Prepare the way of the Lord!

On Sunday the choir sang a moving arrangement of text from Isaiah 40:1, 3-5 and 7:14 in a setting by Lloyd Larson (pub. 1993 by Providence Press under the title: A Voice Cries Out, "Prepare the Way of the Lord"). I would guess these verses to be some of the most commonly used for Advent anthems. It brought 2 streams of thought to mind.

1. How do we prepare the way for the Lord? In the Bible, we have examples like Isaiah who proclaimed the coming of the Messiah many years before the promise was fulfilled. He didn't know that at the time, of course; he was relaying the message God gave him. The other example that came to mind was John the Baptist. His proclamation was perhaps more desperate, and definitely more immediate as he knew that Christ, the Messiah, was on earth. So, back to my question. We prepare the way for the Lord by proclaiming that He has come, and that He will return and we must be ready for that day.


2. There are 3 musical settings of this text that pop into my head - probably more if I really stopped to think about it.

• The first is from Handel's Messiah - the tenor, assuming he does it well, boldly proclaims "...make straight in the desert (rest) a highway (rest) for our God. (chord, chord)."
• The second is the one I mentioned above by Larson. The part I find especially moving comes after a quiet section of "Comfort, comfort my people" when the choir builds on the phrase "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed!" - then moves right into "A voice cries out, 'Prepare the way of the Lord,'" etc.
• The third one, which I'd love to use at the beginning of a Christmas Eve service (maybe next year?!) is the version from Godspell. Wouldn't that be an exciting way to herald the birth of our Lord?