DECEMBER 1, 2003

THE ANGELS’ SONG

The angel choir created a beautiful song on that quiet Bethlehem evening when Jesus was born:

“It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
‘Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From heavn’s all-gracious King!’
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.”

The echo of the angel song still reverberates in the world Jesus came to save. In spite of all the confusion of “Babel sounds,” it can be heard by those who are listening intently for a sign of hope:

“Still thru the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heav’nly music floats
O’er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.”

Each of us is invited to listen for the angel song so that we can find renewed hope and salvation. Christmas time provides an opportunity for us to sit still for a while and listen for the angels’ “Peace on Earth” hymn:

“And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.”

Maybe some day the angel song will fade out and the birthday of Jesus be forgotten. No! The “Peace on Earth” song was not a romantic angel-dream; it was a preview of an age yet to be, which the angels could see from their eternal perspective. And their song will be self-renewing until that Day when Jesus returns to earth and actually brings true and unshakable peace:

“For lo, the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.”

–Pastor George Van Alstine