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Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise
Jacob, the ancient patriarch, took his family into Egypt where they fell into wickedness and darkness and remained for centuries. The Almighty promised them a deliverer, and Moses came, gathered them up and led them back to their promised land.
But again, centuries passed and they rejected the God of their father Jacob. About 721 B.C. the nation of Assyria swept down from the north and destroyed the northern kingdom. The Ten Tribes of Israel were led away and eventually lost. They lost their land and eventually, even lost their heritage in Israel.
The Kingdom of Judah continued, but eventually, they too were destroyed and led away captive by Babylon. A remnant of the Jews returned under Cyrus the Persian and they would become the nation of the Jews to whom the Savior came. But then, in 70 A.D., the Roman legions came in and with cruel malice destroyed and scattered Jacob’s descendants again.
Where is the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob today? They are scattered over all the face of the earth and lost—lost to their identity, lost to the ancient covenants of their fathers, and lost to that sweet redeeming association they once had with their God. They are in darkness and misery.
But, they will return. The Lord has promised that He will set His hand the second time and recover the dispersed of Jacob’s family. It mattered a great deal that He reclaim them from Egypt the first time and it matters just as much now that He will reclaim them again from spiritual Babylon. But when? And how? The details we do not know. In the meantime, Jacob’s sons and daughters raise their cries unto the heavens for relief.
Early on in the 19th century, one of those prayers became a profound poetic plea set to music. It reads:
Come, thou glorious day of promise; Come and spread thy cheerful ray, When the scattered sheep of Israel Shall no longer go astray, When hosannas, When hosannas With united voice they’ll cry. Lord, how long wilt thou be angry? Shall thy wrath forever burn? Rise, redeem thine ancient people; Their transgressions from them turn. King of Israel, King of Israel, Come and set thy people free. Oh, that soon thou wouldst to Jacob Thy enliv’ning Spirit send! Of their unbelief and misery Make, O Lord, a speedy end. Lord, Messiah! Lord, Messiah! Prince of Peace o’er Israel reign. Text: From Pratt’s Collection, ca. 1830, alt. Music: A. C. Smyth, 1840–1909
It is a telling irony that this deep yearning for the Lord’s promises to be fulfilled was written by a Jew and just as we do not know when they will come, we do not who that Jew was. His identity has been lost just as they have lost theirs.
Sources:
https://hymnary.org/text/come_thou_glorious_day_of_promise
