There Will Come A King: Preparing Our Hearts for Christ's Coming

Advent, prophesy, and Indie acoustic, oh my!

Ever since I started this website I've been excited to write a post like this. I love music and good music with good lyrics has been a huge part of my faith journey. There is so much good and beautiful music out there and it can often be found in unexpected places. The song we are going to look at today is one of my favorites and I think is very appropriate to the season of Advent.

The song we will be looking at is called Soldier, Poet, King by the Oh Hellos. You can find the lyrics here and listen to it here. This song is one of my favorites because of its fun melody and deeply Scriptural lyrics. The song talks about the coming of a soldier, a poet, and a king and all are meant to be references to Jesus. This song is a good reflection piece for Advent because the lyrics suggest that the person they are speaking about is coming, but is not yet here. There is no doubt that He will be victorious when He comes. The Lord is coming again and He will complete the victory He began the first time.

Let's take a look at the first verse, the soldier.

"There will come a soldier who carries a mighty sword. He will tear your city down." - The Oh Hellos

The Bible speaks in many places of God and His mighty sword. Isaiah prophesies about it at the beginning of chapter 27. St. Paul likens the Word of God to a sharp sword in Ephesians 6:17 and Hebrews 4:12. The same image is seen in Revelation 1:16 and 19:15 where the King of kings is wielding a great sword from his mouth. The psalms constantly call on God to come down and crush the psalmist's enemies. There is one coming who will tear down the gates of the enemy with his mighty sword, His Word, which leads us to the next verse, the poet.

"There will come a poet, whose weapon is his word. He will slay you with his tongue." - The Oh Hellos

Here we see how the Word of God is the sword that will destroy the enemy. Jesus is the Word that is effective and will not return to the Father void (see Isaiah 55:11). The Word of God is coming among us to slay sin and death and He will accomplish His purpose. How you ask?

"There will come a ruler whose brow is laid in thorn. Smeared with oil like David's boy."- The Oh Hellos

A king with a crown of thorns, anointed like King David. This is the song's most overt reference to the Messiah. It links the Old Testament expectations for the Messiah (which means 'anointed one' in Hebrew) with the Jesus' crucifixion and crown of thorns. Jesus is indeed the Word of God, the king who is coming to destroy sin and death by the power of His cross.

I know, that all sounds like Lent and Easter (and this would definitely be a great piece to reflect on then too!) But, what really comes through in this song is the hope and expectation that we enter into in the season of Advent. Advent is, in a sense, a mini Lent so the two will share many themes. As people who live after Christ's first coming and before His second, we live in a perpetual Advent, much like ancient Israel, expect that we know He came before and is coming again. He kept the promise once and will keep it again. In fact, He comes every day in the Eucharist at Mass where both His Incarnation and His Passion, death, and resurrection are made present. We get to experience the whole story at every Mass and one day, will rejoice when He comes again.

This song lays very much like a taunt against the powers of sin and death. It feels kind of like saying, "Guess what, someone bigger than you is coming and he is going to defeat you." Just like any self-respecting rebel who taunts the tyrant king in your favorite story. (You know, the whole, "You won't get away with this" bit.) We can say the same because we know how the story ends. Right now it may seem like sin and death have the upper hand, but we know that Christ has already defeated them and is coming once again to win the definitive victory. His second coming is one of the things the Church asks us to reflect upon during Advent and it often gets overlooked. This second coming is what we are all preparing every day of our lives for and what we look forward to. All of this preparation is for that big event. So dear friends, prepare your hearts anew for Christ's coming this Advent season through prayer and repentance so we can make straight the way of the Lord for when He is born again in our hearts this Christmas and when He comes again in glory. Lift up your heads and ready the way, for behold, your king is coming soon!