O Come All Ye Faithful

Bethel Music sings this eighteenth-century Latin hymn's English translation close to its full traditional form, opening with the same repeated invitation every version carries: "O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem."

"Sing choirs of angels, sing in exaltation, sing all ye citizens of Heaven above, glory to God, glory in the highest" widens the invitation from the human congregation to the whole of heaven, the same move the hymn has always made in its second verse.

"Yea, Lord we greet Thee, born this happy morning, Jesus to Thee be all glory given, Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing" compresses John's Gospel opening into a single line, the theological anchor nearly every arrangement of this carol reaches for by its final verse.

The repeated chorus, "O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord," carries most of the song's weight, closing out with it doubled at the very end rather than moving to a new verse.