victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of Days!"
Is this the first advent or the second that is in view? Or some in-between appearing? He already came. He already is King. He tells us to yield to Him. If the writer (possibly Charles Wesley) means the second coming, where He WILL come in might power and will rule and reign, then that would surely mean that the first line of this verse is referring to the same event. If that is true, how does the second line relate at all, since that appears to be a request for here and now? And, if that is true, is it setting the stage/tone for the remaining verses? If the writer means something like –“come near” or “come alongside” or some such thing, it seems to me the Biblical principle (which is a Biblical promise) is - "draw near to God and HE WILL draw near to you". Are we reading too much into a simple song? – or, is it in fact just a bit confusing - what exactly are we saying (and meaning) when we sing these words ?
"Jesus, our Lord, arise, Scatter our enemies, and make them fall; Let Thine almighty aid our sure defense be made, Souls on Thee be stayed; Lord, hear our call."
We'll skip commenting on this verse for now.
"Come, Thou incarnate Word, Gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend! Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success, Spirit of holiness, on us descend!"
What “coming” does the writer have in view? It CANNOT be the first, as there was no sword associated with the first. The first two lines of this stanza seem to relate back to the previous stanza. Seems to be invoking God’s judgment on “our enemies”. (Perhaps we do not pray enough for the defeat of THE enemy in his endeavors.) How do the last two lines relate? It seems that the “blessing” of God’s people is linked to the sword of judgment being applied to the enemies, which has truth to it! “Give Thy Word success”? The writer has already defined “the Word”, as the Incarnate Word, so he means Jesus, not the Bible (or so it would seem). The prayer in this stanza is directed TO the Incarnate Word and then prays TO that Incarnate Word that He would give His Incarnate Word success – is that a grammatical conundrum? The last line of the stanza is another “kicker”. It is apparent that a “believer” is singing this hymn / making this prayer / requesting judgment of God on the enemies / etc. It cannot, therefore, be an unbeliever making these requests. Having established that, the Holy Spirit is GIVEN as a SEAL at salvation. If one is a believer, one has the Holy Spirit indwelling and He will NOT be taken away! So, why would a believer ask for God’s Spirit to descend on us? Good question, the Wesleys (and subsequent Methodists and Wesleyans) teach the “second blessing”. IF Wesley wrote this hymn, that may help to explain it a bit. This line of thinking continues in the next stanza.
"Come, holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour. Thou Who almighty art, now rule in every heart, And ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power!"
There is another “old hymn” that is sung – “The Comforter has come”. Well, which is it - has He already come? Or do we pray for Him to come? Or does He come and go? Line 2 – The Bible says that His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God – statement of fact. And the last line? Let God be true and every man a liar – God is faithful Who has promised – etc. God said “I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you”; God said “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, etc. God’s Spirit is given as a [permanent] seal of His PROMISE. In the OLD TESTAMENT dispensation, this writer could pray, like the psalmist, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me” – but in the NEW TESTAMENT, God gives, and promises to never take away. And if we live under the old covenant, then there should still be sacrifices because our sins are not yet taken away. And so on and so forth.
"To Thee, great One in Three, Eternal praises be, hence, evermore. Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see, And to eternity love and adore!" To this phrase we can only say - a hearty Amen!