Today Daily Devotional

“Silent Night! Holy Night” is another well-known Christmas hymn. It was written by parish priest Joseph Mohr when the organ at the small church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, Austria, broke down. Mohr wrote this song to be accompanied by guitar on December 24, 1818.

“Silent Night” tells the story of the birth of Jesus the Messiah from Luke 2.

In the closing lines of three stanzas in this song, we hear important titles that are ­assigned to Jesus at his birth. He is the “Savior,” “Christ (Messiah),” and “Lord.” All of these titles are mentioned by the angel of the Lord in Luke 2:11.

Appearing to shepherds at night in a bright burst of glory, the angel announces the birth of the Savior in the nearby town of David (Bethlehem), saying, “He is the Messiah [Christ], the Lord.”

This is the greatest birth announcement ever. The baby born in Bethlehem has signifi­cance for the whole world. He is the Savior, the one who saves us from our sins. He is the Messiah, the “anointed one” promised through the prophets. And he is the Lord. God sent his Son, who is himself fully God, to become human and live among us.

“Christ the Savior is born!”

Growing up in the southwestern United States gave me a lot of opportunities to see the desert in bloom. A desert in full bloom is one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth. Part of the reason it can be so breathtaking is that for most of the year the desert looks like a wasteland. It looks the way Isaiah describes it—as a “parched land”—until the cactus blossoms and bright, radiant colors abound across the landscape. This can bring so much joy to the people who live there.

Isaiah describes the desert as responding with gladness and joy. The picture Isaiah paints is one of hope for the hopeless in a dry land.

“Lo, How a Rose E’er Bloom­ing” takes this picture and connects it to Isaiah’s prophecy of a shoot coming from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). It ties the bloom of the crocus together with the “tender stem” that sprouted from the line of David, the son of Jesse. This imagery is then connected with the birth of Christ: “True God and yet true man, he came to save his people from earth’s dark night of sin.”

At the birth of Christ we see hope, joy, and gladness. Jesus brings us the water of life, redeeming us from sin and death and replacing our sorrow and sighing with renewed strength and everlasting joy.

“Of the Father’s Love Begotten” is another ancient Christmas hymn. It dates back to a poem from the fourth or fifth century A.D. This song celebrates the confession that Christ is the eternal Son of God. From the very opening lines of this song, Christ is recognized as God from before the beginning of time: “Of the Father’s love begotten ere the worlds began to be,/ he is Alpha and Omega—he the source, the ending he,/ of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see/ evermore and evermore.”

The name Alpha and Omega is used in the book of Revelation, and it refers to the Lord God Almighty. Jesus refers to himself in this way in Revelation 22, as the one who promises to return to make all things new.

We sing this song as a testimony to what Christmas is all about: the Creator of the world, who loves his creation so much, came to rescue and redeem it, and he promises to come again and restore it forever.

It is no small thing to welcome Jesus as the Lord and Savior of all creation—including us. And he promises to come again to make everything new so that we can live with him in the new heaven and earth for­ever. So we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” is one of the more well-known songs of Christmas. In its first three stanzas it tells the story of Christ’s birth with triumphant joy. And in the fourth stanza it draws from the deep mystery described in John 1.

The prologue of the book of John describes Jesus as the Word of God. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And in fourteen short verses of Scripture we find a summary of the purpose of the coming of Christ.

For all who receive Jesus, believing in him as the true light of the world, he gives “the right to become children of God.” Amazing!

John 1 tells us that “the Word be­came flesh and made his dwell­ing among us.” In other words, God himself came to be one of us. He came to live with us. He came to provide us the gift of becoming children of God.

“Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing”—this simple yet profound lyric reminds us that God himself has come to be one of us.

When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the mystery that God has become one of us—so that he could save us from the curse of sin and death, giving us new life as the children of God. And as the song’s refrain invites us to sing, “O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!”

Zechariah’s song in Luke 1 is the basis of the song “Blessed be the God of Israel.” This is a newer song, and it has an easy, familiar tune, as found in several hymnals (for example, Lift Up Your Hearts, 67).

At the announcement of the birth of his son, Zechariah the priest could not contain himself. After many months of not being able to speak, Zechariah burst into song: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.” But the Savior, Jesus, had not been born yet, so what was happening here?

Zechariah knew that his son (John the Baptist, as we know him) would be the prophet who came to “prepare the way” for the coming of the Messiah (Jesus).

This song, also known as the Benedictus (in Latin), tells us that the coming Messiah will come to rescue and redeem us, to bring us salvation and forgiveness of sins—all so that we may “serve him without fear.”

The Messiah has come to rescue us for a purpose, his purpose—so that we can serve him. As the hymn puts it, he came “to save us all, that we might worship without fear and offer lives of praise,/ in holiness and righteousness to serve God all our days.”

“Savior of the Nations, Come” is one of the oldest hymns used in the Advent/Christmas season. It dates back to the fourth century A.D. in the works of Ambrose, and in later years Martin Luther (1523).

This song tells the story of the virgin birth. Mary’s honest question about how it would be possible for her to give birth is explained by the angel in Luke 1:35: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The child born to Mary would therefore be called “the Son of God.”

The song also includes the theme we reflected on yesterday from Philippians 2. “Christ laid down his majesty, passed through dark Gethsemane.” The Son of God, the promised Messiah, laid aside the glory of heaven to become a human being, to live among us in this world, and to submit to death on a cross to save us from sin.

Then he rose from the dead and ascended to rule in ­heaven. “Though he left his Father’s home, Christ now sits on God’s own throne.” This echoes the theme of exaltation in Philippians 2 and what the angel prophesied: “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David . . . his kingdom will never end.”

So in this song we proclaim, with believers down through the ages, “Come, Lord Jesus, Savior of the nations!”

“O Come, O Come, Im­man­uel” is a song filled with various titles for Jesus. These were all roles that he would fulfill by taking on our human flesh and becoming Immanuel (“God with us”).

Some months before Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord told Joseph in a dream that the child who would be born to Mary, his fiancée, was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The child was to be named Jesus because he would “save his people from their sins.” And this would fulfill a prophecy of Isaiah about a child born to a virgin; the child would be called Immanuel, which means “God with us” (see Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:20-23).

Philippians 2 describes how God himself comes down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is fully God, humbles himself, and is “made in human likeness.” And he comes with a purpose and a mission: to pay the price for our sins by dying in our place. He took on himself the weight of all our sin and paid the full price to free us by dying on a cross.

Whenever we sing about “Immanuel,” we sing about God himself becoming like us to save us from our sin. Jesus became Immanuel, “God with us,” to experience what we experience, to suffer as we suffer. And even more—to rescue us from that suffering. “Rejoice! Rejoice!” Immanuel has come to us!

This song begins with the announcement: “The Savior comes, the Savior promised long!” For God’s people waiting for the Messiah, this was a welcome announcement.

Why? The Messiah who was promised since the time of Isaiah was to come with blessings for God’s people. The rest of the song describes what this Messiah would do:

“He comes the prisoners to release, in Satan’s bondage held. . . .”

“He comes the broken heart to bind, the wounded soul to cure. . . .”

At the beginning of Jesus’ teaching ministry, he was in­vited to read from the Scriptures in his hometown. He turned to this passage from Isaiah and read the words of our text for today. And when he finished, he said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

The Savior has come! This is exciting for God’s people every­where. The Lord and Savior has come with good news to meet all of our needs: to release us from our bondage to sin and Satan—to heal our broken hearts and cure our wounded souls. This is what we prepare to celebrate in the coming weeks. The long-promised Savior has come!

“Comfort, Comfort Now My People” is an old song with a powerful message. It is based on Isaiah 40:1-5, which gives hope to God’s people. It provides hope that our comfort will come.

In this song we sing about a prophet who was called to pre­pare the way for the coming Messiah. John the Baptist was that prophet (see Mark 1:1-11; John 1:19-34); he came to “prepare the way for the Lord.” John called people to repentance, preparing their hearts for the coming Savior. His work renews our hope that God fulfills his promise to comfort his people.

At the birth of Jesus, God fulfills his promise of bringing comfort. Jesus comes for the pur­pose of saving us from our sins. The Bible tells us that our sin has been paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross. Because Jesus has paid for our sins, we have comfort in knowing that we can find true peace and rest in him. Whenever we face struggles and challenges, we can remember that our comfort is in Christ.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” And it answers, “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”

There is no greater comfort to be found than in Christ alone.

“Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.” These opening lines of a hymn by Charles Wesley (1744) capture the spirit of Advent, in which we anticipate and celebrate Christ’s coming as the Savior of the world (see John 3:16).

The season of Advent began a few days ago, and in many churches people have already sung this song to focus their celebration of Christ’s coming. This song speaks to the hope the prophet Isaiah had before the coming of the Messiah, the promised Savior of God’s people. The people were in exile, and the theme of being set free and blessed and comforted ­offered great hope.

Focusing on Jesus Christ as the Savior, this song offers us hope as well: to be set free from our sin and to find our rest in Christ alone. It helps us to remember what God’s people longed for. It also helps us to remember what we long for: that Christ will come again to end all suffering and sorrow and give us full life forever.

Whenever we are dealing with difficult situations, we can sing this song with fervent hope, trusting that Jesus will come again. We long for his return to free the world from all its suffering and to comfort all who mourn.