Hello, I'm Dr. Kylie Fisher. Welcome to heavenly harmonies, a series designed to help you draw nearer to God's heart through the scriptural message of hymns.
Job eleven, verse seven, poses the question, canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the almighty unto perfection? There are many mysteries about God that we cannot fully understand. Our hymn for today presents the incredible mystery of God taking human flesh, that he might dwell among us. Stay with us as we explore the tender lullaby, silent night.
Nathan three and verse 16 says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest or seen in the flesh. This is really an amazing verse.
And let's have a look at what our hymn for today, the beautiful song silent night, has to say to us about this. So the first verse begins with silent night, holy night all is calm all is bright round your virgin mother and child holy infant so tender and mild sleep in heavenly peace sleep in heavenly peace. So here we have the idea of this night being not just a silent night, but a holy night.
And, of course, these words, silent night, holy night, are repeated in each of the verses of this hymn. We're going to look briefly at four verses of this hymn today. And so that word holy is a very important word to this song, and it's in the first verse.
We have it right there at the beginning. Silent night, holy night. And then we hear that word a little bit later.
Round your virgin mother and child holy infant so tender and mild. So what does this mean? What is this talking about? We have sort of spoken a little about this in previous programmes. We've spoken about God's plan to come and save us.
Last episode, we looked at how Christ came to earth as the poorest of the poor. But today we're sort of looking at this meaning of what does it mean that he was holy? And this mystery of God being in human flesh. What does this mean? So let's have a look.
To begin answering this question, let's have a look at Luke chapter one. And there's a passage here that speaks about from verses 26 to 38, speaks about an angel coming and appearing to Mary, who was a virgin. She was an unmarried woman, and the angel told her that she was going to have a baby that was not going to be just even.
Well, every baby is special, but not just even a wonderful human baby. But this baby was going to be the most special, the most amazing of all babies. So let's have a look at Luke chapter one.
And let's begin in verse 30, because the earlier verses are sort of describing how the angel appeared to Mary and she was just terrified. But then the angel said to her in verse 30, fear not Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus.
He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.
So here this is speaking, and clearly this is saying that Jesus would be. Verse 32 says that he would be called the son of the highest, or in other words, the son of God. And that's further emphasised in verse 35, because the angel said further unto Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. So Jesus was not just a human baby. This is a mystery that I'm not really going to say too much about it other than just to say the words are in the Bible, because I can't really explain it, but in some way that we can't fully understand.
He was born of a human mother, and so we do understand that Christ took human flesh and yet he was also at the same time the son of God. An incredible mystery. So let's have a look and see what John, the apostle John has to say about this.
John, chapter one and verse 14 says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. So, yeah, this is just really an amazing thought, that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, but it says there that we beheld his glory. I noticed that in this.
Maybe you notice it as well. In this first verse, it says, all is calm, all is bright round your virgin mother and child. So what is this glory? What is that talking about? Well, there's a number of many references actually to God's glory in the Bible.
Let's have a look at Exodus chapter 40 and verse 35. Now, this is speaking about a time when God had told his people, the Israelites, the literal nation of Israel, to make him a sanctuary, a tabernacle, a place where he was to come and dwell. And it says, after they finished making this sanctuary, which was a tent, was a very beautiful tent that God was to dwell in, it says, speaking about Moses, the leader of God's people at the time, it says, moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
So from this, we understand that there was a cloud that was covering God's glory. It was so bright that Moses could not actually go right into this tent where God's amazing, glorious, bright and brilliant presence had come. So that is really an amazing thing that's speaking about God's glory and certainly God up in heaven.
When you read descriptions of what he's like in the Bible, it says that he dwells in the light that no man can approach unto. So God is bright, God is glorious, and yet glory also has another meaning in the Bible. So let's just have a look at this.
So Exodus, chapter 33 and verse 18. This is again Moses, the same person who couldn't go into the temple when it was filled with God's glory, the light of his presence. Exodus, chapter 33 and verse 18.
Moses asked God something, and Moses said to God, please. He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And what was God's response to this? In verse 19, God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.
And it describes what actually happened in Exodus, chapter 34 and verses five to seven, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him. That is, Moses there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and so forth.
And so here we see that, yes, it's true that God's. That glory does refer to the light of God's presence. But what is the source of that light? The source of that light is actually, in a sense, God's character.
It's the beauty of God's character, his character, where we see justice mingled with mercy, righteousness and peace kissing one another. That is the amazing wonder of God's character. And that is really even more amazing and more wonderful glory than the light of God's presence that at times is so bright that Moses couldn't even go into the temple.
Let's have a look at some verses about this in Hagai and Haggai, chapter two and verse seven. Now, I referred to this verse. In previous episodes, we spoke about how the desirable nations shall come.
And that's a name that refers to Christ. It refers to his coming. And let's have a look.
So that's Hagai two, verse seven. Hagai two, verse nine, says something really, really interesting. It says, the glory of this latter house.
Now, this is speaking about the temple. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.
But the really significant part is there at the beginning. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former. So in the tabernacle, the tent that was made by the Israelites for God in the wilderness, this beautiful glory, it's sometimes called the Shekinah glory, the light of God's presence came, and it dwelt in that tent.
And then later on, Solomon, king Solomon, actually the son of David that we've been speaking about, Solomon was also an ancestor of Jesus, being the son of David, King David. King Solomon built an absolutely beautiful temple for God. And this beautiful light presence, the shekinah glory, came and dwelt in that temple built by Solomon.
And yet here haggai is saying that the desire of all nations was to come, and that his glory, the glory that we see in Jesus, was to be even a greater, a more amazing glory than this glory that was the light of God's presence. And so it's the character of God that is the glory that we see in the face of Jesus Christ. And so what I'd like to suggest to you is that in this song, silent night, holy night, that this brightness, I would suggest to you that the brightness that that song is talking about, the brightness that I would certainly be focusing on and referring to when I am singing this song and thinking about this song, is that brightness of God's character.
That is his amazing glory. And that is the glory that we see in Jesus when he came to dwell on earth with us, because his heavenly glory was veiled so that we could behold him. If he had appeared with that light, with that glory that was his, when he was up in heaven, we would not have been able to behold him.
But so he came to earth, and that glory was veiled. It was veiled in human flesh. That's such an amazing thought.
So, yeah. Holy infants so tender and mild sleep in heavenly peace that's a beautiful verse. That first verse is silent night.
So let's press on to the second verse. Silent night, holy night shepherds quake at the sight glories stream from heaven afar heavenly hosts sing Alleluia Christ the Saviour is born Christ the Saviour is born. And so we've spoken about this in a number of previous episodes.
This is speaking about, obviously, when the angels sang that beautiful song to the shepherds. And we haven't really spoken much about the shepherds being so afraid, but we did read about it. So Luke, chapter two.
This is a point that this song brings out that we haven't really had in our previous songs, although it's mentioned in other Christmas carols, other songs. But Luke, chapter two, it says, luke, chapter two. And verse nine says, the angel of the Lord came upon them.
Notice the shepherds. And the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were so afraid. The shepherds were absolutely terrified.
So shepherds quake at the sight, glories stream from heaven afar. So, yeah, there must have been just a tremendous sight and sound to hear the angels singing. And these last words of this verse.
Christ the Saviour is born. That's very close to actually what the angel said to the shepherds in verse eleven. Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
So Christ the Saviour is born. That's echoing the words of that angel to the shepherds. Okay, pressing on to the third verse.
Silent night, holy night Son of God loves pure light radiant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace Jesus Lord at thy birth Jesus Lord at thy birth this has some incredible thoughts in it. There. Once again, we have that idea of Jesus the son of God loves pure light.
It's Christ perfectly in his character, perfectly reflected the glory of the father, even though that physical glory when he came to earth was veiled in human flesh. So, yeah, this is really amazing thoughts in that verse. And then the final verse of this beautiful hymn.
Silent night, holy night wondrous star lend thy light with the angels let us sing alleluia to our king. Christ the Saviour is born Christ the saviour is born. So once again, echoing those words of the angel that the angel spoke to the shepherds.
Now, there's something new, though, in this verse that we haven't spoken about before, and that's speaking about this wondrous star. What's that talking about? So let's have a look in Matthew, chapter two. This is another part of the story of Jesus birth.
Matthew, chapter two. And let's have a look at. Let's begin at verse one, because the star is something that was seen by some people in a distant land.
So it says, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. And verse two says, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.
So these wise men came from the east, and because they saw some luminous body in the heavens that they sort of, to them it looked like a star. This was some new phenomenon in the sky that they observed, and they recognised that this was a sign of some new king. So they came to Jerusalem.
They came asking where was this king that was born? But when they came to Jerusalem, which was and still is the capital of the land of Israel, nobody was really very pleased to see them. Nobody was really very pleased to tell them about where this christ was to be born. Because it says in Matthew, chapter two and verse three, when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
So these people were not excited at the questions that were asked by the wise men. They were troubled, it says. And so the wise men had come to Jerusalem sort of probably full of confidence, expecting to find everyone talking about this newborn king.
And yet here, when they asked where he know, very logical, very sensible question, all of Jerusalem was troubled. And so let's pick up the story in Matthew, chapter two, and verse nine. And it says that they left Jerusalem, and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.
And so from this we see that this evidently was not just some normal star, was not just some normal heavenly body, because it guided them right to the place where Jesus was. So I would like to suggest to you that this was supernatural. And to me it makes sense that this was actually a company of angels.
To me, that makes a lot of sense. And let's just have a look at the reaction of the wise men to that star. It says in Matthew two, verse ten, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And so that's what this final verse of Silent Night is talking about. Wondrous star, lend thy know. That star led the wise men right to where baby Jesus was.
And today, whatever our situation, God is working. God is working with his angels. We've spoken about this to bring joy and comfort to hearts.
And God is the one that goes in search of us, and so he is seeking to lead our hearts to him, just like the wise men were led to baby Jesus. So that brings us to the end of this hymn. So let's look very briefly at how we might express these amazing thoughts in our musical presentation of this hymn before we listen to the hymn and listen to Barry and Cecily Harker singing it for.
So when I was thinking about this, I kind of thought the four verses of this hymn really sort of fall into four very neat scenes. And if you. We've spoken about the importance of kind of having a scene, a picture in your mind, really using the imagination to try to have a scene in your mind.
To think about something that you're wanting to portray to the audience. And so this hymn falls very neatly into four scenes. And if you can have these scenes on your mind sort of connected together into a story, to me, that sort of seems to be the way that works the best and to give the most flow to a song.
So the way that I would suggest to approach it is the first scene I would see as maybe in the stable with Joseph, Mary and the very newborn baby Jesus. And I think that verse would just be filled with know to think about this word. God himself coming and dwelling in human flesh, veiling his glory, the glory before which angels bow so that he could come and help us.
So that would be that first scene. I think it would be full of awe. It would be very soft.
And yet, particularly at the beginning of a song, if a song starts out softly, you really need to think about projecting it. And in the last episode, I mentioned Matthew, chapter seven and verse 29, which speaks about Christ speaking as one, having authority. So if you are singing softly, then you really need to have that real confidence and sort of that solid base, that really solid base of airflow on which to have those soft notes coming out.
So, yeah, it's a huge challenge. Then the second verse would be. That would be your second scene.
I would see that as being on the hills with the shepherds, with the angels. Shepherds quake at the sight glories stream from heaven afar. So I would have a crescendo in there, a big crescendo in there to express that.
Then the third verse would probably have that one softer again with this amazing mystery. Son of God loves pure light. And then I think the final verse would be the most full, the most resonance.
That's the way that I normally tend to think about songs and think about my tone of voice as I'm singing through songs. So, yeah, this would be the one with the fullest resonance with that wondrous star, lend thy light. So let's listen now to Barry and cecily harker singing this beautiful song silent night, silent night, holy night, holy bright round your virgin mother child holy but so tender sleep in heavenly peace sleep in heavenly peace silence night only night shepherd, quake at the side glory stream from heaven, father heaven Christ the Saviour is bo sa Jesus, son of God, loves pure light radiant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace.
When Christ came to earth, the desire of ages says on page 43 his glory was veiled, that the majesty of his outward form might not become an object of attraction. He shunned all outward display. Riches, worldly honour and human greatness can never save a soul from death.
Jesus purposed that no attraction of an earthly nature should call men to side. Only the beauty of heavenly truth must draw those who would follow him. And that wonder, the wonder of God veiling his glory in human flesh is expressed in this beautiful hymn.
So let's just say a prayer that God will help us to understand these amazing truths as much as we can and to be able to express them in our music. So, dear Lord, we're so grateful that Christ came to earth. His heavenly glory was veiled so that we could behold the beauty of his character, the character of God, that character that's full of love and mercy and truth.
Dear Lord, these are amazing mysteries that we can never fully understand, and yet we can experience the truth of them in our lives. So I just pray for each person listening to this broadcast that they will experience that amazing power, the power of God in their lives, and will realise the beauty of his character and be able to express that to others. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. So thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies. You can email us at
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