Songs of the Season

Songs are Powerful

Last week after taking a look at our beloved Christmas trees and how they intersect with the Tree of Life found in the second chapter and the last chapter of our Bibles, today we are going to look at the Songs of the Season.

Unlike any other holiday in America, Christmas is tied to carols.  We sang many of them this morning, as music is so tied to what it means to be human.  There are studies all over the internet about how our brains react differently to music, how it impacts fetuses while in their mothers womb, and even its healing power for people with parkinsons.

And we understand, there is something music does to change our mood, and especially at Christmas, puts us in a festive mood.  My mom used to play the same Dolly Parton Christmas album on a little blue cassette tape every year at Christmas while baking cookies.  I’m sure many of you have certain songs by different artists locked into your minds.  It’s almost as if somehow the songs move from our heads to your hearts and evoke certain emotions and memories.

Modern civilization isn’t the first to see the importance of music, as long as people have been breathing, songs have been sung.  The ancient world sang songs – we have records of it in numerous near east cultures. Even in our Bibles, we have an entire song book, the Psalms are written as songs to God and about God.    

One interesting thing about our Bible, however is that while the Old Testament is full of songs, in the Psalms, Song of Solomon, parts of the prophets and sprinkled through some of the historical books – the New Testament is almost completely void of songs, with few exceptions – 2 of which we will be looking at today.

Songs in the Birth Narrative

Today we will be looking at Luke 1 & 2, the birth narrative of Jesus.  One thing that is totally unique in these 2 chapters is that it includes 4 songs!  So often we read this section of scripture and we skip through the content that is old and familiar and we don’t even notice all the songs.

One reason we might not notice them as songs is because they don’t say they are songs. And they don’t rhyme.  And we can’t hear any music.  But the translators of our Bibles are able to tell from the original Greek that the passages we are going to look at today are in fact words of songs and not just paragraphs.  

One side benefit of seeing something like this is that it reminds us that our Bibles were not written in English, not even the King’s English of the King James Version. Every Bible we read is a translation from the Greek to English – and so we miss the rhyming and the rhythm of the syllables that a first century Jew would instantly have recognized as a song or at least a poem.

When people who know the original languages come across these passages in the original text, it jumps off the page as something different, more like reading “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” vs a more descriptive rendering of “The evening of December 24 was an exceptionally quiet night in the house.”  

And that’s why, when you look in your Bibles, these sections are indented differently.  So while Luke 1:46 reads, “Mary said”, every scholar agrees this was not more than just her thoughts like a teenager wondering at some big idea – it is clearly poetic, with structure – a song!

So, now that I’ve shown you that these 4 sections we are going to look at in Luke’s gospel are, in fact, songs, let’s briefly take a look at the 4:

Mary’s Song:

First on the scene is Mary.  She has already been visited by an Angel and been told she will have a baby.  Additionally, she has been told that her aged relative is also pregnant.  When Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, she bursts into song:

Luke 1:46-49 And Mary said: 

And then through the remainder of this song, Mary describes the upside-down aspect of God’s work in elevating the humble while bringing down powerful rulers. Her praise to God is for remembering the poor and providing for the hungry.

Zechariah’s Song

Next we encounter a song by Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth after the unlikely birth of his own son in his advanced years:

Luke 1:68-69 – Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, 

because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 

⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn ^z of salvation for us 

in the house of his servant David.

In the remainder of Zechariah’s song, he describes the salvation and rescue of Israel from their enemies and he worships and praises God for faithfully fulfilling his promise to redeem his people.

The Angels’ Song

The most famous of the 4 songs in Luke is the Angel’s song, which the shepherds are blessed to hear after being told the Messiah has been born in a stable in Bethlehem.

Luke 2:14 – “Glory to God in the highest heaven, 

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 

Again, this song is one of praise to God for bringing peace, through the sending of the baby Jesus, to earth.

Simeon’s Song

And finally, we have an obscure character at the end of chapter 2, Simeon, a devout follower of God whom God has told he would not die before one day seeing the Messiah.  Well, on the day that Jesus was taken to the temple to be dedicated to the Lord, which was the custom for your first born boy, Simeon was shown by God that Jesus was the one he was to see.  And then we read his song of praise:

Luke 2:29-32 – “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, 

you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 

³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation, 

³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 

³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles, 

and the glory of your people Israel.”

Now I know, this was a very brief look at the 4 songs of Luke’s birth story about Jesus.  But looking at them quickly allows us to see a similarity.  All these songs are songs of praise to God for who he is and what he has done. These songs aren’t all about the people singing the song.  They aren’t all about how lucky they are, or about how they feel deep down.  Yes, they are heartfelt and contain emotion, but the obvious point of each song is to praise God for the salvation he is bringing by fulfilling the promise to send a Messiah who would rescue Israel from their enemies and lead the hearts of the people back to God.

Not a New Song

But the really interesting thing is that these songs of praise recorded by Luke are really not a new song at all. Now I hope you get as excited about what I’m about to show you as I was when I found this. Would you like to guess what the first recorded song in our Bibles comes from? 

Let me read to you the song of Moses, from Exodus 15:1-3:

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: 

“I will sing to the Lord, 

for he is highly exalted. 

Both horse and driver 

he has hurled into the sea. 

² “The Lord is my strength and my defense; 

he has become my salvation. 

He is my God, and I will praise him, 

my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 

³ The Lord is a warrior; 

the Lord is his name. 

Yes, that’s right, the first song in our Bible is about God rescuing Israel from their enemies and leading them back to God.  Moses sang this song right after God had delivered his people out of the bondage and slavery of Egypt and then had allowed them to cross the Red Sea on dry ground before it closed up and killed all the chariot drivers of Pharoahs massive army.  2000 years before people were singing songs of praise to God for bringing salvation to God’s people through Jesus, Moses and the Israelites were singing a song of praise to God for bringing salvation to God’s people!

And guess what – singing songs of praise to God is part of our future with him forever.  When you flip to the end of our Bibles, in the book of Revelation, we are shown a picture of a King’s throne room, filled with thousands upon thousands of people, which happens to be filled with song. Let’s take a look:

Revelation 5:13 – Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: 

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb 

be praise and honor and glory and power, 

for ever and ever!” 

The Breath of Our Songs

Just like we traced the theme of the tree through the pages of scripture last week, I love seeing how people have been praising God for who he is and what he has done from early on in scripture all the way through the picture of God’s eternal throne.  

In fact, the more we think about praising God through song, it only feels like it SHOULD be our natural response to God.  Physically speaking, when we sing, we are exhaling our breath to make the sounds of praise.  And where did that breath come from?  In the very beginning we are told where the source of our breath came from:

Genesis 2:7 – Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

So when we sing songs of praise to God, we are breathing out his breath of life to praise him for the life he has given to us.  We are taking the focus off of us and our situation and putting that focus on him and the great works he has done and will do.  We are reflecting the glory that we see around us and crediting it to the provider of all things.

And we have the opportunity to sing these songs of praise to God every day. We need not wait until Sunday morning worship service.  And we don’t even need the radio playing or to know the words of a popular hymn or song.  Just like those who were overwhelmed by the incredible news that God had finally sent the promised Messiah and responded with impromptu songs, we can sing a song of praise in our hearts to God every day for who he is and what he has done.  It need not rhyme, or have music, or a beat.  It’s about the expression of praise and gratitude for God’s always active hand in your life.  

King David sums up this response well in one of his Psalms when he writes, 

“ I waited patiently for the Lord; 

he turned to me and heard my cry. 

² He lifted me out of the slimy pit, 

out of the mud and mire; 

he set my feet on a rock 

and gave me a firm place to stand. 

³ He put a new song in my mouth, 

a hymn of praise to our God. 

A New Song in Your Heart This Christmas

I love how David says God put a new song in his mouth.  Think about that for a moment.  God want’s to put a new song into each of our hearts this Christmas season.  Yes, the holiday is already filled with songs, and fun traditional songs are part of this time of year, but they don’t serve the same purpose as the song God wants us singing to him.  God gave us breath, he offered us salvation from our bondage and slavery to sin and bad choices that held us back, and our response to him, with every breath we take, should be praise and glory and honor that springs up deep from our hearts forever and ever.