And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13, 14

How utterly amazed these shepherds must have been by the appearance of the angels on that first Christmas night! Who were these men to be so highly privileged? How many were there? We know little about them. We do know they were Christians, waiting for the promise of the comfort of Israel. Possibly they were tending sheep destined to be used for sacrifices in the temple. Bethlehem was quite close to Jerusalem.

There had been no special revelation for several centuries. Bibles like we have were unknown at that time. But with their limited revelation of the various Old Testament Scriptures they obviously did cling to the promises of the Christ to come. Tending sheep was their work, night after night, perhaps year after year. This was to them just another night. Was it “pitch” dark, or was the moon shining? We don’t know. Then suddenly . . . first one angel (in a dazzling light) with that wonderful message and then with him a multitude of these heavenly messengers. Possibly they saw them, but surely they heard them. I can be envious of this part of their experience. Who ever heard a choir like this from heaven?

A song in the night, literally. Spiritually and figuratively it was night in the church. In general, spiritual conditions were at a very low ebb. Of those who were church people many were Pharisees and Sadducees, formalists and liberals. The number of true Christians was comparatively small, as became plain during the ministry of Christ some thirty years later. Nevertheless, as David had long before this spoken of a song in the night, the children of David can really sing that night, and from then on. There can be and is joy in the hearts of those who know and understand what the angels are singing about, and what will be the song in heaven forever.

The angels are the first ones who sing on Christmas day. Theirs is the first choir. And aren‘t angels ministering (serving) spirits of the Lord used by God and sent out for the welfare and benefit of the church? Job calls them morning stars, who evidently were already singing upon the marvelous work of God in creation (Job 38). How they evidently rejoiced in it! Obviously they are always keenly interested in the work of the Lord.

Throughout Old Testament history we read of their appearances, sometimes as messengers of wrath as with Adam and Eve at the gate of Paradise, and with Hezekiah, killing 185,000 enemies in one night. Notice the strength of one angel. Again and again they are heavenly helpers in various ways, to Abraham, Gideon, Manoah and many other saints.

Obviously they didn’t understand all of God’s way in the Old Testament, often not grasping the main line of God’s method of working and His wisdom of operation. God’s ways were incomprehensible to them. Peter tells us that they were eager to look into, to understand these ways of the Lord in the Old Testament (I Peter 1:12). How would God’s promise be fulfilled?

Usually in the work of God the angels came one at a time. But here, there was a multitude. Who can say how many constitute a multitude? Ten thousand? I want to believe that there were more than that. The Bible often uses the word hosts, which could refer to thousands, or even a million or more.

Imagine what a choir this must have been, of so many heavenly voices! Singing in perfect harmony, each one “his own part” and with heavenly enthusiasm. How privileged these shepherds were. Surely they never forgot it.

What did they sing about? What was the content of their song?

Let God be glorified, let the heavens be full of His glory. The angels had seen the work of creation, with all its marvels. They had witnessed the Old Testament history. God again and again sent them to earth for the benefit of the militant church as a whole, but also for struggling individual Christians. They remembered Jacob’s dream of the ladder extending from earth to heaven. Contact was made between heaven and earth. They were aware of the glories of God’s throne. They witnessed throughout the ages the majesty of His sovereignty as they were singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Isaiah 6). But they had also witnessed the strife, distress, grief and tears of the church on earth when it often appeared that the old rival, the devil, would be triumphant. They saw also the sins of God’s people, even the most holy. And if later we read that they rejoice at the repentance of one sinner, how they must have been grieved when Israel as a people repeatedly went astray. Often it also appeared that the line of David from which the promised Christ was to come would be broken. What would become of it?

In all of these milleniums (and a millenium: a thousand years, is a long time) they had also seen and learned to be amazed at the Lord’s patience and faithfulness to His covenant promises. But now, . . . here . . . they see something unseen before, unheard of before, something that had not even arisen in their minds or hearts, God born in a manger. Incredible! What a miracle! Here is the fulfillment of the ladder in Jacob’s dream, perfect contact between men on earth and God in heaven. This baby, the Son of God, will establish peace on earth. Without doubt, the angels are also ignorant of how this will be achieved. They are assured that somehow God will through this child, His Son, establish permanent peace with worthless sinners. Also that God alone will do this, because of His grace and faithful love. They sing “Glory to God in the highest.”

What kind of audience did they have for this memorable “concert”? In what kind of auditorium did they sing? Did all the earth hear and see? The answer is, they sang to only a few humble shepherds in the fields of Ephratah, in the darkness of the night. The angels sang about this grace of God that comes to save sinners in the darkness of sin.

In time the people who are the recipients of this grace begin to form the second choir that sings of God’s grace. Already in the Old Testament the church was a singing church. David, the great musician, had a choir of some three thousand voices. This church sang in hope. Now, when the Christ has come, the church has a new song to sing. This church sees the wonders of Calvary, the open tomb, the exalted Lord and the peace there is for sinners who know this wonderful Savior.

Soon the New Testament church becomes a singing church. This choir grows rapidly, from a few hundred to three thousand, then to five thousand and more. It keeps on growing. What are the requirements for membership in this choir? Who can sing in it about this glory to God in the highest? And about this God-given peace? Those who know themselves as lost sinners and believe, by the grace of God, in this God-given Savior, Jesus Christ. They are the people who see and learn on the one hand the hopelessness of man and on the other hand the amazing grace, faithfulness, patience and persevering love of God. Only those who learn these truths from the heart and experience their reality as a growing process can sing in this choir. Here, all singing is from the heart.

The songs of angels are beautiful, in exalted, heavenly language. But really the voices of saved sinners are more beautiful. They are the objects of this grace; they possess it and have tasted it. Who else can really sing like one who has been dead, but by grace alone has been made alive and has peace in his heart? Who can sing like those who due to their own willful disobedience were on the way to eternal desolation, but are rescued by grace, are a new creation now, and are promised everlasting glory which no human language can begin to describe?

The church therefore really becomes the second choir to sing of this peace and glory to God.

God’s work is not yet complete. Things can’t remain as they are. In heaven are the angels and the saved souls of those who died in the Lord. But their bodies are still in the dust. On earth there is the militant church which is usually a struggling church, also a church which is still imperfect and sinful. Think also of all that makes for the very opposite of peace, namely persecution, division, and many trials. Heaven and earth cannot remain separated. One of the old Dutch Christmas hymns has it, “Die hemel en aarde vereenigt te zaam.” Christ is the One who brings heaven and earth together.

The apostle John already heard the echoes of that full choir: “And I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb. . . .”

The choir will include the hosts of angels, and the millions of redeemed saints. Already now we can begin to sing, “That will be glory for me.” Not because I will be the center of attention, but because it will be so exhilarating to join those countless others in singing glory to the Lord‘s name forever and ever.

The apostle John tells us that in that full choir the angels will stand and the saved sinners will be sitting. What does this tell us? When we eat in a restaurant, those who serve stand, but those who are served sit down. These unselfish angels, who have never sinned will be serving us by singing for and with us and joining the full redeemed church of which every member has learned experientially the meaning of being saved by the· marvelous grace, love, patience and power of God, and having peace with God. It was this great truth that the angels anticipated in the fields of Ephratah. And how they sang!!