Hymns4Him

When most people think about Christmas music, they seldom think about Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).  But this greatest of all church musicians has given us a large amount of wonderful music to celebrate the Savior’s birth.  These include not only organ chorales on Christmas hymns (several can be found in his “Orgelbüchlein” – “Little Organ Book,” with which all organists are very familiar), but also large works like his “Christmas Oratorio” and his “Magnificat” (Mary’s song, found in Luke 1).

One of those Christmas songs that is found in hymnals today is “O Jesus Sweet, O Jesus Mild.”   The words come from an author several decades before Bach’s birth.  But the music which he has arranged for the text has given longevity to the hymn.  Bach drew from a musical composition by an earlier German Lutheran musician, Samuel Scheidt, an organist and teacher and prolific composer of the early baroque period.  As arranged by Bach, the combination of words and music have the feel of a lullaby, with a rocking “beat” that gives the impression of a cradle swaying back and forth.

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Of all the Christmas songs in print, here’s what one writer has called “the most underrated.”   It was included in the 1990 “Trinity Hymnal,” when the editor found it in a paperback InterVarsity Christian Fellowship songbook.  He had heard it on a Christmas recording with a smaller choral ensemble from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida years earlier.  He has since discovered several churches that include it every year in their special Christmas music festival services.  It deserves to become more widely known and utilized.  It has also been a pleasant surprise to discover several recordings of it being sung in churches as an anthem recently.

It is “Lovely Child, Holy Child,” written in 1968 by David Nathaniel Johnson (1922-1987). Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was an American organist, composer, educator, choral clinician, and lecturer. He studied organ and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1940-1942). Between 1942 and 1946 he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps/Air Corps in India, Burma, and China, receiving a Meritorious Service Award and campaign ribbons. He continued his music studies at Trinity University (Texas) with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1950 and Master of Music in 1951 and Ph.D. in 1956. He also earned the associate certificate from the American Guild of Organists (AAGO). 

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If one looks for “contemporary” Christian Christmas songs, there will be a number listed in a web search.  The problem for many folks is that they usually don’t “sound” like Christmas!  We have grown up hearing and singing beautiful traditional Christmas melodies from childhood, and they have become part of our “Christmas DNA.”  Though newer songs can be fine compositions musically and textually, will they ever replace “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing?”  Probably not, or should we say, we hope not!

And yet there are some newer Christmas songs that might in time reach that classic status.  One such song is probably going to turn out to be “Joy Has Dawned upon the World,” written in 2004 by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  The Getty music team has performed it regularly in their Christmas concerts, including from New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall.  It is included in their Christmas CD and can be found by multiple performers in You Tube videos.  If your congregation wants to learn a new contemporary Christmas song, you can’t find one better than this.  Make it your December “Hymn-of-the-Month.”

Keith Getty (b. 1974) and his wife Kristyn, the primary soloist in their concerts and CDs, have become very well-known throughout the English-speaking world over the last 25 years.  They are the primary Christian hymn-writers of the 21^st century.  They write and perform songs with great substantial doctrinal content, and with an Irish flair in the music that almost makes one want to wear green (the color of “The Emerald Isle”).  Their first great “hit” was “In Christ Alone,” which has been the number one hymn across the US and the UK.  It was written in 2001 by Keith along with fellow Irish singer and song-writer Stuart Townend (b. 1963).

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Many of the traditional dimensions of our Christmas celebrations come from the Victorian era in England.  We picture light Christmas snow falling on carolers as they sing their way through London’s streets on the way to a candle-lit Christmas Eve service in St. Paul’s Cathedral.  And so many of the most familiar Christmas carols come from late 18^th century England, like “Once in Royal David’s City” and “See Amid the Winter’s Snow.”  There are many exceptions, like Charles Wesley’s 18^th century “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” and Isaac Watts’ “Joy to the World.”

But there are wonderful Christmas songs that have their origins long before Victorian England, even further than the years of the Wesleys. Examples include Johannes Olearius’ “Comfort, Comfort Ye Me People,” Martin Luther’s “From Heaven High I Come to You,” and even some from other countries, like the Polish carol “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” and the French song “Angels We Have Heard on High.”  We can go back even further to pre-Reformation times to find the original texts of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.”

Not surprisingly, in most modern hymnals there are more hymns about Christmas than any other topic, except perhaps hymns about Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Not only is Christianity the one religion that is most characterized by congregational singing.  Within that, it is these two points in the earthly ministry of the incarnate Son of God about which we find the greatest focus in Christian music.  That should be no surprise since, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, these are the very center of the gospel itself.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

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The hope-filled anticipation of Jesus’ coming is one of the great sources of joy that dominates the Christian’s faith and worship.  While we struggle to endure with patience the hardships of this life, we have the sure promise of God that the Redeemer will come.  That sustained the saints of the Old Testament for centuries, frequently bolstered by prophecies of His coming to Bethlehem and Calvary.  And that same hope sustains the saints today, amid the many-faceted turmoil of our age, as we anticipate His return.

Our Advent hymns generally have a slightly different character than our Christmas carols.  In the first, there is that sense of longing that in some instances will musically and poetically be characterized by a somewhat somber tone.  We hear examples of that in “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.”  In the second, there is usually a much more joyful sound that celebrates the Savior’s having come.  And we hear examples of that in “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.”

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The Christian faith includes vast treasures of profound theological truths, from the deep mysteries of the incarnation to the incomprehensible dimensions of the relationships of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. And yet at its heart is a very simple message: that God has loved us and has given His only Son to die for us so that by faith in Him we might be saved.  We embrace the majestic Christology of Colossians 1:17-23 as well as the beautiful soteriology of John 3:16. It has been said that “the gospel is like a river, broad and deep; shallow enough for a child to wade in, but deep enough for an elephant to swim in.”  (Though often attributed to Augustine, the expression first appears in Gregory the Great’s commentary on Job.)

It is that simplicity which we find in many of the 19^th century gospel songs that became favorites in Sunday School, and have continued to be loved into our own day.  And it is a simplicity which does not sound condescendingly childish.  As adults, we love to sing and be reminded of the basics. Sometimes it may seem that preachers want to come up with some new slant on a Bible passage or theme.  But our hearts are thrilled by those foundational truths, even when they are expressed in words and phrases that we already know so well, and love to hear them over and over again.

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This current year of 2025 marks the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (AD 325), called by Emperor Constantine to address the division brought about by the Arian controversy.  This council, one of the so-called Seven Ecumenical Councils (because they were recognized as valid by both the Eastern and Western branches of the church) met in the city of Nicaea in what is today northwestern Turkey near the modern city of Iznik, during the summer months of 325.  The earliest centuries of Christendom faced the double challenge of standing firm against persecution and standing just as firm against wrong doctrine.  Those years were especially difficult for the church as it needed to clarify a correct articulation of the Trinity, specifically about the relationship between Jesus’ humanity and deity, and then also about the relationships between the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

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In our Thanksgiving services over the years, one of the hymns we always sang was “We Gather Together to ask the Lord’s Blessing.”   In fact, to this day for some of us, singing it brings back pleasant memories of the church in which we grew up, and the yearly Thanksgiving Eve (or Thanksgiving Day) service.  On that occasion, we sang this hymn (and others with a similar theme) before the Pastor’s brief devotional message.  And then what followed was “open mike” time, as one after another stood where they were in the pews and described ways in which they were so thankful for what the Lord had done for them during the past year.

Thankfulness is a prominent theme in all of Scripture, especially in Psalms like 103, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me … and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  How often do we need to be reminded of that when we look around at our present problems and challenges, forgetting how the Lord has proven Himself over and over again to be a good and faithful God?

This hymn is probably found in almost every hymnal, if not in the section of hymns for Thanksgiving, then perhaps in the section on Providence.  In these other topics, we sing of God’s mercy and grace to us, His kindness in ways that we do not deserve, not treating us as our sins deserve, but according to His sovereign love for us, His adopted children.  The theme is one that ought to be prominent in our prayers, remembering to thank the Lord for what He has promised and what He has already done, before we begin to list all the things that we yet desire from Him and for which we will always be dependent on Him.

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Endurance is one of the qualities that should mark the life of every Christian, but is one of the most difficult qualities to maintain, especially in challenging times.  Such is the case when believers come under attack for their faith, as we remember on the first Sunday in November each year, when the world observes the annual “International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.”  Hopefully, everyone realizes that persecution is not just something that took place back in the early centuries of Christendom.

The ”classic” book about persecution was written by James Foxe following the terrible years of the reign of “Bloody Mary” (1553-1558) in England.  Almost 300 Protestants were put to death for their faith, refusing to accept her efforts to return England to Roman Catholicism.  These included not only clergy, but also lay people and even children, most of these burned alive at the stake. His 1563 publication, commonly known as “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs,” chronicled accounts of martyrdom from apostolic times until his day. In 1979, James and Marti Hefly wrote a book about persecution in the twentieth century (a second edition was released in 1995), “By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century.”  In it, they show what most people don’t realize.  There were more Christians martyred for their faith in the twentieth century than in all the centuries of Christendom prior to that.

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Everyone knows that 1 Corinthians 13 is “the love chapter.”  It’s a favorite Scripture reading for wedding ceremonies, especially in the 17^th century language of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, which called this love “charity” (which today suggests something entirely different!). But not everyone knows what that love is, where it comes from, or what it does.  It’s certainly not the romantic sentimentalism of “chick-flicks” or paperback novels.  No, what Paul was writing about is that quality of deep selfless devotion that motivates Christian relationships between one another and with the Lord.  It is modeled after the “agapé” kind of love that God demonstrates toward undeserving sinners like us in giving His Son for our justification, and giving Himself to us in our sanctification.  “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

The church at Corinth was sadly lacking in that kind of love.  In his first letter to them, Paul issued stern denunciations and warnings to them for their inconsistencies as believers and as a church.  There were the sins of divisions and quarreling, of incest, of lawsuits, of economic discrimination in the love feasts at the Lord’s Supper, of boastful pride in the exercise of spiritual gifts, and in all of this a lack of loving church discipline.  Paul was appalled (pardon the pun!) by this behavior and severely reprimanded them for it.  Apparently, a common theme was a lack of true Christian love within the congregation.  Paul addressed the matter of spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 14.  In between came chapter 13, where the apostle wrote that the exercise of these gifts was to be motivated by this unique quality of love, itself one of the dimensions of the fruit of the Spirit.

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