Hark! The Angels Sing… Why Wouldn’t We?

My favorite Christmas carol is Charles Wesley’s Hark! The Herald Angelsl Sing. It’s a carol rich with truth and powerful images of Christ’s glory as the Prince of Peace, and a moving declaration of His divine humility – “Mild He lays His glory by; Born that man no more may die.”

 First titled Hymn for Christmas Day, Wesley’s original lyrics for the opening couplet were “Hark how all the welkin rings…” I know, it was my question too. What is “welkin”? Welkin is olde English for heavens, or sky. The lyrics we know so well today were penned by Charles Wesley’s good friend, George Whitefield, renowned evangelist in the mid-eighteenth century. Whitefield made a few other minor revisions in the verses Wesley wrote, but only three of Wesley’s original five stanzas have remained in this classic hymn-carol sung today.

 As I read the forgotten stanzas of Wesley’s powerful carol, it seemed to me this is a lost jewel that needs to be returned to its rightful place in the old hymn setting.

While the language may feel a bit awkward to some, the truth expressed is powerful because it is the rest of the story Wesley wanted us to know, and why we celebrate Christmas. These stanzas remind us why the heavens burst forth in singing to announce our Savior’s birth.

 Christ came to restore us to the original image in which man was first created, marred by sin, and now possible in Christ. The “mystic union” describes that miraculous union by faith in which we become partakers of the divine nature in Christ. Jesus came as the second Adam from above to reinstate us through His love, and make what was dead alive in our inner man.

 So, let us acquaint ourselves with these forgotten stanzas that finish the story of this great Christmas hymn…

4. 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 Pow’r
Ruin’d Nature now restore
Now in Mystic Union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine. 

 5. Adam’s Likeness, LORD, efface
Stamp Thy Image in its place
Second Adam from above
Reinstate us in Thy Love
Let us Thee, tho’ lost, regain
Thee, the Life, the Inner Man
Oh! to all Thyself impart
Form’d in each believing heart

 Perhaps these stanzas will never be sung in your church, but it might be worth sharing them with your music leader and asking anyway. Either way, why not introduce them at your family Christmas gathering? Talk through the new and old stanzas so the meaning is clear. This is, after all, what Christmas is about, so let’s sing it at the top of our lungs to the Lord.

 Oh, and one more comment about singing as God’s people. I don’t know about you, but I find it easy to slip into thinking my singing is all between me and God. It can become nothing more than singing MY praises to God with little regard for the significance of connecting with those singing around me – the family of God.

 In Ephesian 5:19, Paul said, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” If Paul is right, then it seems clear our singing to the Lord also involves singing to one another – that our singing somehow connects with those around us who join as one voice in praise and worship. This is singing that not only communicates truth, but the joy of that truth each to the other.

 It might be as simple as catching the eye of those around us as if to say, “I agree with you. This is worthy of His praise!”, or “Do you hear what I hear? The host of heaven has joined us in singing our Savior’s praises!”

 I wonder if our corporate worship would be radically changed if we learned to break from our rigid rows and connect with one another as we sing. The same is true in your family gatherings. Sing and share the moment to one another, not just with one another. You might just hear the heavenly host delightfully declare, “Hark! The Herald His People Sing”!