O Holy Night: Psalm 85:10-13

TURN MIC ON / WELCOME

Merry Christmas! As always it’s a joy to be with all of you for our Christmas Eve services this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re in town for the holidays or are joining us at our North Main Campus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

SERIES INTRO

Today we’re finishing up our Christmas series. In this series we’ve been looking at different Christmas carols that help tell the Christmas story. We’ve picked carols that you know and love — like Angels from the Realms of Glory, Joy to the World, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. And — our carol for Christmas Eve — is O Holy Night.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the recordings of the Christmas carols that our worship and tech team staff and volunteers have put together. All five carols are available on our youtube page for you to enjoy. Something you may not know — unless you were there — is that it was ridiculously cold the night when we recorded the songs. That was back in October — by the way — and we thought being dressed up in warm clothes was going to be just for show — well the joke was on all of us. Thanks — again — to everyone who came out for the recording — it was quite the memorable evening.

Finally, our passage — psalm eighty-five — admittedly isn’t what we typically think of when we think of Christmas. In modern times we’ve focused nearly exclusively on the gospels in the New Testament at Christmas time — but in church history — many passages have been used to tell the Christmas story — including the psalms — which is why we’re using a psalm to tell the Christmas story this year.

And now — if you have your Bible — please turn with me to psalm eighty-five. I’m going to read the entire psalm one last time — and then we’ll focus on the closing verses of the psalm.

We’re in psalm eighty-five — beginning in verse one.

Psalm 85 (NLT)

1 Lord, you poured out blessings on your land! You restored the fortunes of Israel. 2 You forgave the guilt of your people— yes, you covered all their sins. Interlude 3 You held back your fury. You kept back your blazing anger. 4 Now restore us again, O God of our salvation. Put aside your anger against us once more. 5 Will you be angry with us always? Will you prolong your wrath to all generations? 6 Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you? 7 Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. 8 I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways. 9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, so our land will be filled with his glory. 10 Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed! 11 Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. 12 Yes, the Lord pours down his blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest. 13 Righteousness goes as a herald before him, preparing the way for his steps.

INTRODUCTION

As I mentioned earlier — our carol for today is O Holy Night — a Christmas carol with an interesting origin story. It’s the year 1847 and we’re in France. A parish priest commissions a poet to write a poem for the upcoming Christmas mass — it’s important to know that this poet was not a church attender. While traveling in a carriage to Paris, the poet considered the priest’s request. He knew the poem needed to be religious in nature — it was for church after all — so he wanted to base the poem on Scripture. He picked Luke’s gospel and the poet imagined being present on the night when Jesus was born — being there as a witness. By the time his carriage arrived in Paris he had finished his poem and titled it Cantique de Noel.

He knew that his poem was more than a poem — he knew it was a song — but was not a musician. So he called on one of his friends to put his poem to music. His musician friend was Jewish — so let’s pause for a moment and grasp what’s going on. A priest commissioned a poet who didn’t attend church to write a poem about the birth of Jesus. The poem became a song because a Jewish composer — who didn’t believe in Jesus — wrote music to accompany the poem’s lyrics.

Three weeks after the music was finished the carol was sung at midnight mass on Christmas Eve. It was embraced by the church in France and the carol began to be sung in churches throughout the country. But then the carol’s story takes an interesting twist.

The poet — who was never really a church goer — became involved in the socialist movement in France. Then church leadership discovered that the composer was a Jew and not a Christian. And — suddenly — a carol that had risen to being one of the most popular songs in the church of France was denounced by the church. The carol was considered — and I quote — “unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and total absence of the spirit of religion.” Though the church tried to bury the song — the people continued to sing it — and ten years later an American writer brought the carol to the US.

John Sullivan Dwight was a pastor and abolitionist living in Boston. He translated the carol into English as he hoped the carol would impact slavery in the south. The lyrics that struck him were “Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brothers; and in his name all oppression shall cease!” The carol quickly grew in popularly in America — especially in the North during the civil war.

Back in France — the year is 1871 — the carol has been banned for about twenty years — and legend has it that on Christmas Eve — during the war between Franco-Prussian War — a war between France and Germany — on Christmas Eve a French soldier got out of the trench he was fighting from, stood up with no weapon in his hand, and sang three verses of O Holy Night. When he finished — again legend has it — that a German soldier then stood up and sang lyrics from a song written by Martin Luther. And for the next twenty-four hours — both armies observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day.

One last piece of O Holy Night history that’s important for us to know. On Christmas Eve — in 1906 — Reginald Fessenden — did something that was considered impossible at the time. For the first time in history, a man’s voice was broadcast over the airwaves and it was Fessenden’s voice. Do you know what the first words spoken over radio airwaves were?

Luke 2:1

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

People listening to their radios — used to only hearing coded impulses — were shocked to hear the gospel of Luke coming from their speakers. Fessenden probably had no idea the sensation he was causing — men and women rushing to hear this Christmas Eve miracle — but after finishing his reading about the birth of Christ — he picked up his violin and played the melody to O Holy Night over the airwaves. The first song to be played on the radio was our carol.

In many ways — the history of O Holy Night — is just as much as what Christmas is about as the lyrics of the carol. In the carol’s history we see God’s providence at work — that he is working behind the scenes in all things. If not for God, how would an unbeliever and a Jew come together to write a Christmas carol that tells the gospel story? The history of the carol reminds us of the affects that sin has had in our world — war and slavery — and why Christ came — to bring peace on earth. The history of our carol reminds us that things we can often get worked up about today — on going conflicts in our world, culture wars, or how we in the church can get all out of sorts about who’s the author of the songs that we sing instead of focusing on if the songs tell the truth of our faith — often don’t mean much in a few hundred years. That doesn’t mean that they’re unimportant now — just that they’re probably not nearly as important as we make them out to be — which also means that something else — that is really important — is probably being overlooked.

Yes — the history of our carol — has much to teach us — and so does God’s Word. So let’s turn to the final verses in our psalm and find the hope, love, joy, and peace that’s offered to us in Jesus Christ.

O Holy Night

Again the words of our psalm for today remind us that...

Psalm 85:10–13 (NLT)

10 Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed! 11 Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. 12 Yes, the Lord pours down his blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest. 13 Righteousness goes as a herald before him, preparing the way for his steps.

The questions for us to answer are: Where did unfailing love and truth meet? Where did righteousness — righteousness means being right with God — where did righteousness and peace kiss? When did truth spring up from the earth? When did righteousness smile down from heaven? Who was righteousness preparing the way for?

Well — this is Christmas — so the one answer to our many questions — I think — is obvious. For love and truth met in Jesus Christ. Righteousness and peace came together in him. Truth sprang up from the earth when Jesus rose from the grave — for he is the way, the truth, and the life. And he smiles down from heaven as he looks upon his people in whom he is well pleased. You see — righteousness was preparing the way for the Messiah to come — Jesus, the Christ child — who was born on that holy night.

All of these characteristics come together in Jesus — and in him alone. In us, these characteristics are disconnected and often in conflict with each other. For example, it’s common for people to justify unfaithfulness in the pursuit something they love. Yet — in Christ — all of these characteristics and qualities are in harmony with each other.

Do you remember the lyrics in our carol?

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Pining isn’t a word we use much these days. It means to “suffer a mental and physical decline, especially because of a broken heart.”

And God — in seeing the brokenness of our hearts — in seeing our suffering and decline — sent his Son to be born — to appear — so your soul and mine would experience the thrill of an eternal hope — a reason to rejoice in this weary world.

And — as the carol continues — it reminds us that...

Truly he taught us to love one another; His law is love and his gospel is peace.

Do you know where Jesus taught us to love one another? It’s in his words which were read earlier in the service from John’s gospel.

John 15:12–13 (NLT)

12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Jesus was born with a goal in mind. To make the unrighteous, righteous. To give hope to the hopeless. To release captives from their enslavement to sin, death, and fear. To show us what it means to both be loved and to love one another. And for those who receive his love — believing that Jesus is the Savior and hope for the world — they become part of a choir who sings a song of joy.

CONCLUSION

I wonder if there’s any joyful singing in your life this Christmas Eve? any reason for hope in this weary world? Any peace between you and others versus the warring and conflict that often defines relationships in our day? I wonder if you know of God’s unfailing love for you? The love that’s the greatest love of all because it came at the laying down of Jesus’ life for you?

My prayer for you — for all of us — is that this would be a Merry Christmas indeed. A Christmas where God’s love for you in Jesus Christ would open your heart to receiving the gifts of hope, love, joy, and peace that’s found in child born on that O Holy Night. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, what a holy night that first Christmas was and still is today. For it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. The plan of rescue and salvation that you made before time began.

Holy Spirit, remind us of the reasons we have to be joyful. Remind us of the hope we have. The peace we’ve been offered. The unfailing love that’s been displayed to and for us in Jesus Christ.

And — Jesus — you are the reason for our thrill of hope. For you have shown us what it means to be loved — for you laid down your life for us and you rose from the grave — springing up from the earth — with a new and glorious truth. You have defeated Satan, sin, death, and Hell for your people. And in response to these great promises and truths — we join together to rejoice in this weary world. In your name we pray. Amen.

BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available)

May you go with hope and peace, in love and with joy for Christ your Savior is born. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. Merry Christmas! And you are sent.