Articles
The Lord is My Light
This is the second installment of our series on advent hymns, which are hymns about waiting for the coming of Christ. Last Sunday, we considered the quintessential advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” This week, we will consider “The Lord is My Light,” by C.E. Couchman. It is number 6 in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. Here are the lyrics:
1. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
And He is my strength, the defense of my life.
Whom shall I fear?
Have mercy, O Lord, and answer my cry.
Turn not away.
For You are my help, the God of salvation.
Turn not away.
Refrain:
Wait, wait, O wait on the Lord.
Be strong and take courage!
Wait on the Lord.
Wait, wait, O wait on the Lord.
Be strong and take courage!
Yes, wait on the Lord.
2. O Lord, lead me now in Your path straight and even.
Teach me Your way.
I will not despair; Your goodness sustains me.
Teach me Your way.
To dwell in His house all the days of my life:
This shall I seek.
And O to behold the Lord in His beauty!
This shall I seek. Refrain
We noted last week that advent hymns share several themes with the psalms, especially the strong desire for the Lord’s coming. “The Lord is My Light” is no different; it is actually an adaptation of Psalm 27. The hymn’s lyrics come from verses 1, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14 of Psalm 27.
There are basically three kinds of advent hymn: those that cry out for the Lord’s coming, those that admonish us to live righteously as we wait, and those that revel in the great glory which the Lord will reveal in His coming. “The Lord is My Light” is of the second variety. Though some of the hymn is addressed to the Lord, overall it exhorts us. When we sing it, we encourage each other, “Be strong and take courage! Wait on the Lord.”
The first verse exhorts us to place our complete trust in the Lord. “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Though we do not see the Lord, we must see everything by Him, as one sees things by the light of the sun. “And He is my strength, the defense of my life.” Though outwardly we may appear to be perishing, we must trust by faith that the Lord will save us and preserve us as He has promised. “Whom shall I fear?” The Lord is for us; who can be against us?
The second verse encourages us to seek the way of the Lord. “O Lord, lead me now in Your path straight and even.” If we desire the Lord’s return and hope to live with Him eternally, then why wouldn’t we spend all of our time here studying His manners? Thanks be to God that though we are absent from the Lord, He has not left us to flounder in our own ways. Instead, He guides us into His way, the way that leads to eternal life—if we will follow. Thus we must say, “Teach me Your way.”
“I will not despair; Your goodness sustains me.” This life can be severely discouraging. That’s why we desire the heavenly country which God has promised. A great deal of our work in this life consists of keeping up our hope as we wait on the Lord. Let us know that God’s goodness redeems our suffering so that it actually works for our good (Rom 8.28-30).
“To dwell in His house all the days of my life: this shall I seek. And O to behold the Lord in His beauty!” This is the whole ball of wax. Everything that we do here is aimed at seeing the Lord face to face (what we call the “beatific vision”). While we await that day, let us attune our desires to seek the beatific vision. The Adversary wants our imaginations to dwell on the things of the world—“the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.” The Christian life invites us to look beyond these things to eternal life with the Father, His angels, and His saints.
Let us conduct our lives as people who hope to see the Lord’s coming.
