Go Tell It on the Mountain

Refrain:

Go tell it on the mountain,
over the hills, and ev'rywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born.

 
1 While shepherds kept their watching
o’er silent flocks by night,
behold, throughout the heavens
there shone a holy light. [Refrain]
 
2 The shepherds feared and trembled
when lo, above the earth
rang out the angel chorus
that hailed our Savior’s birth. [Refrain]
 
3 Down in a lowly manger
the humble Christ was born,
and God sent us salvation
that blessed Christmas morn. [Refrain]
 
In the Bible, the mountain often represents the holy presence of God. Moses has to go up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and to see the Promised Land. In the Gospel, Jesus is transfigured on a mountain, an event signifying the full embodiment of the divine nature and holiness of Christ. In the Old Testament especially, the mountain is also a place that is set apart – not just everyone can go up the mountain to be in God’s presence. Psalm 24:3 asks, “Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?” God’s presence came down to the mountain, and the mountain was the barrier between the Israelites and God’s presence, much like the curtain in the temple dividing the people from the Holy of Holies.
When Christ was born however, God’s presence came down to His people in a new form, in the helplessness of a baby. And the story doesn't end there - Christmas points us to Easter, when Christ ripped the curtain in the temple and became the bridge between us and the Father, God’s holy presence in and among us. When Christ was transfigured, he had with him Peter, James and John. The glory of the LORD was no longer barred from His people. The mountain is no longer a barrier between us and God, but a place to shout the good news of God’s presence among his people in the incarnation of Christ Jesus, to “Go Tell It On the Mountain.”

No one is entirely sure who actually wrote the words of “Go Tell It On the Mountain” - the verses we sing today were likely written by John W. Work to replace verses that got lost from the original Negro spiritual. As the son of a church choir director, Work grew up in Nashville loving music.  Even though he earned his Master’s in Latin and went on to teach ancient Latin and Greek, his first love continued to be music, and he went on to become the first African-American collector of Negro spirituals.  This proved to be a daunting task for Work because they were passed down orally, from plantation to plantation; very few were ever written down.  But Work proved up to the challenge, publishing his first book, New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, in Songs of the American Negro, six years later.  It was in this second volume that “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” first appeared.  The original singers of the song fulfilled the same important task the angels gave the shepherds that first Christmas night outside of Bethlehem, proclaiming, “that Jesus Christ is born!”  And thanks to John Wesley Work, so can we.

Merry Christmas,
Dorene

Source: https://hymnary.org/text/while_shepherds_kept_their_watching#
https://gaither.com/go-tell-it-on-the-mountain-the-story-behind-the-song/