O Come All Ye Faithful (Adore Him)

Selah's reading keeps the eighteenth-century Latin hymn's English translation intact through its full three verses, but adds a repeated chant between them that isn't part of the original text: "we adore Him, adore Him, adore Him, Christ the Lord." The command from the chorus gets echoed back as a response.

"Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, sing all ye citizens of heaven above" widens the invitation from the human congregation to the whole of heaven, the same move the hymn has always made.

The third verse states plainly what the whole carol has been building toward: "Word of the Father now in flesh appearing" — John's Gospel compressed into a single line. That same Gospel's claim that the Word became flesh and dwelt among humanity, and the angels' own announcement of glory to God in the highest, both sit behind a carol whose repeated command has needed no updating in nearly three centuries of being sung.