In the process of preparing for Christmas (and finding appropriate music) at Pearl Church, I ran across the hymn “It came upon a midnight clear” and was struck by beauty and depth of the prose. I’m not sure if I’d really even read the 2nd or 3rd stanzas before, but I found myself absolutely intrigued by and caught up in the message. Here are some of my thoughts:
Stanza 1:
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, goodwill to men, from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.
Thoughts:
Here, in the most well-known of the stanzas, we see the main theme of the lyric explained, mostly in narrative fashion. The song tells the story of another song – specifically the song that the angels sang when they announced the birth of Jesus. The song they sang was about Peace on earth – a gift from Heaven’s King (God). On the occasion of that first “singing” the world responded by stopping, by becoming still, and by listening to the song.
Stanza 2:
Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not the love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife and hear the angels sing.
Thoughts:
Here, we learn that the song (the “angel strain” about Peace on earth) has continued to be sung over that last two thousand years. However, the world has not experienced the peace being sung about, instead it has suffered with the woes of sin and strife. This is because people, busy and preoccupied with their wars against other people, have stopped listening to the angels’ song about peace, in fact they can’t even hear it. This stanza ends with a rebuke of sorts: “Be quiet!” “Hush the noise,” and an invitation: listen once again! Cease your wars and your strife and listen to the song being sung.
Stanza #3:
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!
Thoughts:
This stanza addresses the human singers (us) directly. In a sense, we are singing to ourselves. We are imaged (accurately) as those sometimes crushed or bent over by life. Life itself is imaged as a “climbing way” or an uphill battle that inherently involves painful moments and lack of progress. But even now, in the middle of such a life, we are extended a beautiful invitation. We are invited to rest. And as we rest, we are invited to listen, once again to the song the angels are (always) singing: “Peace on the earth, Goodwill to men, from Heaven’s all-gracious King.” We are invited to, perhaps unlike those who have gone before us, regularly stop, cease our striving, and listen to the song. We are invited to be like those who first heard the song, years ago, and stood in solemn stillness. And perhaps even implied, we are invited to be those who finally hear this song and make it our own – those who “catch the tune” and carry that song about peace to the ends of the earth – carrying in the process the very message of God’s goodwill to all people. What a beautiful song and what wonderful imagery. I look forward to singing this song for many years to come.
Loving it.
