Last week, I wrote about my love for the so-called “Christmas hymns” but there are too many in my heart to leave my thoughts with just one article. Let’s talk about “O Holy Night…”

O holy night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Saviour’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
‘Til He appeared, and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

That’s the first verse and it deserves tons of praise for the beauty of its poetry. The singer is drawn back in his mind to the night of Jesus’ birth, with vivid descriptions of all a bystander would have seen and heard. The stars were shining brightly. A cool wind was blowing in the air (He was born either in mid-Spring or mid-Autumn), but while the weather was mild, the spiritual state of the world was anything but. The world was “in sin and error pining” (a nice callback to Ezekiel ch33). I love the line: “Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.” Wow. Sin is all about short-term pleasure at the expense of the long-term value of the soul. We satisfy the belly and devalue the spirit. But Jesus came to remind us just how valuable our souls are to God. He gave up His life, sacrificed His short-term pleasure, as the ultimate reminder that the spirit of man is worth infinitely more than his flesh. If that doesn’t stir within you “a thrill of hope,” what can?

The first verse is great, but it’s the last verse that gets me every time…

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 brother
And in His name, all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us Praise His Holy name

If you didn’t know, O Holy Night was written in the 1840s, not long after the “Abolitionist Movement” spread across the USA in earnest, sowing the seeds for what would eventually become our horrible Civil War. You can hear the echoes of those current events in the lyrics, calling for God’s people to love one another and follow the Gospel of Peace. Jesus came to break chains, and calls on us to regard the slave, not as our property, but as our brother. I can’t imagine what it must have been like, post-Civil War, for ex-slaves to hear this song, and reflect with joy and praise on the name of Jesus, through Him “all oppression shall cease.”

What a song to sing!

~Matthew