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about
With "Christ Incarnate, Word Made Flesh" we sought to write a song that used some of the familiar imagery and phrases of the Advent season to magnify Jesus as our Eternal King: not some earthly prince waiting for the day the tides turn in his favor, but the presently-reigning King who has occupied the throne since before He laid the earth's foundations and who will do so forevermore. When we sing this song, we act as heralds ("behold, see Him..."), calling ourselves and one another to look to Christ, the King who saves.
With the song's first verse, Scripture passages like Colossians 1:15-18 & John 1:1-3--which says that the universe was in fact made by & through Jesus--informed this exalting of Christ as the Omnipotent King of Creation. In the second verse, the aim was to display His uniqueness as one born in lowly circumstances who nonetheless accepts the royal gifts and worship of earthly kings. Here we see Christ as the Humble King in Creation. In the final verse, Jesus is pictured in eternity future: still reigning in glory as the one who enables His children to persevere to spend that eternity in fellowship with Him. Thus, He is the Eternal King over a New Creation.
All these verses were designed to build to the climax of the chorus, which "zooms in" to Bethlehem on the night of Jesus' birth. My two favorite parts of the song bookend the chorus. The first line, "See the skies proclaim His glory" is meant to draw out a connection between two verses of Scripture. In Psalm 19:1, David sings, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork." While this beautiful & deep Scripture is of course eternally true, it was true in a unique way on the night of Jesus' birth when, as Matthew 2:13-14 says, the skies were filled with "a multitude of the heavenly host" singing the glory of God!
Then as the chorus moves along, we get to join those angels in singing to the One who receives this glory: Christ Incarnate, Word Made Flesh. We then get an imaginative picture of the things of Earth ("winds & stars") wanting to move closer to the physical presence of this King, and we are reminded that His coming was both prophesied and part of the definite plan of God to defeat death, redeeming what we corrupted through sin.
Then the last two lines of the chorus complete the bookends. At the first breath of Jesus, He is already King, and He reigns with the same might and majesty whether from a throne room or a manger. Behold your King!
lyrics
Verse 1:
Behold your King
Now hovering o'er the deep (Genesis 1:2)
From vale to peak, His Word creates all things (Colossians 1:16)
This Child commanded winds (Matthew 8:26)
Told oceans where to end from the beginning (Job 38:8-11)
Chorus:
See the skies proclaim His glory (Psalm 19:1, Luke 2:13-14)
Christ incarnate, Word made flesh (John 1:14)
Winds and stars draw near rejoicing (Matthew 2:9-10)
He is here just as He said (Ezekiel 37:27)
Verse 2:
Behold your King
In humble scenery (Luke 2:1-7)
Kings come to see with gifts for royalty (Matthew 2:1-11)
Now come with man to dwell
He's here, Emmanuel! Let all the earth sing (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23)
Chorus:
See the skies proclaim His glory (Psalm 19:1, Luke 2:13-14)
Christ incarnate, Word made flesh (John 1:14)
Winds and stars draw near rejoicing (Matthew 2:9-10)
He is here just as He said (Micah 5:2)
Interlude:
Born this night
Is the son of the most high (Luke 1:32-33)
Verse 3:
Behold your King
Enthroned eternally (Revelation 7:9-10)
He holds and keeps all those for whom He bleeds (John 10:28-29)
Despite the stain of sin
His sons will reach the end (Hebrews 10:14)
To God be glory
Chorus:
See the skies proclaim His glory (Psalm 19:1, Luke 2:13-14)
Christ incarnate, Word made flesh (John 1:14)
Winds and stars draw near rejoicing (Matthew 2:9-10)
He is here just as He said (Ezekiel 37:27)
He has come by God's ordaining (Acts 2:23)
To bring victory over death (Hebrews 2:14-15)
See the Child from manger reigning
Born the King at His first breath
Born the King at His first breath (Isaiah 9:6-7)
credits
released December 14, 2016
Written by Chase Hairston and Sow and Tether
Produced and Engineered by Sow and Tether
Mixed and Mastered by Alan Goodwin
Sow and Tether, birthed from Redeemer Baptist Church in Olive Branch, Mississippi, is dedicated to sharing and exemplifying
the gospel of Jesus. With a repertoire of songs that display the full range of emotion, and with personalities that reflect Christ, our desire is to use our talents and devotion to the Word to be the continuation of the incarnation, to make disciples that make disciples...more
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