Heart Song

One of the highlights of the Christmas season is the music that proclaims the Savior’s birth. It seems as though the ink from the pen’s of those who wrote these songs flowed with an anointing of exaltation that makes the secular songs of our time seem trivial. It is hard to even compare the music of Handel’s Messiah to Coots and Gillespie’s Santa Claus is Coming to Down, or the lyrics of Wade’s Oh Come All Ye Faithful to Kay’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to see so many people today objecting to the singing of the classic carols of Christmas. Although they are beautiful to the ear, they are convicting to the heart. Many would rather hear songs about sleigh rides and mistletoe than songs about their need of a Savior from sin and His Lordship over their lives.

The writers of our best loved Christmas carols penned powerful proclamations of Jesus’ birth and focused our hearts upon His glory, His majesty, and His Lordship. Consider the words from these well known carols:

To you, in David’s town this day, is born of David’s line, A Saviour , who is Christ the Lord…While Shepherd’s Watched Their Flocks by Night

He comes the prisoners to release in Satan’s bondage held; The gates of brass before Him burst, The iron fetters yield…Hark, the Glad Sound, The Saviour Comes!

Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the ever lasting Lord!. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity...Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room…Joy to the World

O Holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today…O little Town of Bethlehem

Saints, before the altar bending, Watching long in hope and fear, Suddenly the Lord, descending, In His temple shall appear…Angels, from the Realms of Glory

O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord…O, Come All Ye Faithful

When Charles Wesley wrote Hark the Herald Angels Sing, he included this glorious proclamation, “God and sinners reconciled!” In those few words we are told the story of redemption. It tells us that we were lost, without God and without hope in this present world. It tells us that we were in trouble and in desperate need of a Redeemer. It tells us that Jesus didn’t leave heaven and come to earth to seek out a group of nice people, but He came to seek and save that which was lost. Where would be without the Savior? Where would be without the Lord? Where would we be without Jesus?

Jesus is the only true song of Christmas. Jesus Christ is the Song of songs. He has come to be the song in our hearts, the praise on our lips, and the celebration of our lives. Jesus is our heart song—He is the harmony, restoring us to a right relationship with God; He is the melody, making everything beautifully fit together by the beat of His mercy and grace; He is the lyric, the Word of God written with the pen of perfect love. Jesus is the note in every score, the quiet pause in every place of rest, and the tempo that sets the perfect pace for every life that is yielded to Him.