Hymn Guide: Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending
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“Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” is Charles Wesley‘s great hymn on the second coming of Christ, and one of the most majestic congregational songs in the entire repertoire. Sung especially during Advent, the hymn reflects, with deep emotion, the experience of our already/not-yet state as we wait between the first and second comings of our Lord.
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The tune, titled HELMSLEY, is attributed to Thomas Oliver, a Methodist preacher and editor, who heard it in passing and transcribed the melody. The original form was more elaborate and challenging to sing, but Ralph Vaughan Williams adapted it into the glorious version now used by congregations all over the world. Its expansive movement across the scale, its swelling repetitions, and its sturdy conclusion combine to create a transporting experience of worship and awe.
Verse by Verse
The hymn is not a free composition by Wesley, but rather a substantial edit of an earlier text by Moravian minister John Cennick.
Verse 1
Lo, he comes with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain
Thousand thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
God appears, on earth to reign.
Textually, this hymn is a poetic expansion on a single verse from Revelation:
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
Revelation 1:7
The first verse picks up on the author’s exclamation and the descent of Jesus with the clouds. The second verse explores the wailing of those who pierced him. The third verse considers how the redeemed, by contrast, will exult in his scars. And the fourth verse repeats the Yes and the Amen, with a prayer that Jesus would return.
Some modern versions of the hymn, including the Hymnal 1982, alter this verse by modifying the second line: “once for favored sinners slain.” This seems to reflect a theological tension around the question of limited atonement: was Jesus crucified for all, or specifically for the favored elect? It is perhaps ironic that such editors should find the Wesleys to be too Calvinistic on this point.
But whatever theological perspective one holds, changing this line does obscure the logic of the rest of the hymn. The second verse deals especially with the grief that all sinners will experience in seeing this returning Christ, while the third verse also considers the joy of those “favored sinners” who have been ransomed by his death.
Verse 2
Every eye shall now behold him
Robed in dreadful majesty
Those who set at nought and sold him
Pierced and nailed him to the tree
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing
Shall the true Messiah see.
The second verse brings out the marked contrast between the crucified Christ and the dread majesty of the returning sovereign Lord. All who see this shall deeply wail, for in this moment we will recognize how deeply wrong we were in our sin, and how grievous our decision thereby to crucify the Lord of glory. Note that this second verse concerns not just a subset of people but “every eye.” For we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Verse 3
Those dear tokens of his passion
Still his dazzling body bears
Cause of endless exultation
To his ransomed worshippers:
With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars!
The third verse narrows from the universal sight of all sinful mankind to the perspective of those “favored sinners” ransomed by Christ, who repent of their sin and believe in him. For these Christians, the body of Christ is transfigured. His scars, those “tokens of his passion,” are now not only a reminder of our sin, but also a “cause of endless exultation.” These are “glorious scars” because they are the sign of his redeeming work. We gaze with rapture because Christ has ransomed us.
Some have asked how we know that Jesus’ scars are still visible on his resurrection body. Three Biblical texts answer this question. First, in Luke, Jesus appears to the disciples and tells them to look at his hands and his feet. He does not explicitly reference the scars, but why else would he direct them to his hands and feet? (Luke 24:39-40). Second, in John, Jesus explicitly invites Thomas to touch his scars (John 20:27). Third, the book of Revelation refers to Christ “as a lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6).
Verse 4
Yea, amen! Let all adore thee,
High on thine eternal throne
Saviour, take the power and glory
Claim the kingdom for thine own:
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly!
Everlasting God, come down!
The final verse is a prayer, calling on all to adore the Savior and urging Christ to come quickly. This mirrors Christ’s own promise at the end of Revelation, “Surely I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20).
While the whole hymn fits the general theme of the second coming, the last verse makes it a perfect fit for the season of Advent. Why? Because it charts the emotional contours of our current condition, between the first and second coming of Christ. We are grateful that Christ has come to save us, but now long for that salvation to take its full effect. We long for sin to be fully uprooted, and for death, the final enemy, to be destroyed. In this already, but not yet, we wait with hope for the final consummation of all things under our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Revelation 22:20
On Video
The first video is from Trinity College, Cambridge, with a boys’ choir, organ, and brass. Note the wonderful descant from the boys on the final verse. The second video is a contemporary solo guitar rendition from Redeemer Anglican Church in Santa Cruz, CA. It is pretty tricky to translate a classic hymn like this to modern guitar, but music director Nate Gentilin did a great job here.
Image: Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo by Donatas Dabravolskas, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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