Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Charles Wesley wrote "Hark How All the Welkin Rings", but that line and some other lyrics were changed over the years. Still, this is surely one of the most in depth and powerful Christmas carols ever written!
Thank you for joining me for another Friday Classic Hymn. Today it's a Christmas hymn—probably one of the best ever. In fact, I always remember one of my mentors, Reverend B. Mick, saying that this is the greatest Christmas song of all time. When he said that, I started to look at the words more closely and realise just what a deep, profound hymn this is.
Do you have any memories of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"? I think for me, sadly, my memory of this is somewhat linked to Boney M. On the Boney M Christmas CD we used to listen to, there's a version of this—it's a beautiful little version. It sounds a little strange listening to it today, a bit outdated with the instrumentation, but it's actually quite a pretty version. Then I recorded it with my band Crossroad on our Christmas album.
I was surprised when I looked into the history that we only sing a part of the song. Wesley wrote a lot more than just the verses we know. So today I'm going to look at the whole hymn.
Would you share your memories of this hymn or your impressions of what it meant to you in your Christian journey? Please share that below. Of course, if you haven't already subscribed to the channel, please could you do that and ring the little notification bell if you want to get notified every time a new video like this comes out? That would really help this channel grow.
So let's get into the history of this classic song.
The Story Behind "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"
"Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is a Charles Wesley classic. Now, I've already featured a good few Charles Wesley hymns in the series, so I'll make a new little playlist of just the Wesley songs that I've done if you want to go and check them out, because his history is told there. I don't want to go over his whole story again, apart from saying that he was an Anglican priest in the 1700s, and it was him and his brother John Wesley who formed the Methodists. They were both Anglican priests, but they both had almost a reconversion—or perhaps a real conversion—in 1738, after they'd both been ordained.
This song was first released in 1739 in a hymnal that the Methodists released, so many believe this was written in that first year of Charles Wesley's life as a born-again Christian. I think that might be true, because the words are very deeply profound. He must have had some great knowledge of God's grace to have written these words.
The interesting thing about this hymn is that we usually only sing six of the verses, and because of the way it's arranged these days, we squash two together into one verse. So we sing three verses—or five or six out of 10. A lot of the wording has also been changed very slightly to sound a little more understandable or relatable.
The first change came in 1758, when George Whitefield—who was originally a friend of the Wesleys, then became a bit of an enemy because of theological differences, and then reconciled with them later—rewrote some of these words and released it in one of his hymnals. It was a few years after Whitefield's rendition that another rendition of this hymn came out, and this time it had that opening rhyme—the first two lines repeated all throughout as a refrain, which is how we sing it today.
Now, Wesley originally wanted this song to the same tune that we sing "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today"—his great Easter Sunday hymn. But it was in the 1800s that an English musician fitted the words of Wesley into a Mendelssohn tune. Felix Mendelssohn wrote this beautiful melody, and a singer named William Cummings fitted this melody and these words together, which is what changed it into what we know it as now—the two verses being played together as well as the little refrain in between each section.
Now, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" has become enormously popular—one of the most popular Christmas hymns and, I suppose, one of the most popular hymns of all time. Wesley, of course, wrote some other great Christmas songs as well, which I'll be featuring maybe this year, maybe next year. We'll see. But this one endures as one of our favourites, and I want to go through all 10 of His original verses and have a look at them, and then see how they've been changed and what they mean.
So let's look at these lyrics.
What Do the Lyrics of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" Mean?
Verse 1
The first one seems a little unfamiliar to us because Wesley's words were:
"Hark how all the welkin rings, Glory to the King of Kings, Peace on Earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled."
So we recognise those last two lines, but what on earth is "welkin"? Welkin means sky or heavens. One thought is that when Whitefield rewrote this to say "Hark the herald angels sing," he himself was going, "What on earth was welkin?" You know, maybe we need to change this into something the people will understand.
Whitefield also changed the second line to say "Glory to the newborn King" instead of "the King of Kings," so it gives it that slightly more Christmas feel. But you get what Wesley was saying here: "Hark" means listen, pay attention. How all the heavens are ringing, or how all the angels are singing Glory to the newborn King, the King of Kings.
"Peace on Earth," which is, of course, what was promised through Jesus.
"Mercy mild"—it's an interesting little phrase. Of course, Jesus was the bringer of mercy, and He was meek and mild, so perhaps those two are linked together.
"God and sinners reconciled"—this is the great news of Jesus' coming: that He came to reconcile sinful people to God through His death and resurrection.
Verse 2
Verse 2 goes like this:
"Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, Universal nature say, Christ the Lord is born today."
That's different. We usually sing "Join the triumph of the skies, With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem," but that came later. Even Whitefield's words are a bit different. Whitefield, for those last two lines, said, "Nature rise and worship Him who is born at Bethlehem."
So it kind of evolved over time. But again, either way, Wesley was saying that universal nature—all of the world—must join the triumph of the skies. Join the angels who are singing and giving glory to Christ the Lord who is born today. That's what we do when we sing—anytime we join in the angel singing in heaven. But of course, whenever we sing a Christmas song, it's as if we're joining those angels who were there that first Christmas to announce the coming of Jesus and to sing His praise loudly from the skies.
Verse 3
Verse 3 goes like this:
"Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ the Everlasting Lord, Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin's womb."
So that is familiar to us. "Christ, by highest heaven adored"—every creature and being, spiritual being in heaven, adores Christ as being God's Son, one of the Trinity, and the Saviour of the world.
"Christ the Everlasting Lord"—yes, the Everlasting Lord. He is one with the Father. He is here from the beginning and will be here forever. He is everlasting.
"Late in time behold Him come." Now, does that mean that Jesus was late in coming? Definitely not. "Late" can mean later—He came after a while, after history had unfolded for a while. In fact, the New Testament talks about how at just the right moment, Jesus came. God had obviously planned it this way so that He could set up the kingdom of Israel and do all that He had to before bringing the Saviour. So here He was, just in time, and we behold His coming.
"The offspring of a virgin's womb"—bringing in the virgin birth there.
Verse 4
Verse 4:
"Veiled in flesh the Godhead see."
I love that line. "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity."
The Godhead wrapped up in human flesh, the incarnate—the deity became incarnate, He became a human being. Amazing.
"Pleased as man with man to dwell"—we normally sing, but Wesley wrote "to appear." "Jesus our Emmanuel."
In order to get the rhyme, of course, Wesley wrote "Emmanuel" here. But I like that: "Pleased as man with man to appear." He was pleased to take on human flesh so that He could become one with us and suffer and die as a human being in our place.
"Jesus our Emmanuel"—God with us. That's what that word means, that's what that name means. He's with us, so He came down to be with us in a very special way through Jesus.
Verses 5 & 6
Now, verses 5 and 6—I have always sung the other way around. Whenever we've sung this, we've kind of squished these into one verse, and we always start on verse 6. But actually, He wrote these words first:
"Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace"—or "heaven-born Prince of Peace" is how we sing it today. "Hail the Son of righteousness, Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings."
Some great Old Testament language there. Isaiah 9 talks about Jesus being the Prince of Peace. The book of Malachi 4:2 talks about the Son of righteousness that will arise with healing in His wings—another prophecy of Jesus.
"Light and life to all He brings"—as the Son of righteousness, as the Son that brings these things to the earth. Oh, amazing! Do you know God? Do you know Jesus as the Son—not just the S-O-N, but the S-U-N of righteousness, who brings light and life to the world and, of course, who rose again with healing in His wings for His people? Wonderful, wonderful imagery.
Then verse 6 says:
"Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of Earth, Born to give them second birth."
We sing that one exactly like that today. I like those words: "Mild"—not arrogant and full of pomp and splendour, but He came mild as a baby.
"He laid His glory by"—He laid it aside so that He could become a child and a human being who had no special look about Him but who obviously had a very special soul, as we know.
Then these three "born" lines:
"Born that man no more may die"—that's powerful. Jesus was born so that we would not have to die, so that when we die, we go on living.
"He was born to raise the sons of Earth"—to raise them up, to lift them up to His level.
"And to give them second birth"—I love that. "Born to give them second birth." That's a beautiful, beautiful line. Jesus was born so that we could be born again. Being born again, of course, means being made new by God's Spirit when you repent and place your faith in Him. Jesus was born so that we could do that and so that all people could find the new life that He brings. Wonderful.
Verse 7
So now we get into verses that aren't familiar to most of us. Verses 7 to 10 are ones I've never sung ever, and so this was new to me.
Verse 7:
"Come, Desire of Nations, come"—another Old Testament reference there. The book of Haggai speaks about the Desire of Nations—Jesus. In a sense, the Desire of all Nations, because He would be the one who brought salvation.
"Fix in us Thy humble home"—it's another beautiful line. Come and live in us. Of course, Jesus said that He would abide in us if we have faith in Him.
"Rise the woman's conquering seed, Bruise in us the serpent's head."
I guess in old English that probably rhymed. More biblical imagery—this is such a rich theological song. This takes us all the way back to Genesis 3:15, where we read God speaking to the serpent. This verse is known as the protoevangelium, which means "the first gospel." It was predicting the hostility between Satan and all of mankind, but Jesus is the seed of this woman, of Eve, and He eventually will crush the head of the serpent. The serpent will strike His heel—it's a picture of what Jesus came to do: to defeat evil.
Wow. Wesley's bringing Genesis into this Christmas song. How about that?
"Bruise in us the serpent's head." There it is—He's saying, in our lives, the sin that's in us, bruise it, crush it, Lord. You're the conquering seed. This little boy who was born, this baby, was the conquering seed who would crush the enemy. Amazing.
Verse 8
The next verse, verse 8:
"Now display Thy saving power, Ruined nature now restore, Now in mystic union join, Thine to ours, and ours to Thine."
That's another very profound verse. "Display Your saving power, Lord," He's saying. Show it, let it be real.
"Ruined nature," which is, of course, what we have—we have sinful natures which ruin our own human nature. He says, "Ruined nature now restore." In other words, restore us back to You and fix the ruined nature that we have. Let it be made well again.
"And now in mystic union"—which is a beautiful way of talking about our relationship with God, a mystic union—"join Thine to ours," Your nature to ours, "and ours to Thine."
So He's saying, Lord, let Your nature and our nature connect so that our ruined natures are fixed. What a beautiful verse.
Verse 9
Verse 9 goes on with this sort of theme, because He says:
"Adam's likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp Thy image in its place, Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love."
Here He's talking about Romans 5, where Paul talks about Adam being the originator of our sin. So all people have got a sinful nature because of Adam, but Jesus came to be the new Adam, the second Adam, as you can see in the rest of this verse: "Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love."
He was saying each of us has got Adam's likeness, a sinful nature, and, Lord, efface it—get rid of it, scratch it out—and stamp Your image, oh God, in its place. That's the Wesleyan understanding of salvation: it's a restoring of the image of God which was broken by sin.
"Second Adam, Jesus from above, Reinstate us in Your love." Bring us back into that closeness with God by Your love. Beautiful words. Again, not what we usually think of at Christmas, but maybe it should be.
Verse 10
Then verse 10, if you're still with me, says this:
"Let us Thee, though lost, regain," and so though we lost You because of sin, let us regain You. "Thee, the life, the inner man, O to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart."
You're saying, You, Lord, bring Yourself into our inner beings. "Impart"—beautiful word. Impart, so bring or gift us with Yourself. "Form us, form within our believing hearts Your image and Your fullness."
Again, what a beautiful song. I know we normally stick to those first six verses, and they're beautiful, but maybe we miss out when we don't sing these last few verses.
What do you think? What do you think of these last verses? Do you know them? Number one, maybe you are familiar with them—maybe it's just me who doesn't know them. Which of these verses touched you today? I'd love to know. I'd love for you to share that below in the comments.
Conclusion
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I'm going to sing it now, and I'm going to sing Wesley's original words, but I'm going to throw in the refrain "Hark the herald angels sing" in the middle of each couple of verses, and that's because it doesn't really work without it. So I'll squash those verses together so that they kind of become five instead of 10, with that refrain in the middle. I hope you'll sing along with me, and I hope that this will give you something to think about this Christmas.
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
Wesley's "Hymns and Sacred Poems" 1739
