Angels From the Realms of Glory
There are so many good things about this Christmas hymn. Very few Christmas carols speak of the crossroads between mercy and justice, and the need for repentance. I also appreciate the final verses that paint a scene of glory and worship at the end of time.
Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light:Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
Ye have seen His natal star.Saints, before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear;
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear.Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.Though an Infant now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father’s throne,
Gather all the nations to Him;
Every knee shall then bow down:All creation, join in praising
God, the Father, Spirit, Son,
Evermore your voices raising
To th’eternal Three in One.Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.
Joy to the World
One of my favorite parts of this carol is the third verse. As I think about how much has been impacted by the curse in Genesis 3, and then to realize that God will someday reverse these things. He will show blessings where there previously had been effects of the curse. Even so come, Lord Jesus!
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
As you can see below, most of us don’t sing a few of the verses to this Christmas carol. The song is loaded with theology as well, and I have been greatly blessed by singing this song in recent years.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
My favorite version of the song can be seen/heard here.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
One of my favorite Christmas carols that we sing, is one of the oldest that the Christian church has. Some even date it to the 12th century. I love the different descriptions of Jesus Christ as well as the use of allusions from the Old Testament. Look for how each stanza powerfully and uniquely shares the gospel message.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse,
free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
CHORUS: Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
I have enjoyed listening to this version of the song this year (even if it doesn’t have all the stanzas of the song).
The First Noel
This is a great English carol. I love the picture it paints of the Nativity. Sometimes, there is an artistic literary rendering of the scenes, but each stanza has a way of dramatically portraying the birth of Christ. Several of the stanzas, I have not been familiar with. I love the picture of the lowly nature of Christ’s surroundings, as well as the humble offerings of the Wise Men.
The first Noel the angel did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields where they lay tending their sheep,
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the east, beyond them far;
And to the earth it gave great light,
And so it continued both day and night.And by the light of that same star
Three Wise Men came from country far;
To seek for a King was their intent,
And to follow the star wherever it went.This star drew nigh to the northwest,
Over Bethlehem it took its rest;
And there it did both stop and stay,
Right over the place where Jesus lay.Then did they know assuredly
Within that house the King did lie;
One entered it them for to see,
And found the Babe in poverty.Then entered in those Wise Men three,
Full reverently upon the knee,
And offered there, in His presence,
Their gold and myrrh and frankincense.Between an ox stall and an ass,
This Child truly there He was;
For want of clothing they did Him lay
All in a manger, among the hay.Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made Heaven and earth of naught,
And with His blood mankind hath bought.Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is the King of Israel.
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to walk through some great songs we sing at Christmas.
This poem was written by Longfellow during the civil war. As you can read here, a few of the verses deal with the Civil War, and have been often omitted in most hymnals.
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
A great version of this song was done a few years back by Casting Crowns. The tune is quite different. I think it helped me soak in the lyrics even more. Listen to the song.
Christmas Carols
Over the last several years, I have grown in my appreciation of Christmas carols. I have always enjoyed all kinds of Christmas music, but there is something rich about the Christmas carols. Recently, I realized how often we don’t take in the full meaning of these songs. I tried to figure out why that is the case, and here is what I came up with…
- We are SO familiar with the tunes, that we breeze through the words on auto-pilot.
- We often are UNfamiliar with several of the verses of each carol. Often, they are telling a story, and we skip the middle chapters (verses) of the story.
- Often, the words are so dense (and sometimes there are words we don’t use that often) that the songs become difficult to sing, especially if we are singing unfamiliar verses.
So, over the next few days before Christmas, with the help of my friends at nethymnal.org I wanted to take some time revisiting these treasures of the Christian faith.
