A few years ago I had a question asked of me that I have never had asked me before or since! It was a good question to ask, it being the Christmas season. The question was, “Does the Bible say that angels sing?” The person asking me the question was under the impression angels sing, but someone had told them there is no place in the Bible where it says angels sing. Must we abandon our singing of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”?!?!
I think there is Biblical evidence that angels do sing. One truth is for sure: the Bible does not say they don’t sing!
Job 38:7 seems to clearly indicate that the angels sang at the creation of the world. “The Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said, ‘Who marked off its dimensions?…Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set or who laid its cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:1-7).
In this passage the words “morning stars” is another term for angels and is an example of Hebrew parallelism, where the second line of Hebrew poetry repeats the same idea as the first line in different words, yet they have the same meaning. In other words, the “morning stars” (angels) sang and shouted for joy at creation.
Whether angels sang or not was never a question with the Jews. Found in Jewish tradition is the belief that, in order for angelic songs of praise and worship to be heard before the throne of God at all times, the angels sang in shifts.
In the Midrash, which is a collection of Jewish teachings as found in the Torah, it is recorded that when Moses spent his forty days with God, he knew what time it was by the angels changing singing shifts.
When it comes to the story of the birth of Jesus, it reads, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men’” (Luke 2:13-14).
Some will point out that the word “saying” is used, not “singing”. However, to focus only on the word “saying” is too narrow of a focus. It also says the “heavenly host” (angels) were “praising God”. Doesn’t praise imply singing as well? Just what is praise? Praise, according to the dictionary, is “the offering of grateful homage in word or song, as an act of worship, a hymn of praise to God.”
The word ‘praise’ points us to singing. Praising the Lord and singing are inexorably connected. Praising the Lord on such a joyous occasion as the birth of Christ, how could such praise not lead to singing? The announcement of Christ’s birth was not sterile and mechanical. It would be unimaginable to think the angels didn’t sing at the birth of our Saviour. It would be unimaginable to think that whatever the angels had to “say”, their praise naturally flowed into joyous singing.
Angels sang the story out, for they could not stay to tell it in heavy prose. They sang, ‘Glory to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards men.’
They sang it with gladness in their eyes, with their hearts burning with love, and with breasts as full of joy as if the good news to man had been good news to themselves.”
The angels sang at creation and at Christ’s birth, and we find angels singing in the book of Revelation.
Throughout Revelation, chapters four and five are filled with references to “angels”, “living creatures”, “the four beasts”, “twenty-four elders”, and “every creature which is in heaven” (5:13), worshipping, saying, singing, and praising He who sits on the throne.
It is obvious the terms are used interchangeably to speak of singing as the meaning, not just speaking. Revelation 5:8-10 reads that the four beasts and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb (Christ), “having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints, and they sung a new song, saying…”.
While the four beasts and twenty-four angels were singing, the next verse says the angels joined in with them. When speaking of the angels, Revelation 5:11-12 declares, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts 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 that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.’”
While the term “saying” is used, it is most clear the terms “sung” (v. 10) and “saying” (vs. 10-11) are used synonymously, as, again, verse 9 reads, “and they sung a new song, saying…” With chapters four and five of Revelation bathed in song, praise and worship, it is rather obvious that singing is implied and is the meaning, not just speaking.
Do angels sing? I think the answer is obvious. God has created “every creature which is in heaven and on the earth” (Rev. 5:13), with an inner propensity for singing, and exhorts us to sing and make melody in our hearts to Him (Eph. 5:19). At Christmas time, if you listen closely, you can hear angels singing all around us of the Good News that a Saviour has come to dwell with us.
Let us lift our voices in song with the chorus of angels who on that first Christmas night sang joyfully of our Saviour’s birth.
Let us raise our voices in praise and joyful song for our great God who came to walk amongst us. As we sing of the Christmas story, we continue that crescendo of praise heard on that first Christmas night and that has continued to echo down through the ages. Sing joyfully. The angels do.