til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees and hear the angel voices,
O night divine! O night when Christ was born.
Sweet hymns of joy, in grateful chorus raise we
that all within us praise his holy name!"
I love this song, because it paints the perfect description of Luke 1-2 that tells of our Savior's coming. I can't imagine the anticipation they must have experienced in this broken world, stuck for so long in sin and darkness, "waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem" (2:38). And they had held on to this promise from God from generations and generations before, "the oath that he swore to Abraham and to his offspring forever" (1:55) "to show mercy...that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days" (1:72-75). I think after that many years of living in a fallen world, just waiting for God to fulfill His promise of salvation, I would be a very weary part of our world.
But I love how God chooses "a new and glorious morn," dawn, to bring about his mercies that are new every morning. A thrill of hope! Christ, the promised savior, was born. He came as Emmanuel, God with us, offering us a relationship with someone who never holds records of wrongs, who gives purity and innocence, and who presents us to himself as being washed with the word, holy, and radiant. Of course at that news "a multitude of the heavenly host" would be praising God (2:13). My heart can't help but respond with, "let all within me praise his holy name!"
O holy night!
