It was a mighty fine thing setting there getting the feel of the night, a kind of stillness like you never felt anywhere else but in the far-off wilderness. There was no vanity here, nor greed, there was only a kind of quietness.”
–Louis L’Amour (Treasure Mountain)
“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.”
“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.”
–Luke 2:8 (NKJV)
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Words–it’s the main way in which we communicate. They can change or they can mean different things in different places. I remember when we first moved to Florida years ago people talked about “gopher races.” Now, to me, I had in mind those pesky little rascals that run around and live in holes in the ground. Oh, but I was wrong. A gopher was a turtle and they would place them on hot payment and watch them race against each other. Where I lived, something you used to put goods in was a sack, but back East it was a bag, yet my Grandma called it a poke. Sometimes, especially in our postmodern world, words have purposely been deconstructed to mean something altogether different than originally intended. The carol I want to share with you this morning has some words with meanings that have changed over the years.
It is one of the earliest carols written and is over five hundred years old. It was written in the fifteenth-century for and by the common people. It was sung for hundreds of years before it was actually published in the nineteenth-century due to Queen Victoria. Before we look at the carol, I want to draw your attention to a verse of Scripture, “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him [Gideon], and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!'” (Judges 6:12, NKJV)
God rest ye merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
This was the plight of man–we had gone astray and Satan was destroying mankind. Yet the Lord appeared to give comfort and joy. Now, let’s look at that very first line. We cannot possibly understand what it is saying with the meaning of the words in today’s vernacular. “Merry” had a very different meaning than just being “happy” and “carefree.” It actually meant men of “great” or “mighty valor. A mighty ruler was a merry ruler, thus “Old King Cole was a merry old soul…” A gentleman was a person who was “gentle” meaning he was a person who took “appropriate action.” Now look at the word, “rest.” It means to “keep” or “make” and the punctuation should be slightly changed. That first line in today’s English would read: “God make you mighty, gentlemen.”
From God our heavenly Father
A blessed angel came.
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by name:
“Fear not,” then said the angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Savior,
Of virtue, power, and might;
So frequently to vanquish all
The friends of Satan quite;”
Contemplate those words. The composer, unknown to us, had a good grasp of the Christmas story. Instead of a helpless babe in a manger, look how he describes the Lord–“a Savior, of virtue, power, and might,” then he tells of His purpose in coming to earth. The shepherd, at first terrified, then in awe, listened to the words of the angels and hastened to Bethlehem.
The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding,
In tempest, storm, and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straight-way
This blessed babe to find:
But when to Bethlehem they came,
Whereat this infant lay
They found him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His mother Mary kneeling,
Unto the Lord did pray:
Mary knew a little of the story because of the angel Gabriel. All through her life she would add tidbits of truth to what she had been told and what happened to her on that blessed night. She knew, I believe, that this child was to be the Savior of the world (whatever that meant at the time), and she was comforted. There had to be an inner peace within her heart that night as the shepherds came to visit.
Now to the Lord sings praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface…
The world scoffs at the meaning of Christmas. They demean the words of the prophets, the songs, and the message of Christmas. It was the same when this carol was written, but has become much worse. The world would seek to sully Christmas; dirty it up, make a mockery of it and change it to mean something entirely different. Therefore, o man of God, o woman of God–God keep and make you mighty… Go through the season with faith and joy and comfort in your hearts and minds. Say–“Mighty Christmas!”
(reference, Ace Collins, “Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, Zondervan, 2001)
——————————-
Words–it’s the main way in which we communicate. They can change or they can mean different things in different places. I remember when we first moved to Florida years ago people talked about “gopher races.” Now, to me, I had in mind those pesky little rascals that run around and live in holes in the ground. Oh, but I was wrong. A gopher was a turtle and they would place them on hot payment and watch them race against each other. Where I lived, something you used to put goods in was a sack, but back East it was a bag, yet my Grandma called it a poke. Sometimes, especially in our postmodern world, words have purposely been deconstructed to mean something altogether different than originally intended. The carol I want to share with you this morning has some words with meanings that have changed over the years.
It is one of the earliest carols written and is over five hundred years old. It was written in the fifteenth-century for and by the common people. It was sung for hundreds of years before it was actually published in the nineteenth-century due to Queen Victoria. Before we look at the carol, I want to draw your attention to a verse of Scripture, “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him [Gideon], and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!'” (Judges 6:12, NKJV)
God rest ye merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
This was the plight of man–we had gone astray and Satan was destroying mankind. Yet the Lord appeared to give comfort and joy. Now, let’s look at that very first line. We cannot possibly understand what it is saying with the meaning of the words in today’s vernacular. “Merry” had a very different meaning than just being “happy” and “carefree.” It actually meant men of “great” or “mighty valor. A mighty ruler was a merry ruler, thus “Old King Cole was a merry old soul…” A gentleman was a person who was “gentle” meaning he was a person who took “appropriate action.” Now look at the word, “rest.” It means to “keep” or “make” and the punctuation should be slightly changed. That first line in today’s English would read: “God make you mighty, gentlemen.”
From God our heavenly Father
A blessed angel came.
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by name:
“Fear not,” then said the angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Savior,
Of virtue, power, and might;
So frequently to vanquish all
The friends of Satan quite;”
Contemplate those words. The composer, unknown to us, had a good grasp of the Christmas story. Instead of a helpless babe in a manger, look how he describes the Lord–“a Savior, of virtue, power, and might,” then he tells of His purpose in coming to earth. The shepherd, at first terrified, then in awe, listened to the words of the angels and hastened to Bethlehem.
The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding,
In tempest, storm, and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straight-way
This blessed babe to find:
But when to Bethlehem they came,
Whereat this infant lay
They found him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His mother Mary kneeling,
Unto the Lord did pray:
Mary knew a little of the story because of the angel Gabriel. All through her life she would add tidbits of truth to what she had been told and what happened to her on that blessed night. She knew, I believe, that this child was to be the Savior of the world (whatever that meant at the time), and she was comforted. There had to be an inner peace within her heart that night as the shepherds came to visit.
Now to the Lord sings praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface…
The world scoffs at the meaning of Christmas. They demean the words of the prophets, the songs, and the message of Christmas. It was the same when this carol was written, but has become much worse. The world would seek to sully Christmas; dirty it up, make a mockery of it and change it to mean something entirely different. Therefore, o man of God, o woman of God–God keep and make you mighty… Go through the season with faith and joy and comfort in your hearts and minds. Say–“Mighty Christmas!”
(reference, Ace Collins, “Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, Zondervan, 2001)