Sing In Exultation Series

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” uses beautiful poetic language to call us … to invite us … to join with the angels and the shepherds that night in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. It calls us to imagine what it would have been like to be one of the shepherds out tending his flocks as they usually did every night and suddenly have an angel standing before you announcing the birth of the long-hoped for messiah.

In Psalm 95, the poet compares God to a shepherd, drawing on a tradition of describing kings as the shepherds of their people. In the eyes of the religious folks in Jesus’ day, however, the shepherds would not have been considered among the “faithful” that are called to come and adore a king, let alone a king like God. The shepherds were the great unwashed … coarse laborers who did the manual labor of looking after the sheep day in and day out. It was nearly impossible for shepherds to observe all the rules and traditions regarding ritual washing. The nature of their work also made it impossible for them to observe the Sabbath and the religious holy days and festivals. After all, sheep can’t tend themselves. Free-range livestock had to be protected and fed and cared for 24/7 … which is exactly what the shepherds were doing when an angel of the Lord appeared and Heaven burst into song.

In Psalm 95, the poet paints a picture of worshippers coming together to worship their Maker in Heaven. The movement or focus of worship in Psalm 95 goes from us to our God in Heaven who created us and the world in which we live. In the hymn, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” Heaven and earth come together to worship God. “Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation; O sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!” (stanza 3). Not only were Mary and Joseph and the shepherds there that night to worship and adore this new born king, the angels were also there to worship and adore this “King of angels” (stanza 1). And so, the “us” of “venite adoramus” … “O come you and let us adore Him” … is the “us” of Heaven and earth, singing and praising this newborn King together. And when we sing hymns and carols, like “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” we who are faithful, joyful, and triumphant join with the angels and the shepherds and all the others … today and throughout the ages past … who are faithful, joyful, and triumphant in praising and adoring our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us’” (Luke 2:15). When they got there, they found everything just as the angel had told them. They found the manger. They found Mary. They found Joseph. They saw a child wrapped in bands of cloth lying in a manger. “When they saw this,” says Luke, “they made know what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds had told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:17-19).