Come, ye faithful, raise the strain is an old song, written by John of Damascus. A man who delightfully became serious about faith in his middle age. See…there’s hope for all to realize the truth of who God is! Rather cool eh? 🙂 This is a lovely song showing the joy we find in Christ’s work and resurrection.
Lyrics
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness;
God hath brought forth Israel
Into joy from sadness;
Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot
Through the Red Sea waters.
’Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ has burst His prison,
And from three days’ sleep in death
As a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From His light, to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
Now the queen of seasons, bright
With the day of splendor,
With the royal feast of feasts,
Comes its joy to render;
Comes to glad Jerusalem,
Who with true affection
Welcomes in unwearied strains
Jesus’ resurrection.
Neither might the gates of death,
Nor the tomb’s dark portal,
Nor the watchers, nor the seal
Hold Thee as a mortal;
But today amidst the twelve
Thou didst stand, bestowing
That Thy peace which evermore
Passeth human knowing.
Alleluia!
now we cry
To our King immortal,
Who, triumphant, burst the bars
Of the tomb’s dark portal;Alleluia!
with the Son,
God the Father praising,Alleluia!
yet again
To the Spirit raising.
Author and History
John of Damascus was born John Monsur, a member of an Arab Christian family living in Damascus. He became embroiled in a conflict over the use of icons within the orthodox church. In the end his thought process won out, so icons are used within the Orthodox church. He not only dealt with icons, but a”codified the practices of Byzantine chant, and wrote about science, philosophy, and theology“. (source)
He lived a life of wealth and power until his 40’s when he gave away his wealth and power and retreated to a monastry. Most of the songs he made centred around the Incarnation.
Learning from this hymn
Can you see the history of this hymn? The walk through the Old Testament and then the joy of Christ’s death and resurrection. The sheer joy of Christ the Immortal king. The joy of it! Out of such extreme sadness of captivity to this unmitigated joy.
But Jesus, he beat death! And not only that, the 12 he taught, they spread the news. They taught his message, and so Christ’s message of peace was bestowed upon humankind.
