God Rest Ye Merry

I have been singing and whistling and humming Christmas hymns for weeks. As I do so, I like to think on the words to these carols. Some of the texts are packed with peculiar and profound clarity and theology. For instance, can we find any more powerful a declaration of the Gospel than this line?

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!

Sometimes, we sing without care and miss the wondrous beauty and worship a hymn writer inspires by their craft, especially, it seems, when we sing Christmas carols. We miss the original meaning of the text or fail to grasp the significance punctuation may intend. Take, for example, the carol, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” and note the placement of the comma.

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 power when we were gone astray.

Though first published in Britain in 1833 in a collection of carols compiled by William Sandys, the lyrics are actually from the 15^th century. This familiar Christmas carol became widely known in America in the late 1800s – so much so, that one A.H. Bullen would say in 1885 that this was “the most popular of Christmas carols.” In fact, this carol is the carol of Charles Dickens’classic novel, A Christmas Carol, written in 1843. Old Ebenezer Scrooge would have saved himself a night of hauntings had he heeded the caroling of one unfortunate lad at his stoop. For good reason, this carol is still quite popular today, and I would hope with this article to make it more popular with you this Christmas.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Adjustments made in culture and language over the centuries have led many of us to miss the import and impact of this great carol. We typically fail to recognize the comma between “merry” and “gentlemen” in the first line. Therefore, we mistakenly assume this is some glad song about some cheerful chaps at Christmas. This is far more than a song about “merry gentlemen.” This is a call for gentlemen to be merry, a call to courageous and manly godliness.

We only get this when we understand that the word "merry" originally meant strong or valiant. Think of Robin Hood and his “Merry Men” – Little John, Will Scarlett, Friar Tuck, and company. These were not merely happy rascals, but men noted for their bravery. These were manly men. To be “merry” meant to be noble, gallant, fearless, valiant, heroic.

In addition, the line beckons God Himself to “rest ye.” The word “rest” meant to make. Therefore, we should understand the first line actually to mean, “God make you heroic, gentlemen.”

Let Nothing You Dismay
This explains the second line, “Let nothing you dismay.” What have we to fear? If God be for us, if He emboldens us and makes us merry or courageous, what does it matter who or what may oppose us? Hooray! and Hallelujah! Though all people through every age, including 15^th-century commoners in Britain and 21^st-century families in America, most certainly encounter trials and disappointments and threats, we can be strongly encouraged and declare with Paul:

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …
No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him Who loved us! (Romans 8:35-37)

Remember Christ Our Savior
Was Born on Christmas Day
This Good News makes us strong in the face of the terrible turmoil and tribulation, be that trouble personal or national. So, the anonymous singer calls us to “Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day.” Keep and bear this glorious and gracious Truth in mind, and we will find ourselves made “merry” and thereby impervious to the dismay these shadowlands would have us embrace. Immanuel, God with us! “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!”

To Save Us All from Satan’s Power
when We Were Gone Astray
How exactly does remembering “Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day” evoke such hope? I believe the very essence of the Gospel is in this opening verse. Note, then, how the verse continues: “To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.” Isaiah reminds us: “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). Because of our stupid sheep-like proclivity to wander, to go astray, and to sin – often, repeatedly, and foolishly – we have made ourselves subject to Satan, and we must reap the consequences. But, thanks be to God, Jesus Christ came to deliver us from Satan's power – that dominance that pulls us continually in the wrong direction and would have us utterly destroyed. “Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray!”

Remember, beloved, and rejoice!

O Tidings of Comfort and Joy, Comfort and Joy!
O Tidings of Comfort and Joy!

Merry Christmas, beloved!

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob