Hark the Herald Angels Sing; A Christmas Devotional

By Jeff Berger

Sometimes a song can change your entire world. But that only happens if you really listen. In this devotional book, meant for Christmas time, you'll look at one famous carol line by line. Each day of the Christmas season (December 1-25), you'll see how Charles Wesley's words fit with Scripture, and how these truths can transform our lives. Maybe this year, you won't just see “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” in a new way, but you'll also have a fresh encounter with the One whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeff Berger
• Release date: Jan 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310103094

Jeff Berger

I am a pastor, husband and father of two who lives in Houston.

Book preview

Hark The Herald Angels Sing

A Christmas Devotional

By Jeff Berger

Cover Art by Kayleigh Berger

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Jeff Berger

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

December 1 Christmas Without Carols

December 2 Hark the Herald Angels Sing

December 3 Glory to the Newborn King

December 4 Peace on Earth, and Mercy Mild

December 5:God and Sinners Reconciled

December 6 Joyful, all Ye Nations Rise

December 7 Join the Triumph of the Skies

December 8 With Angelic Hosts Proclaim

December 9 Christ is Born in Bethlehem

December 10 Christ by Highest Heaven Adored

December 11 Christ the Everlasting Lord

December 12 Late in Time, Behold Him Come

December 13 Offspring of a Virgin’s Womb

December 14 Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See

December 15 Hail the Incarnate Deity

December 16 Pleased as Man With Men to Dwell

December 17 Jesus, Our Emmanuel

December 18 Hail the Heaven-Born Prince of Peace

December 19 Hail the Sun of Righteousness

December 20 Light and Life to All He Brings

December 21 Risen with Healing in His Wings

December 22 Mild He Lays His Glory By

December 23 Born that Man No More May Die

December 24 Born to Raise the Sons of Earth

December 25 Born to Give Them Second Birth

As a preacher and occasional writer, it is hard for me to admit this, but here goes: There is a power in music that the spoken and written word cannot match. I’ll prove it to you: Can you remember a specific sentence from something you read recently, either a book, a magazine article, or something online? Can you quote exactly anything that has been said in the past month by your pastor, the President, or (gasp!) your spouse? Probably not. But I’ll bet you can remember the lyrics to hundreds of songs you knew decades ago; the theme songs of your childhood TV shows; the tunes you danced and air-guitared to as a teenager; the songs that blared from your car stereo on hot summer days.

This time of year is full of songs; Songs about Grinches, snowmen, chestnuts roasting and red-nosed reindeer…and wise men, angels, and a little town called Bethlehem. They all compete for a spot in our mental playlist, their lyrics jangling around in our distracted brains from the time we wake up until the time we drop off to sleep, visions of sugar plums (or credit card bills) dancing in our heads. But what might happen if, this year, we stop and listen to those words? The power of music isn’t just that it’s so memorable. Sometimes a song can change your entire world. But that only happens if you listen.

That’s what I hope to do with this devotional. After an introduction on the first day’s reading (December 1), we’ll look at a line from my favorite Christmas carol every day until Christmas Day. On each day’s reading, I included Scripture references and my own thoughts inspired by those lines. On most days, I’ve also suggested a specific way you can pray in response to what we learn. My prayer for you is that you would not just see Hark the Herald Angels Sing in a new way, but that you would have a fresh encounter with the One whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

So let’s sit back and enjoy an old, old song…

December 1

Christmas Without Carols

December in America is saturated with Christmas carols. In our city, two different radio stations switch to an all-Christmas format from Thanksgiving until December 25. Carols and secular Christmas tunes form the soundtrack to our lives for that entire month, even if we don’t purchase one of the dozens of Christmas-themed albums released every year by artists of virtually every musical genre. We hear these songs in grocery stores, shopping malls, and even on TV ads. Some see this as yet another sign of the commercializing of Christmas. I look at it differently: At what other time of the year can you hear songs about Jesus in a department store? And consider this: Christmas is a time of deep depression and heartbreak for so many. Every year in December, Christmas carols point desperate, searching people (most of whom would never think of attending a church) to a God who loves them enough to cross time and space to save them. So I say, thank God for Christmas carols!

Not all Christians have felt this way, however. There was a time when Christmas carols were banned…by Christians! In 1647, the Puritan-dominated Parliament of England abolished the celebrating of Christmas. The Puritans were devout and courageous people who—despite the sound beating they have taken in our popular culture—could teach us a great deal about serving God. But in Oliver Cromwell’s England, they tried their best to legislate their own views on religion and culture. Christmas at that time was twelve days of feasting and carnivals from December 25 until January 6 (The Twelve Days of Christmas). The Puritans hated the waste and overindulgence of Christmas, and also saw it as a holdover from Catholicism (Christmas is, after all, Christ’s Mass). They therefore declared the first War on Christmas. Carols, among other traditions, were set aside.

So it was that when Charles Wesley (the great hymnwriter who, with his brother John, founded Methodism) was growing up, there weren’t many songs about the birth of Jesus. He decided to write a song he called Hymn for Christmas Day. The first line was Hark how all the welkin rings. The great evangelist George Whitfield, one of the catalysts of the First Great Awakening, thought Wesley’s hymn needed some tweaking. He dropped two of the verses and changed the first line to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Wesley didn’t think much of the change; Whitfield hadn’t asked his permission and besides, the Bible never says the angels sang anything (look it up!). But Whitfield’s version endured. The song was sung to the tune of familiar hymns like Amazing Grace and Christ the Lord is Risen Today for over a century. Then in 1855, English musician William Cummings took a secular tune by the great German composer Felix Mendelssohn and set Wesley/Whitfield’s words to it. The rest is history.

Today, please pray that God would use the sounds of Christmas to draw people to Himself.

Sources: Osbeck, Kenneth, Amazing Grace—Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions and Giles, Gordon, O Come Emmannuel: A Musical Tour of Daily Readings for Advent and Christmas.

December 2

Hark the Herald Angels Sing…

In a sermon called Hark! The Herald Angels Bruce Thieleman told the following story: Did you ever read Bret Harte’s story The Luck of Roaring Camp? Roaring Camp was supposed to be, according to the story, the meanest, toughest mining town in all of the West. More murders, more thefts--it was a terrible place inhabited entirely by men, and one woman who tried to serve them all. Her name was Cherokee Sal. She died while giving birth to a baby. Well, the men took the baby, and they put her in a box with some old rags under her. When they looked at her, they decided that didn’t look right, so they sent one of the men eighty miles to buy a rosewood cradle. He brought it back, and they put the rags and the baby in the rosewood cradle. And the rags didn’t look right there. So they sent another of their number to Sacramento, and he came back with some beautiful silk and lace blankets. And they put the