"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.' " (Luke 2:13)
The lovely Christmas carol is a fairly recent addition to the carol collection having been written by an American, Edmund Sears in 1849, just about the same time frame as our Longfellow carol. The tensions and uncertain political times of those years before our Civil War are reflected in the words of both songs.
Sears, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and served in small pastorates in the East part of our country, based his words on the Scripture from Luke quoted above and from Isaiah 9:6 "And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." An interesting point is that in many of the Christmas carols, including this one, the angels are portrayed as singing but the Scripture tells us that one angel announced the Good News to the shepherds and then the "great company of heavenly host" joined the angel saying "Glory to God".
The first of the 5 verses is by far the most familiar and when sung in a program, the middle verses are often omitted. Yet, they contain the condition of man who needs peace. We read in vs. 1 that the "angels are bending near the earth" and then vs.4. records that "ye, beneath life's crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow.." Quite a contrast of bending. The last line of vs.4 is wonderful for us today - "O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing."
The last verse is based in prophcey (as prophet bards foretold) and we sing of the age of gold that is coming when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling and "the whole world give back the song which now the angels sing."
Did you notice that each verse ends with "the angels sing? And in 3 of the verses the word gold is used to remind us of "heav'n's all gracious King!"
Sing with the angels here: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/itcameup.htm
A note about the words and music -- this carol, with no refrain, has a phrase which is introduced by 2 notes sung followed by 2 more notes an octave lower which creates a change in mood. The words in the first verse to emphasize this mood change are"Peace on (2 high notes) the earth (an octave lower)"; verse 4 "Look now! (high) for glad (low) " and then in verse 5 "When peace (up) shall over (down)". As you listen to this great carol you will hear the emphasis and appreciate what the author was wanting us to know - Jesus Christ is our peace!! And He gives us peace in our tense and unsettled times, just as the angels gave their heavenly pronouncement of peace at the time of the Roman rule. As we read in an earlier post, life is uncertain; Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever - Our Peace.
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