Hymns4Him

Isn’t it interesting that many of our Christmas carols have something to say about angels?  We sing of them directly in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” and also in “Angels We Have Heard on High,” as well as in many others which reference the angels in one or more of the stanzas.  And that last one is the focus of this study, a joyful carol with origins in France before being translated into English, “Angels We Have Heard on High.”

But this angelic dimension shouldn’t surprise us, since these glorious created beings are constantly worshiping before the Lord of glory, watching His plan of redemption worked out through the centuries.  We read of their continuing interest in this divine work of redemption in 1 Peter 1:12.  “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”  What an intriguing idea, that angels long to look into these things!

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“Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.”  What a simple and yet profound fact that is!  Charles Spurgeon said that here at Christmas-time we try to grasp the enormity of the beauty and mystery and marvel of that statement.  His words are so direct and almost stunning when he writes that “the infinite has become an infant.”  We can read the scriptures and describe the history and articulate the doctrines surrounding the incarnation.  But we have not adequately embraced all of this until we bow in amazed adoration of the God who became man. 

The Apostle Paul has set this before us in Philippians 2 where he wrote of the humiliation and exaltation of Christ.  The humiliation was not just in Jesus’ death and burial.  It was also in His becoming a man, or more astonishing, a baby.  Someone has said that thousands of babies have become kings, but only once has a king become a baby!  In one of the Narnia stories, “The Last Battle,” C. S. Lewis wrote of this in these marvelous words as Lucy gazed at a stable. 

“Yes,” said the Lord Digory, “Its inside is bigger than its outside.” “Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.

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Most of us are familiar with metrical Psalms in which the actual text of Scripture is set in a form that enables people to sing God’s Word.  Almost all hymnals have Psalms 23 and 100 in this format.  When we were younger, we were doing this in a very simple way when we learned to sing Bible verses in the “Scripture Songs” we sang in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.  In fact, that’s long been an excellent way to memorize verses used in children’s ministries like the Good News neighborhood Bible clubs with Child Evangelism Fellowship.

In addition to singing well-known Bible verses and metrical Psalms, there are also many hymns which are based very closely on the words of a Scripture passage, some almost to the point of being a metrical versification.  One such hymn is the wonderful advent hymn, “Come, Comfort Ye My People.”  It follows very closely the words of Isaiah 40:1-2.  This passage marks a significant transition in the book of Isaiah.  After the early chapters of historical events and divine warnings about impending judgment, God gave Isaiah words of hope that begin at chapter 40, the hope that despite their sin, God would deliver them.  The chapters following include the marvelous prophecy of the atoning work of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53.

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Anyone who has ever attended a Billy Graham Crusade will recall hearing the smooth bass-baritone voice of George Beverly Shea (1909-2013 … yes, he lived to be 104!) singing what many regarded to be his signature song, “I’d Rather Have Jesus.”  That, along with “How Great Thou Art,” have become permanently associated with him.   

The crusade choir composed of hundreds of singers from local churches led the singing under the director of Cliff Barrows, all seated beneath the huge white banner, with the words from John 14:6, “Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  It’s hard to picture one of those crusade meetings without hearing in your mind the sound of Bev (as he preferred to be called) singing, and then Billy standing up at the podium as he delivered his sermon, his Bible held high and folded open in one hand with his index finger of the other hand pointing to the audience as he said, “The Bible says ….”

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John Piper first became well-known as a result of his 1990 book, “The Supremacy of God in Preaching.”  At the very beginning, he wrote the memorable statement that every sermon should be about God.  That seems so obvious, but when one listens to much preaching today, from both liberal and conservative pulpits, it is very disappointing to discover how seldom that is the case.   Sermons are too often about us: how we feel, how we should act, how our lives can be improved, how to do a better job raising our kids, or managing our finances, or overcoming anxiety.  It’s as if the pulpit has been turned into a psychologist’s counseling couch for a group therapy session!  The gospel of what God has done for us in Christ has been exchanged for a false gospel of what should do to make the world a better place.

What we often refer to as the sovereignty of God is what Piper meant by the supremacy of God.  And this perspective transfers inevitably from preaching into living, as our sermons ought to be helping us live more continually and consistently with a God-focused world and life view.  The more we hear about the greatness of God in the sermons that feed our souls, the more we will instinctively think about everything happening around us and within us with the realization that He is at the center of everything.  How desperately we need that reminder when the world, the flesh, and the devil keep trying to override that thought.

The theology of John Piper is nothing new or novel.  This God-centeredness fills the pages of Scripture as well as the annals of history, from King David to the Apostle Paul to St. Augustine to John Calvin to Charles Spurgeon.  We hear it and read it today in the publications of Al Mohler and R. C. Sproul and James Montgomery Boice and Sinclair Ferguson and Steven Nichols.  And in recent music we hear it from the writers associated with Getty Music and Sovereign Grace Music.

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Everyone knows about the work of William Shakespeare (1564-1616).  And everyone knows about the King James Bible (1611).  And everyone knows about John Milton (1608-1674) and “Paradise Lost.” But not everyone knows about the poetry of George Herbert (1593-1633).   All four were contemporaneous in the early seventeenth century, what some would regard as the glory age of the highest peak of the English language.  One example of the fine literary production of that period is verses from Herbert which are often sung as the hymn “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing.”

George Herbert was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England, about a century after the Protestant Reformation made its way to England.  His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as “one of the foremost British devotional lyricists.” He was born in Wales into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609.  He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University’s Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I.  He sat in England’s Parliament in 1624 and briefly in 1625. King James I (1566-1625), who initiated the translation of the Bible popularly known as the “King James Version,” respected Herbert and considered appointing him an ambassador. The King died before these hopes were fulfilled, so Herbert pursued his original career plans.

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