Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

 

"But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah;
yet out of you shall One come forth from Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth have been from of old,  from ancient days, eternity."
(Micah 5:2)

The Light Of The World

(1750)

Francois Boucher

(1703-1770)

French painter

Museum of Fine Arts Lyon

Image courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

Comfort, comfort ye My people,

Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;

Comfort those who sit in darkness,

Mourning, 'neath their sorrow's load;

Speak ye to Jerusalem

Of the peace that waits for them;

Tell her that her sins I cover,

And her warfare now is over.

"The scepter or leadership shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh,
the Messiah, the Peaceful One comes, to Whom it belongs,
and to Him shall be the obedience of the people."
(Genesis 49:10)

For the herald's voice is crying

In the desert far and near,

Bidding all men to repentance,

Since the kingdom now is here.

O that warning cry obey!

Now prepare for God a way!

Let the valleys rise to meet Him,

And the hills bow down to greet Him.

"Every valley shall be lifted and filled up, and
every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the
crooked and uneven shall be made straight and level,
and the rough places a plain.
(Isaiah 40:4)

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,

Blotting out each dark misdeed;

All that well deserved His anger

He will no more see nor heed.

She has suffered many a day,

Now her griefs have passed away,

God will change her pining sadness

Into ever springing gladness.

"You have turned my mourning into dancing for me;
You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness."
(Psalm 30:11)

Make ye straight what long was crooked,

Make the rougher places plain;

Let your hearts be true and humble,

As befits His holy reign,

For the glory of the Lord

Now o'er the earth shall shed abroad,

And all flesh shall see the token

That His Word is never broken.

"Every word of God is tried and purified; He is a shield
to those who trust and take refuge in Him."
(Proverbs 30:50)

"In the beginning, before all time, was the Word, Christ,
and the Word was with God and the Word was God Himself."
(John 1:1)

"Comfort, Comfort, Ye My People"
(1671)
Johannes Gottfried Olearius
(1611-1684)
German Christian scholar, musician,
and horticulturalist.