Did you ever stop to ponder that there’s an entire Christmas carol about a song? It’s a song sung by angels, heard by the world, caught into the hearts of mankind, and reflected by responsive hearts. This song is the entire theme of the Christmas season – for Scripture declares that the Baby whose birth we celebrate is our song!
This carol also perfectly encompasses the next fruit of the Spirit, which we’re examining on this seventh day of Christmas: kindness, or as some translations render it, gentleness. This kindness is the goodwill of God towards us channeled through us to others. It’s the message the angels brought: “goodwill toward men.” And where was this goodwill, this kindness, more perfectly demonstrated than through the birth of our Savior.
Today, let’s look a little deeper at what happened with that angel’s song, as told by It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. Examining the words of this carol provides valuable insight into a bit more of what we celebrate each December:
It came upon a midnight clear – that glorious song of old
From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men from heav’n’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing.
The first verse introduces us to the song: “It came upon the midnight clear” sets the stage by describing the circumstances and setting for what follows. It is almost the equivalent of a story beginning, “It was a dark and stormy night…” However, this is a “midnight clear” – clear in memory, clear in its purpose, clear in its effect upon the hearts of men for centuries afterwards. There is no mistaking the words and source of this song!
What came? “That glorious song of old!” It was the song of Moses and of the Lamb, the song angels have sung around the throne since the beginning of time, the song the morning stars and sons of God sang the day the earth was formed, the song believers shall sing for endless ages of eternity – Yahweh is our song! This song has no beginning and no end; it grows evermore beautiful as years go by.
In this instance, the song came “from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.” Angels are merely messengers – ambassadors from God to mankind; and as such, the angels were singing the song of God Himself. Perhaps the harps may represent the hearts of men, silent to this point, until the angels set them ringing.
Furthermore, the song that they sung was heard by shepherds, recorded by disciples, and is today read by millions: “Peace on the earth, goodwill to men from heaven’s all gracious King!” Before the stunning beauty of the angels’ song, the world was silenced, touched by a solemn hush in the presence of the holy song from angels’ lips.
Have we spent time today hushed as the powerful song of Almighty God sings itself to us? Are we too rushed within our busy days to savor the stillness of listening to the angels’ song? Are we taking time to simply lay in solemn stillness, doing nothing but listening?
Sadly, few do:
Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong,
And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing!
The Song is not without opposition. Sadly, the powerful forces of sin, strife, and wrong labor their hardest to drown out the song. Instead of resting bathed in Song, the whole creation groans and travails until now, waiting for the adoption and redemption of the body.
Unfortunately, too many men and women have been completely deafened to the love song of Father that the angels bring to earth. Their ears are closed and they cannot hear. Only through the quickening and loosening work of Jesus Christ can their ears be opened to hear the Song. During His life on earth, He proved repeatedly that He is able to unstop the ears of the deaf.
This is not only for unbelievers; we are dependent upon His listening power every moment of the day. Each moment that we receive that grace and power from Him, we are enabled to hear His song. Are we receiving that hearing power from Him?
All ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.
Is this a fitting description of your life? All of us, at some time or another, are bent low beneath life’s crushing load, toiling along the climbing way which is appointed for us. Each one of us is, at times, nearly overwhelmed by the necessary things of life – not to mention the burdens we place upon ourselves of those things in life that are not necessary. If you have ever for one second in your life felt this way, this message is for you! Jesus calls, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!”
What is the call? It is to look! “Look now!” “Look unto Me, and be ye saved!” It echoes the example in the wilderness of the brass serpent on the pole, which, if anyone looked at, he would live and not die. Those who looked received immediate rest and relief.
“Look now!” Why continue to suffer in weariness when you can receive the ability to hear His Song this moment? Look now! “Glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.” What are these glad and golden hours? The glad, golden hours are the hours of “resting beside the weary road and hearing the angels sing.” It is a choice: continue to toil on your own way, burdened by your own life and pained by cared, or else simply look and rest beside the weary road.
This is a beautiful picture of the strait path to which Christ calls us. The strait way is actually “resting beside the weary road and hearing the angels sing.” The broad way is continuing to toil painfully through our own way. Because human nature likes to “do” rather than to “be,” many there be which go in at the broad way. Relatively few choose to take the narrow way of surrendering all to Him in rest.
This is exactly what Mary did. While Martha was cumbered with many things and busy and troubled with much serving, Mary chose to rest and listen to the Song. Jesus commended her, saying that she had chosen the one thing needful. Martha, on the other hand, chose to continue carrying her burdens on the weary road – which led to frustration, condemnation, feelings of injustice, and a rebuke from Jesus.
Because we are so busy, distracted, and pained by toiling along with our own burdens, we cannot hear the love song from Father brought to us by the angels. When we choose to rest beside the road, our ears can hear the song – and the Song grants us the strength and grace we need both to keep resting and to live life. Which do you choose?
Why should we choose to rest and listen? It is because “the days are hastening on” – the days which prophets spoke of. These are the days spoken of in Peter: “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (I Peter 1:10-11). The days that the prophets foretold – the days that were, at this point, hastening on – are the days of the kingdom of God! That is what the Song is about!
The carol goes on to describe these days:
For lo! the days are hast’ning on, by prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song which now the angels sing!
The kingdom of God is peace – peace resting in the Holy Spirit! When we “rest beside the weary road” and listen to the Song, allowing it to pervade and control our lives, we live within that peace. The kingdom has come in our lives.
However, the song does not stop with the angels! When we choose to stop and rest and listen to this powerful, life-giving, beautiful, perfect, loving Song, the Song echoes itself in our hearts! Now, because the kingdom of God is present in our lives, we give back the song the angels first sang!
We become (take on the identity of) messengers of God – messengers of the covenant and the life.
The Song brings extraordinary results in our lives, allowing us to live in God’s love, peace, rest, and kingdom. It replaces our cares with His care for us. However, it is not just for us. Even though we are to rest beside the weary road and soak in the fullness and beauty of the Song, we are not to keep it for ourselves. God designed us to repeat the Song to those around us. He desires everyone to enter into the fullness of the rest in His Song – and for some, that will only happen as we repeat the Song.
The sin, strife, and care of this world blind men to the song when the angels sing it – but perhaps they may hear the song as we sing it. The question, then, for us is – are we faithful to sing it?
The heart of this song is first to rest – first to rest and listen, then to sing to others. It does not matter if you do not think that others can hear it – sing anyway! Sing for pure joy of the Song in your life. Sing for Him. He is the focus – and He will echo and re-echo the song as He chooses.
That is the message of Christmas time – the message of the song. Rest – and sing – for Him!
~~~
Come back tomorrow for Every Night Holy.
Find the rest of today’s Twelve Days of Christmas party posts here.
Enter the giveaway here.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~ Luke 2:13-14
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. ~ Isaiah 30:29-30
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. ~ Revelation 14:1-3
His song shall be with me. ~ Psalm 42:8
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