Advent Worship - Angels
This post is a follow-up to what I hope to be a short Advent series for me to talk through several traditional carols and how we can think about them differently to worship instead of checking out.
Today, I’m going to focus on 2 carols about angels—“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Honorable mention goes to the interesting melody of “Angels from the Realms of Glory.”
Anytime we start talking about the spiritual realm, I can only imagine the rolling of eyes or the metaphorical “here we go,” but I want to still address these 2 carols for good reason.
Whether you have a hard time believing in the existence of angels as a Christian or not, we cannot deny the role that they play in the Christmas story. The account of Christ’s conception, birth, and thereafter involves the appearance of angels. We see angels appearing to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds in the fields.
They all come with a necessary greeting of “don’t be afraid,” and then we watch the faithfulness of God play out to those who should be overlooked for the blessings they were receiving (Zechariah having a son in old age, Mary conceiving as a virgin, Joseph humbly obeying the Lord’s command to not shame his betrothed, and the shepherds, likely filthy and dirty, meeting the King of all creation).
The 2 angel carols I mentioned are more of a retelling of events. A faithfulness that the Bible often calls us to, which is to teach every generation about what God has done. And the two-fold blessing is that we are again reminded that our God works all kinds of miracles.
I want to point out a couple of ideas from each, starting with “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
Hark! is a call to stop what you’re doing and listen. We need to stop and listen more than ever in our day and age, so let’s slow down and wonder at the miracle of Jesus’ coming that is retold in the rest of the hymn.
This hymn is full of hope and promise. The phrases below are all pulled from the hymn and point directly to the whole reason Jesus came in the flesh. The lyrics are filled with the fulfillment of prophecies (Malachi 4:2 and Isaiah 9:6 to name a few) and the hope of fulfillment to come. These are reminders that God keeps promises and that’s something to worship about!
Now, for “Angels We Have Heard on High,” I will just focus on the famous phrase “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” It’s undeniable that the melody includes an insane amount of notes in the middle of “gloria”, but even still, we should worship. The Latin phrase, as you may already know, translates as “Glory to God in the Highest.” This is a big praise!
When we are singing “Gloria…” we are doing two things: (1) confessing that Jesus is God and (2) exalting God with the praise He deserves. So, even if the rest of the lines are retelling the story of Christ’s coming, let’s lift our hands in worship to God who deserves our highest, Spirit-fulled, and truthful praise for the fulfillment of his promises!
Before you go, some years back I wrote an extra verse to “Angels We Have Heard on High” that was a look at the second Advent of Jesus that is prophesied in Revelation. I pray this is an encouragement to you!
You can listen to this version on Spotify, Apple Music, or search on your favorite music platform.
I hope that some of these ideas will lead you to worship more this Advent season. That you can get past not knowing all of the words and that you can lift holy hands to God as we celebrate that not that long ago, God sent his son like he said he would!
Shayla