Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is my favorite Advent/Christmas hymn. In fact, thanks to Charles Wesley's insightful and meaningful words, this may be simply one of our best English-language worship songs, period. Wesley wrote his original version in 1739, but he had some help along the way. For example, "Hark the herald angels sing" was originally "Hark, how all the welkin rings." (Thanks to George Whitefield for that significant alteration in 1753.)
Charles Wesley |
The tune by Mendelssohn is wonderful, but it is Wesley's profound theology of the incarnation that makes this hymn so rich and enduring. The reference to angels makes us think of the scene in the shepherds' fields from Luke 2:8-14. But Wesley's description of the incarnation--that is, how God became a human being--seems to borrow more from John 1:1-14. Stanza three contains my favorite phrase, which is straight from John 1:4: "Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings." The idea that God became one of us is by itself too wonderful to comprehend. But the truth that this was done for our benefit, so that death itself could be defeated, is almost more than I can handle. A baby born so that we could be re-born: "born that we may no more may die." I can't do anything but sing when confronted with this profound realization. This hymn provides the best way I know of to do just that.
Here's one of the best performances ever:
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