Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Refrain
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly song?
Refrain
Come to Bethlehem and see
Christ Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Refrain
See Him in a manger laid,
Whom the choirs of angels praise;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While our hearts in love we raise.
Refrain
Words: Traditional French carol (Les Anges dans Nos Campagnes); translated from French to English by James Chadwick in Crown of Jesus, 1862.
Music: Gloria (Barnes), French carol melody; arranged by Edwin S. Barnes. A different arrangement is used by Hearken, All! What Holy Singing.
Merry Christmas from the Ben Zornes Band! I'm going to highlight a couple of my favorite carols this month. We should sing these songs more often...they truly lift your eyes.
I always hated the gloooooOoooooOooooooOria part of "Angels We Have Heard on High!" We'd go caroling in the frigid December cold and it was always so difficult to hold onto those notes! Plus, when I was REALLY small it ended up sounding like Glo-o-o-o-o-oria in a shelfish day-o! Having no idea what I was singing. But I am now a learned college graduate and I now know what it means. Let me give you some weighty thoughts that I pray lift you out of Shopping malls filled with gunmen, and online shopping filled with identity thieves.
Come to Bethlehem and see
Christ Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
(and then I'll translate that difficult phrase!)
Glory to God in the Highest
Oh that we would spend more time in Bethlehem (literally the house of bread no coincidence there). This is the place where we find Christ our King. Where His divinity was wrapped up in a mucked up stable? This is not a symbol of how much Mankind is worth! We come to Bethlehem not to marvel at how loved mankind is! We come to say "Glory to God in the Highest." Bethlehem is a symbol of how great our God truly is.
He stops at nothing to gain and preserve His all-righteous Glory! I pray that this season would be for you a season of stooping into a Bethlehem stable, and seeing the grandness of a God that brought His child into this world (for His glory and the redemption of mankind for His glory) untrumpeted except by angels, shepherds and a few Gentile astrologers!
Come adore on bended knee!
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