Getting Ready For The Week | Christmas With Compassion | Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Getting Ready For The Week
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Reading For Sunday | Luke 2:1-40
Getting Ready For the Week
This week, we will think about—and be guided to prayer by—the text of the familiar Christmas hymn “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Charles Wesley composed the text for this song in 1739. He did not intend for it to be quite as joyful and celebratory as we know it today. In its original form, the opening line was different, and the musical setting was slower and more ponderous.
Eventually, in 1753, the words were revised by George Whitefield, and the now-familiar, upbeat music was added by William Cummings in 1855—adapting it from a composition by the well-known composer Felix Mendelssohn.
Undoubtedly, this hymn has had an interesting life! (If you were a hymn, wouldn’t you be honored to have these incredible preachers, writers, and such a famous composer working on you?) It seems fitting that a song about angels singing in proclamation and worship would require a few edits!
Can you imagine what the shepherds must have experienced that night on a dark hillside outside of Bethlehem? Of all the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, this moment seems almost out of step—standing apart from the rest: a peasant virgin girl, a carpenter, a few visions along the way, encounters with angels, Magi arriving in Jerusalem looking for a king, dirty shepherds, and a smelly animal shelter. But the heavens lighting up with angels, singing worship to a newborn King—now that seems absolutely spectacular!
And what a joy it would have been to hear it! Have you ever wondered what angels sound like when they sing? Does it sound like the kind of music we would recognize? Was the song a cappella—or was there full orchestral accompaniment?
Using our “sanctified imagination,” let’s enter this great Christmas carol together and observe the joy, the conviction, and the power of a heavenly host singing worship to God, proclaiming the birth of the Messiah.
Eventually, in 1753, the words were revised by George Whitefield, and the now-familiar, upbeat music was added by William Cummings in 1855—adapting it from a composition by the well-known composer Felix Mendelssohn.
Undoubtedly, this hymn has had an interesting life! (If you were a hymn, wouldn’t you be honored to have these incredible preachers, writers, and such a famous composer working on you?) It seems fitting that a song about angels singing in proclamation and worship would require a few edits!
Can you imagine what the shepherds must have experienced that night on a dark hillside outside of Bethlehem? Of all the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, this moment seems almost out of step—standing apart from the rest: a peasant virgin girl, a carpenter, a few visions along the way, encounters with angels, Magi arriving in Jerusalem looking for a king, dirty shepherds, and a smelly animal shelter. But the heavens lighting up with angels, singing worship to a newborn King—now that seems absolutely spectacular!
And what a joy it would have been to hear it! Have you ever wondered what angels sound like when they sing? Does it sound like the kind of music we would recognize? Was the song a cappella—or was there full orchestral accompaniment?
Using our “sanctified imagination,” let’s enter this great Christmas carol together and observe the joy, the conviction, and the power of a heavenly host singing worship to God, proclaiming the birth of the Messiah.
Resources
Advent for Everyone - N. T. Wright, book
(Also available for Matthew’s Gospel and the Apostles Writings)
Waiting for Jesus: An Advent Invitation to Payer and Renewal, by Rich Villodas, book
(Also available for Matthew’s Gospel and the Apostles Writings)
Waiting for Jesus: An Advent Invitation to Payer and Renewal, by Rich Villodas, book