Just Pondering
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Rick Branan |
Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.” Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!
Luke 2:11-14 (CSBBible)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, D.C.L. was born at Portland, Maine, Feb. 27, 1807, and graduated at Bowdoin College, 1825. After residing in Europe for four years to qualify for the Chair of Modern Languages in that College, he entered upon the duties of the same. In 1835 he removed to Harvard, on his election as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles-Lettres. He retained that Professorship to 1854. His literary reputation is great, and his writings are numerous and well known. His poems, many of which are as household words in all English-speaking countries, display much learning and great poetic power. A few of these poems and portions of others have come into common use as hymns, but a hymn-writer in the strict sense of that term he was not and never claimed to be.
John Julian
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace of earth, good will to men.
I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th'unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
Written by Henry W. Longfellow
This is my mother’s favorite Christmas carol. We don’t sing it very much. As a child, we listened to Christmas albums and Bing Crosby sang the recording I remember best. My favorite phrase in the carol is the final line in each stanza, “Of peace on earth, good will to men.” It reminds me of the angel’s announcement of Christ’s birth. The key word is peace. Y’all know my favorite benediction is “Go in peace.”
What did the angel mean? The Greek root means quietness or rest. As a child of the 60’s, peace was the counter-culture’s protest against the Viet Nam war. But the angel meant much more than this. MacArthur suggests peace is a corollary to our justification, that first step of salvation. Paul writes in Romans 5, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Interestingly, the First Advent brought peace or reconciliation with God. Christ describes the Second Advent, “Do you think that I came here to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51) When Christ returns, there will be no peace until He establishes His kingdom.
So, was Longfellow writing about the peace that comes at justification? No! He wrote the poem at a low point in his life. His wife had died in a tragic fire, and his eldest son was wounded at the Battle of Mine Run during the Civil War. This was Longfellow’s protest song. One stanza of his poem reads:
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
But we see his turn toward God, “God is not dead nor doth He sleep.” The psalmist wrote (Psalm 121:1-4):
I lift my eyes toward the mountains.
Where will my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
your Protector will not slumber.
Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep.
Despite the evil and hate in the world, our God is on His throne and not asleep and has provided us salvation. That gives me peace!
Just pondering . . . Bro. Rick