recently used an iTunes gift certificate (thanks to my sister for my birthday present) to purchase a recently released collection of music for Advent. It’s a great album and contains a wonderful performance of what might now be my favorite Advent hymn (but I’ll write on that in a few weeks).

Immediately following an instrumental setting of “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light” (the quartet of oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon was a nice choice), the strings come in with the famous first notes of “And the Glory of the Lord” from Handel’s Messiah. This, in and of itself, is not a surprising thing. It is not an odd thing to hear this piece sung during Advent programs. However, this time the stirring words that first appear in the basses rang clearer than I think I’ve ever experienced them before. Most of us know this much of the text:

And the glory, the glory of the Lord
Shall be reveal-ed
And all flesh shall see it together

But we miss the crux of the song. How do we know that we will see the glory of the Lord?

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it!

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. In Advent, we don’t only celebrate that Christ came but also that his coming represents the fulfillment of what the Lord had spoken. The promises that the Lord makes are good and true and will come to fruition. What he has said is trustworthy. He came the first time, just as he said, and he will come again, just as he said.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it!