Good morning. God bless you and all whom you love this wonderful Christmas Day!
In keeping with that thought of Christmas worship, and with the theme I have been using this week of sharing information about some of our favorite songs of Christmas, I would like to have us think today about a Christmas hymn that shares a heart of worship. The Christmas hymn is “Angels from the Realms of Glory.”
Angels, from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story,
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth:
Refrain: Come and worship,
Come and worship
Worship Christ, the newborn King.
Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing,
Yonder shines the infant light:
Refrain.
Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations,
Ye have seen his natal star:
Refrain.
Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In his temple shall appear.
Refrain.
Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you—break your chains:
Refrain.
Though an infant now we view him,
He shall fill his Father’s throne,
Gather all the nations to him;
Every knee shall then bow down:
Refrain.
All creation, join in praising
God the Father, Spirit, Son,
Evermore your voices raising,
To th’eternal Three in One:
I have shared the lyrics of this Christmas hymn first because I hope that in reading them you are able to see that this hymn has a single focus: that all must bow in worship to the King of Kings, our Lord Jesus. The refrain that is to be repeated after every verse certainly reinforces that point: Come and worship, Come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King.
In the midst of all we are doing this Christmas Day, may we all take some moments to consider that everything should be about worshipping our Lord Jesus, the babe laid in the manger of Bethlehem who is also the Creator.
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” was written in 1817 by Scottish poet James Montgomery. By 1825 it had made its way into a song, but with several melodies being used. Most of those melodies were from well known folk songs of that era, some of which came straight out of the pubs and brothels, but hey, they were tunes that many people recognized. It wasn’t until 1928 that the music for the folk song, “Regent Square” was set to “Angels from the Realms of Glory” in the United States, and that is the musical melody that continues to be used in this country. Today the only thing sung to “Regent Square” is this favorite Christmas hymn.
I hope that spending a few minutes to consider the words, and perhaps sing them to yourself with the melody we know and enjoy, will bring your heart to a place of worship on this lovely Christmas Day.
Vern