"Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure"

Last week, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 23 January.  The hymn was "Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure," and I noticed in particular the first line:  "Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal."  It may allude to the last part of Psalm 16:11:  "at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

"Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure"

A couple years ago, I wrote a post about some musical features in "Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure," but when this hymn was featured on Worship Anew a couple weeks ago, I found a couple I'd missed.

The first line of the fourth verse is "Jesus has come as the King of all glory!" sung to this phrase from the tune "Jesus ist kommen, Grund ewiger Freude":

"All" is sung with a melisma (F Eb), giving something of a sense of entirety.

The same feature is present at the end of the fourth verse, where "all" in the line "Jesus has come! He, the King of all glory!" is sung with a melisma (F G) in this phrase:

LSB #533 "Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Luke 2:68-79, 1 John 1:1-2, Isaiah 12

Luke 2 ends at verse 52.  I think the intended citation is Luke 1:68-79:  "68 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.  76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.'"

1 John 1:1-2:  "1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us"

Isaiah 12:  "1 You will say in that day:  'I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

"2 'Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.'

"3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  4 And you will say in that day:  'Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

"5 'Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.  6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.'"

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While it's not one of the citations listed in the hymnal, Isaiah 61:1 (which Jesus quotes in Luke 4) seems to be the primary source:  "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."  The resemblance is seen most clearly in the lines "Jesus has come! Now see bonds rent asunder! / Fetters of death now dissolve, disappear" in the second verse and "Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress, / Brings forth the pris'ners triumphant, unharmed" in the third verse.  The same sort of idea is present in Luke 2:71, 74 and Isaiah 12:2, but the imagery in the hymn matches that in Isaiah 61.  Even "bring[ing] pleasure eternal" in the first verse seems to be the hymn's rendering of "bring[ing] good news to the poor."

1 John 1:1-2 seems to appear in the line "God-head, humanity, union supernal" in the first verse and in the repeated "Jesus has come" that begins and ends each verse.

"Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End" in the first verse comes from Revelation 22:13:  "'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'"  And "Take the crown He has for you!" in the fourth verse refers to Revelation 2:10:  "'Do not fear what you are about to suffer.  Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.  Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.'"

"Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure"

Earlier this year, one of the hymns I sang in church was "Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure," sung to the tune "Jesus ist kommen, Grund ewiger Freude" (German: "Jesus has come, reason for eternal joy").  I noticed a few connections between the text and the tune.

Here's the first musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal."  There are melismas for both "pleasure" (G Ab G) and "eternal" (F Eb Bb Bb), and since these words are stretched out, there's a musical sense of that "eternal" nature.  This same text is the last line of the first verse, and while the melody is different, these words are again sung with melismas.

In the second verse, the text here is "Jesus has come! Now see bonds rent asunder!"  In this verse, "rent" (Ab G) and "asunder" (F Eb Bb Bb) are sung with melismas.  That these words are broken up into more syllables gives a musical sense of their meaning.

There's a similar feature in the third musical phrase (which is the same as the first musical phrase).  In the second verse, "burst" in the line "See Him burst through with a voice as of thunder" is sung with a melisma (Eb F), and in the third verse, "breaks" in the line "Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress" is sung with the same melisma.  Again, because the words are broken up into more syllables, there's a musical sense of their meaning.