Lyrics
Songs of praise the angels sang,
Heaven with alleluias rang,
When creation was begun,
When God spake and it was done.
Songs of praise awoke the morn
When the Prince of Peace was born;
Songs of praise arose when He
Captive led captivity.
Heaven and earth must pass away,
Songs of praise shall crown that day;
God will make new heavens, new earth,
Songs of praise shall hail their birth.
And shall we alone be dumb
Till that glorious kingdom come?
No, the church delights to raise
Psalms and hymns and songs of praise.
Saints below, with heart and voice,
Still in songs of praise rejoice;
Learning here, by faith and love,
Songs of praise to sing above.
Hymns of glory, songs of praise,
Father, unto Thee we raise,
Jesu, glory unto Thee,
With the Spirit, ever be.
Public domain hymn text (1819). Words by James Montgomery.
The Story Behind the Hymn
James Montgomery wrote 'Songs of Praise the Angels Sang' in 1819, tracing praise across the full sweep of biblical history, from creation itself through Christ's birth and ascension to the ongoing praise of the Church on earth.
Its later verses, often omitted in shorter hymnal printings, extend the hymn's argument further, asking directly whether the Church should stay silent while heaven itself never stops singing, and answering with a firm no.
The hymn's closing doxology, addressed to Father, Son ("Jesu"), and Spirit together, brings the whole historical sweep back to a single, Trinitarian close, matching a common structure in hymns of this period.
Montgomery, a Scottish-born poet and Sheffield newspaper editor, wrote several hundred hymns across his career, and this one remained a standard text for services emphasizing the continuity of praise from creation to the present.
