Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Some of the most enduring hymns contain a treasure-trove of scripture framing the whole. So it is with “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” It was written by Charles Wesley, with classical composer Felix Mendelssohn adding the tune. Charles, drawing from his rich reservoir of Bible knowledge, wrote this marvelous composite of scriptural truths concerning the birth of the Son of God. Who is He? What did it mean for the Son to become flesh? To what end did He come?

These truths are boldly sketched, dipped into the Word of God to paint the pages a colorful rendition of His advent. Let’s examine this hymn, then come and worship. 

Hark! the herald angels sing, 
“Glory to the newborn King: 
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, 
God and sinners reconciled!” 

These thoughts are drawn from Luke 2:8-14, when angels heralded to some shepherds in the field that “Christ the Lord” was born to them. He came not in a palace, but a stable. Not on sheets of linen, but a feeding trough. Not in a city of renown, but the insignificance of Bethlehem.

The Old Testament records prophecies of a coming “King” who will rule over all in righteousness (Psa. 45:6). That King had come at last. The world’s long-desired “peace on earth” will spring up from His kingdom, for all governments will rest on His capable shoulders (Isa. 9:6) of power and wisdom. 

The King will show “mercy mild” to all who receive Him as their Lord. “Mild” here is gentleness, for He will receive all without condemnation or severity (John 6:37), even as a shepherd joyfully finds a lost sheep and bears it back to the fold (Luke 15:6).

The “peace on earth” is a direct result of God and sinners reconciled” (Rom 5:10) through the blood of the cross (Col 1:20). At this point, the song is a promise of what will be, a song foretelling of the glory throughout the land that shall surely follow, covering the earth as the waters covers the sea (Hab 2:14). 

Joyful, all ye nations, rise, 
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic hosts proclaim, 
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!” 

The blessings of the coming King are not Israel’s alone, but for “all ye nations.” Thus included, we are “joyful.” We are to “join the triumph in the skies” where the hovering angels proclaimed the good news. The promised Messiah, called the “Christ” in Greek, will triumph over all the ruination in man and creation, and restore all things (Mat 17:11). God has “triumphed” over all the evil of the hearts of man and the wiles of the devil, who for thousands of years worked unsuccessfully to break the Jewish lineage to the Messiah. The Promised One has come. We need not look elsewhere for God’s help and sustenance.

We “join the triumph” by telling others the good news of Christ’s coming (Mark 16:15), of His death for our sins, His burial of three days, and His bodily resurrection (1 Cor 15:3-4). This very foundation of faith inserts all who believe into His conquering story. 

Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ,
The everlasting Lord, 
Late in time behold him come, 
Offspring of the Virgin’s womb: 

God has been surrounded by angels; “the highest heaven adored” His glory ever since their creation. “Holy, holy, holy,” they continue to cry (Rev 4:8). “Alleluia!” (Rev 19:1, 3) to Him who was, and is, and is to come (Rev 1:8).

“Christ, the everlasting Lord” has no beginning or end (Heb 7:3), being the same yesterday, today, and for ever (Heb 13:8). He endures from everlasting past to everlasting future (Psa 90:2). He arrived here “late in time;” yet at the right moment, He broke through to the world He created. He who always existed became something He never was before, an “offspring of the Virgin’s womb.” 

This virgin birth was prophesied in Isaiah (Isa 7:14). “Christ is born in Bethlehem” fulfills another prophecy, this one regarding His birthplace (Mic 5:2). Because He must be born in Bethlehem of Jewish parents, we cannot accept a Messiah from any other people group or any other place in the world. Neither English, nor Chinese, nor African. He must be born of a Jewish woman descended from King David (Psa 132:11). (That’s why the genealogies have their sacred place in the holy scriptures.) 

Jesus’ coming fulfilled these and many other prophecies in the Old Testament. Based on their fulfillment, we are confident of the prophecies regarding His final coming to set up His everlasting reign from Mt. Zion (Psa 50:2). 

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; 
Hail th’incarnate Deity, 
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell, 
Jesus, our Immanuel. 

This passage emphasizes Jesus dwelling in human form. The Son of God who as spirit literally was without dimensions because He filled all things, was confined to a tabernacle of human flesh (John 1:14). 

In that form, living among the Middle Eastern people as a Jew, He was “Immanuel,” which means “God with Us” (Mat 1:23). God has visited His people (Luke 7:16)! God has walked on the earth He created (John 1:10)! His interactions with His contemporaries reveal His multitudinous glories, which if studied, could fill the world with books (John 21:25). To see Jesus was to see the glory of the Father God (John 1:18), that God is love (1 John 4:16). 

In the movies, amazing beings could appear, oftentimes accompanied by flashes of light or dazzling special effects (noted in Hope in Times of Fear, by Timothy Keller). But His coming displayed no brilliance of shining star. He was bereft of glowing aura or mesmerizing color. He came to His own, and they did not recognize Him (John 1:11). He had no beauty that they should desire Him (Isa 53:2); He did not look like a God, but a fellow resident of the times, a robed Rabbi treading the dusty paths of Galilee (Mat 4:23). 

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! 
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings. 

Christ the incarnate one was “heaven-born” in the sense that it was planned in heaven, before the worlds were created, that He would come and die for us (Rev 13:8). His was a heaven-born mission, indeed. 

As His title, so His errand: He comes as a “Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6) to reconcile all sinners to God (Eph 2:16), to bring peace between two parties. But more than two; between us and our conscience; between us and our neighbor; even to reconcile all things in Himself (Col 1:20). 

He is called the “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal 4:2), of whom sinners could not approach without being destroyed by His searing light (Ex 33:20). But we are placed in Him (2 Cor 5:17), reconciled by His blood, and may run to the throne of grace for help in time of need (Heb 4:16). The only burning will be in our hearts of love for Him. 

His kingdom in the Old Testament is a kingdom of renewal, where the lame leap like a deer (Isa 35:6) and streams sparkle in the desert (Isa 35:6). “Light and life to all he brings,” dispelling darkness and death—literally, metaphorically, and spiritually. “Risen with healing in his wings,” (Mal 4:2) he brings light to sin-blinded eyes (John 9:25), then life with new bodies (1 Cor 15:50-54), shining (Dan 12:3) among recreated worlds (Rev 21:1). 

Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that we no more may die,
Born to raise us from the earth,
Born to give us second birth.

As His birth signaled a new way of living for the Son of God, so it is with us. With His death, burial, and bodily resurrection, we by faith receive the “second birth” and are joined with Him, and are seated with Him above. Born again in Him, we may pass directly into His presence at the breaking of the silver cord (Ecc 12:6). Then at the last trumpet, He will “raise us from the earth,” our new bodies erupting out of the grave, clothed with imperishable bodies (1 Cor 15:50-54), that “we no more may die.” Then sin and death are extinguished (1 Cor 15:54-56) by the Resurrection and the Life. 

The “herald angels sing” of this great news—of the High and Lofty One who stepped from His fiery chariot onto earth to crush its curse. When was the last time you were profoundly moved to sing for so great a salvation bestowed on you as an extravagantly free act of grace? We who are the recipients of so great a gift should join the angelic triumph song wafting from the skies.  Charles Wesley wrote over 6500 hymns in his lifetime. Songs like these are the fertile product of a heart and mind saturated with the Word of God, and lit on fire by love for the Savior. With the Word of life implanted in your own heart, how can you bring renewal to the world?