“Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (Psalm 96:1-3 NIV).
Christmas is an interesting time, isn’t it? In a world that generally seems to be moving at such a pace “forward” – always running after the next greatest things – the modern season of Christmas also wraps into itself a looking back, a remembering of past things, even a rootedness in those things. Think about the songs we sing at Christmas – everything from the almost 1000 year-old “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” to “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Not every song sung at Christmas truly celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, but many very old, old, and even not-so-old songs do.
The Psalmist tells us to “sing a new song to the Lord.” I think at Christmas our human nature loves the familiar songs like “Joy to the World” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” that many of us have sung since childhood. There are wonderful newer songs like “Mary Did You Know?” but today I want to focus on an older/newer song. This song did not start as a Christmas piece, but is now one of the more familiar songs in our Christmas repertoire. Partly because of its very repetitive musical ideas, it can easily be adapted for every musical ensemble from children’s choir to mass adult choir/orchestra/bell choir.
What we now call “Ukrainian Bell Carol” or “Carol of the Bells,” was a folk tune that originated as a celebration of the Ukrainian New Year in April. The song premiered there in 1916 and was first heard in the United States in 1922 when the Ukrainian National Chorus performed at Carnegie Hall, New York. One of the listeners at that performance was Peter Wilhousky, a Ukrainian-American choral director and arranger for the NBC Symphony Orchestra. For that tune he wrote new lyrics that focused on images of bells and carolers, and he turned the New Year folk song into “Carol of the Bells,” a full-fledged Christmas carol. This short but joyful tune has been remade by many popular singers and even the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Yet, its simple message of “Hark how the bells/Sweet silver bells/All seem to say/Throw cares away/Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!” is contagious.
As you hear this (relatively) “new song” to the Lord, I pray you would know the joy of this season.
Timeless God,
Praise be to you, Lord from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness, power, glory, majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. From the beginning of time until the end of time you are God and we thank you for including us in that time. Thank you for the many old and new songs that we sing to celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for the unique stories of how those carols came to us and for the many ways in which we hear them sung and played. Help us be mindful this season of the spiritual roots that sustain us and to be able to joyfully sing new songs of praise to you. As we sing to you, praising your name and proclaiming your salvation, may our declarations of your glory and marvelous deeds be offerings of worship that please your heart. We ask in Christ’s name, Amen.
“Praise be to you, Lord,
the God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chronicles 29:10-11 NIV)