It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Verse 1

1. It came upon the midnight clearLuke 2:8There were shepherds in that same area who were staying out in the open country, standing guard over their flock through the night.Beyond Luke says night. He does not say midnight.
2. That glorious song of oldLuke 2:13All at once there was with the angel a vast crowd of heaven’s army, praising God and saying,
3. From angels bending near the earthLuke 2:9Then an angel of the Lord stood over them, the Lord’s glory shone all around them, and they were struck with great fear.
4. To touch their harps of goldRevelation 5:8When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of them held a harp, and they held golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.Beyond Luke’s angels have no harps. The harps are in Revelation’s heaven.
5. “Peace on the earth, good will to menLuke 2:14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people in whom he delights!”
6. From heaven’s all-gracious King”
7. The world in solemn stillness lay
8. To hear the angels singLuke 2:13Beyond Luke says “praising God and saying.”

Verse 2

1. Still through the cloven skies they come
2. With peaceful wings unfurledBeyond Luke does not describe the angels’ wings.
3. And still their heavenly music floats
4. O’er all the weary worldMatthew 11:28Come to me, all of you who are worn out from toil and loaded with burdens, and I will give you rest.
5. Above its sad and lowly plains
6. They bend on hovering wing
7. And ever o’er its Babel soundsGenesis 11:9That is why it was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and from there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
8. The blessed angels sing

Verse 3

1. Yet with the woes of sin and strifeRomans 8:22For we know that the entire creation has been groaning together and laboring in birth pains together up to the present.
2. The world has suffered long
3. Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
4. Two thousand years of wrong
5. And man, at war with man, hears notJames 4:1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that are at war within you?
6. The love-song which they bring
7. O hush the noise, ye men of strifePsalm 46:10Be still, and know that I am God. I will be lifted high among the nations; I will be lifted high on the earth.
8. And hear the angels sing

Verse 4

1. For lo, the days are hastening onIsaiah 2:2In the last days the mountain of Yahweh’s house will be established as the highest of the mountains and raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it.
2. By prophet bards foretoldIsaiah 2:4He will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they will not learn war anymore.
3. When with the ever-circling years
4. Comes round the age of goldBeyond The golden age is a Roman poets’ picture, not the Bible’s.
5. When peace shall over all the earthIsaiah 11:9No one will do harm or bring ruin anywhere on my holy mountain, for the knowledge of Yahweh will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.
6. Its ancient splendors fling
7. And the whole world give back the songRevelation 5:13And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
8. Which now the angels sing