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(this is a part of a blog series called "what's that song about?" Growing up, I never really knew where Christmas carols came from or what they were about.  They often used strange vocabulary I never came across in any other context.  This set of blogs is for those of us that never had the carols explained. Each week from now until Christmas, I will unpack a different popular Christmas carol.  Feel free to comment with any further questions you have on each song. Click to read my posts about "Angels we have heard on high" and "Silent Night.")

This is the Carol of carols. I’ve saved this for last because it is the one that affects me most profoundly and powerfully.  I guess that is the truth because it seems to portray the message of Christmas with more clarity and offers our souls lasting satisfaction.  Let’s get started.

    Once again, the focus of this carol is the night of Jesus’ birth.  Fortunately for us, it rewinds a bit.  The first verse starts with his birth, but really focuses where all of us start - at the heart.  The lines “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘til He appeared and the soul felt its worth” are the focus of the first stanza, and how powerful they are!  It’s saying that all of us have pined after things that haven’t satisfied us, left us in error and empty.  But it is with the appearance of Jesus, God Himself, that our souls comprehend, in the deepest sense, their worth!  We are not merely atoms that have found themselves stuck together, but that every man, woman and child has great value in God’s eyes.  How do we know this? Because God came and got his hands dirty to rescue and redeem his wayward, error-pining children.  As the song says, a new day has dawned.

    Verse two ends saying that our King of kings has been born to be our friend.  So many people mistakenly picture Jesus as a judgmental, religious leader that just condemns people for not being good enough. Verse three tells us that his message is peace and that He has come to set people free from the chains that have bound them.  John 3:17 says that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  This Christmas, God is inviting you to put your hope in his Son, Jesus, who came and was born as a child so that people like you and I could have our souls finally satisfied in Him.  Come visit us at Harbor Church this Sunday if you want to learn more about the Man who is God.

Oh holy night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine
Oh night divine

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the wise men from Orient land
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend.

Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name. 

 
(this is a part of a blog series called "what's that song about?" Growing up, I never really knew where Christmas carols came from or what they were about.  They often used strange vocabulary I never came across in any other context.  This set of blogs is for those of us that never had the carols explained. Each week from now until Christmas, I will unpack a different popular Christmas carol.  Feel free to comment with any further questions you have on each song.)

When you are singing along to a song, nothing makes it more difficult than when the song is in another language!  Ok, one thing: when it’s the chorus that’s in another language.  One of the most popular Christmas carols, “Angels We Have Heard on High” has a Latin refrain that leaves people like you and me guessing.  Are they singing about a girl named “Gloria?”
    Let me clear it up for you.  That refrain, Gloria in excelsis Deo, means “Glory to God in the highest.”  It’s a phrase that actually goes way back to the beginnings of Christianity and was a part of the liturgy of the Church during the Byzantine Era.  Even before that, the Church got the phrase from the song that the angels sang about Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:14.  That’s why the song’s title refers to the angels: there was a great song sung by a massive group of angels at Jesus’ birth.
    See, Jesus’ parents had traveled to Bethlehem when Mary was pregnant because they were doing a census to try to get a handle on the great numbers in the Roman Empire.  Since everyone was there for the census, there wasn’t room for the family at the inn.  Instead, they stayed in a manger that would have been used by the shepherds that were keeping their flocks in the nearby fields.  When Jesus was born, there was a great jubilee, or celebration, because of the good tidings, or good news, that was brought with the birth of the Jesus.
    So why sing Glory to God in the Highest?  Because it is only in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that we can see the Glory of God as He gives mercy to all who call on him.  In the birth of Jesus, we see a glimpse of the glorious grace of God, which comes to broken, needy people like me to offer healing, forgiveness and restoration.  At the sight of it, our souls must sing “glory to God in the highest!”


Angels we have heard on high,
Singing sweetly through the night,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their brave delight.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why these songs of happy cheer?
What great brightness did you see?
What glad tiding did you hear?  Refrain

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the new-born King.  Refrain

See him in a manger laid
Whom the angels praise above;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While we raise our hearts in love.