****ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

"And there were, in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."

"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid."

The shepherds were gripped with extreme fear. But why?   After all, what is so scary about a few beautiful young angels?

Well, there is no scriptural indication that angels are beautiful, feminine beings like we see portrayed in most media.  In every biblical mention of them, they either had masculine names or there was no indication of gender. In fact, there is nothing in scripture that even suggests that there are male and female angels. 

Angels are terrifying creatures, especially when they appear in large numbers. The common reaction to angels in Scripture is fear; probably not because of their physical appearance, but because, when they come, they usually bring God’s judgment and justice. 

What we do know is that they are God’s messengers and when this one appeared to the shepherds, the glory of God lit up the sky with a bright light.  And if that were not frightful enough, “suddenly, the heavens opened and there was with the angel a mighty army of the heavenly host.” 

But on this night, "the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

They were not there to wage war or bring judgment; they came to announce the birth of the Savior. 

We know very little about the hymn, ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH. We don't know who wrote it but experts believe that it was probably written in the first century. 

Like several other Christmas hymns, the lyrics suggest that the angels were singing. But scripture doesn’t tell us that. It simply says that they were “praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” 

So, is it wrong to presume that they sang?  I think it's not unreasonable. From a literal point of view, the word, sing, is sometimes used as a synonym for “tell” or “profess” or “proclaim.” But the question is, did the angels sing songs of praise in harmonic chorus? 

God told Job that, at the time of creation, “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:4, 7).

The Hebrew writer of that text used a literary form called poetic parallelism, in which “the sons of God” and “the morning stars” most likely refer to the same things; they were angels.

Also, in the fifth chapter of the Revelation, we are told that four “living creatures” (elsewhere called cherubim) accompany the saints in heaven when they sing praises to God.

Luke wrote that these angels, who appeared that night, were “praising God and saying..." The Greek word for saying can also mean, to sing praises.

In other words, the verse could be translated to say, “There was…a multitude of the heavenly host singing praises to God, declaring, ‘Glory to God in the highest’…”

We don’t know if the angels were singing that night but we do know that they were praising God. And we know, from Paul’s letters to the churches at Ephesus and Colossae, that God wants us to “SPEAK, TEACH, and ADMONISH ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace and making melody in our hearts to the Lord.”

Twice in his pastoral epistles, Paul tells us to "speak to ourselves in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs", so I think it is reasonable to presume that the Angels also sing praises to God.