We conclude the Christian Church Year this Sunday with the Festival of Christ the King. Our Hymn of the Day is “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending.” For our devotion we’ll hear the verses of the hymn interspersed with the words of Jesus in Matthew 25 and Revelation 1 speaking about him coming with the clouds descending.
Verse one: Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for ev’ry sinner slain; thousand thousand saints attending swell the triumph of his train: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Christ reveals his endless reign.
“Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father―to him be the glory and the power forever. Amen” (Revelation 1:4-6).
Verse two: Ev’ry eye shall now behold him robed in glorious majesty; those who set at naught and sold him, pierced and nailed him to the tree, deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing, shall their true Messiah see.
“Look, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. And all the nations of the earth will mourn because of him. Yes. Amen” (Revelation 1:7).
Verse three: Those dear tokens of his passion still his dazzling body bears, cause of endless exultation to his ransomed worshipers. With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture, gaze we on those glorious scars!
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ … Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:31-34, 41).
Verse four: Yea, amen, let all adore thee high on thine eternal throne; Savior, take the pow’r and glory, claim the kingdom as thine own. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Thou shalt reign, and thou alone!
“’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, the one who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).