Our Good Shepherd Band is giving away a free track today from their forthcoming Christmas album, Repeat the Sounding Joy. This is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” like you’ve never heard it. And I’m not just referring to the pizzazz-y arrangement. There’s actually a whole verse making its world debut here. Well, sort of.
Originally, “Hark!” had ten four line stanzas. Thanks to George Whitfield, who took the liberty of tweaking and republishing Wesley’s hymn (much to Wesley’s chagrin), most of us know “Hark!” in Whitfield’s revised, three-verse form. For their own rendition, the band harkened back to Wesley’s original and constructed a hybrid fourth verse from portions of his seventh through tenth stanzas. Here is that “new” verse…
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the life, the inner Man:
O! to all Thyself impart,
Form’d in each believing heart.
Download your free track today to hear this revitalized verse in context. And pre-order Repeat the Sounding Joy to get an immediate download of an additional preview track, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus." The full album is releasing 11.11.11. (TB)
