"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;" - Ephesians 5:19
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
He
put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see
and fear And will trust in the LORD. - See more at:
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hymns#sthash.fKRQHzLU.dpuf
With Christmas Eve steadily approaching, we look at what I like to call "ULTIMATE HYMNS"
Everyone has a Christmas Carol they love and one they probably hate singing. But wait, we're not supposed to hate any of the hymns that are sung at an Advent or Christmas Eve service. These hymns are joyful sounding and bring about a major message.
So let's look at some examples.
One of my favorite hymns of all time is: "O Come All Ye Faithful", it is quite possibly one of the most ultimate hymns of the Christmas season. Sometimes when I am up there with the choir, I just want to raise up my arms and get people to sing louder because I want the world to hear us because I want the song to reach out to all the believers and nonbelievers knowing that someone is here for them and the signal has been sent from afar. The signal of Christ's birth has been sent. The night is filled with joy, you just have that feeling of renewal, and you feel like there's just a great light sent out to you while you walk into that church or for me: when you are processing down the aisle to go to the choir seating.
You just want to smile knowing that it is a joyous night in our nation.
The song always seems to kick off that Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and it's a great song to kick off with mainly because of how many people are present at the time at the church (450-500+). Sometimes that hymn brings me to tears because it's a song of hope and asking all who is faithful to come adore the birth of our lord.
The line: "Sing choirs of angels..." Yes, we are the choir of angels singing in exaltation. Singing of a wonderful message that is to be delivered to all the nations. The power of the hymn is so great, it just sends an INCREDIBLE SHOCKWAVE due to the power of our voices needed to sing this song.
The history of the song was that it was written by John Francis Wade in the 18th century. Not many people but also John Reading holds a source to it, Handel and Gluck as well. Plus two Portuguese kings as well claim authorship. So claimed authorship has not been clearly discovered yet but many composers and musicians claim it. We may never know who really wrote it. But it is the most popular hymn for the Christmas Eve services all around the world. It's considered the #1 hymn of Christmas. My music director for choir plays it especially well giving it a nice long intro into the song to get everyone into the spirit of the service.
If you didn't know this... it was supposed to be done in all latin. Hence why the tune was initially called "Adeste Fideles."
---
My second favorite hymn of all time has to be: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" It's a pretty popular hymn amongst children, if you didn't know that. (2,500 children were polled by the New York Times and they picked this tune as their favorite)
The original tune was conceived by Charles Wesley who initially wrote it as a very solemn song... not much power... not much of anything... he really didn't like it, to be frank. He was a somber man. 120 years later, William H. Cummings, a composer said: "You know what, we really need make this tune more joyful, more powerful." Initially, Cummings wanted to "crash the song" by putting it in line with "Christ the Lord is risen today." But a friend of his said: "Hey, this isn't going to work... So why don't we just... rewrite his tune" and the brilliant tactic worked. It's considered one of the greatest "preparation" carols of all time.
I love this hymn for several reasons. Number one, Pastor Mark regularly jokes about how does one "Hark!"? Even I don't know that. Number two, it's a great preparation hymn for the coming of our lord. It's also reminds us that the angels above are singing with us, our friends above are making sure our message is clear.
---
Another favorite would have to be "O come, O come Emmanuel." As Advent kicks off with this song (truth is, we should be singing it on the 4th and final Sunday of Advent).
Now the way we sing it, it just doesn't blend correctly at the end. Lutheran hymnals usually hold the "Emmanuel", but Methodist book of worship has them not holding it, and instantly doing what I like to call "the jump."
The tune of the song was conceived in the mid-19th century by John Mason Neale and his friend Henry S. Coffin from the ecclesiastical text of the 8th or 12th century writing "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel." The hymn has been covered over 49,000 times, making it the most covered hymn in all of history.
It's one of my favorite mainly because it is the start of the new Christian Liturgical Year. It's that time of preparation and that feeling of renewal come Christmas time.
---
Handel's mastery of "The Messiah" turned heads when he did the "Hallelujah chorus." The Hallelujah Chorus always is popular in films (when someone did something really bizarre that worked) or just a song that says "Hallelujah! our savior is here!!!"
We always sing this last at our Christmas Eve service because we want to send our congregation out knowing that they have been filled with the glory of Jesus in their hearts.
---
People, Christmas Hymns are about joy, renewal, and the coming of our savior.
Sing with adoration and exaltation!
No comments:
Post a Comment