Can You Hear the Angels Sing?

Angel Song. 

Sounds like a book title or a new fragrance at the cosmetic counter.

However, Pope Benedict XVI takes the concept quite literally, as if everyone has heard such song or at least heard of it.

I recently read about Benedict’s new book debunking a few cherished Christmas customs such as the presence of donkeys and oxen in traditional Nativity scenes. And while he stoutly defends the virgin birth, he accuses carol writers of misquoting scripture by declaring the angels sang the good news of Christ’s birth to the shepherds.

The biblical account clearly says they spoke those words, Benedict argues. But it is what he says next that grabs me by the earlobe.

“But Christianity has always understood that the speech of angels is actually song, 

in which all the glory of the great joy that they proclaim becomes tangibly present.”

That comment struck a familiar chord with me, for as a musician who has long played on church worship teams, I have always believed that music is a language—the language of the heart.

The pope might agree.

Imagine – hearing angels sing, or better yet, singing with them.

Several years ago a friend posted on his Facebook page this account of angels joining in worship with humans. (Listen to song. Listen to commentary.)

I cannot prove the recording and testimony are true, but neither can I disprove them. What I can do is continue to lift my own voice in song to the maker of heaven and earth, the lover of my soul, the king of my life—and hope that the angels are listening and joining in my praise.