25 Days of Advent: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

It is kind of an odd carol, but I like God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen alot. I'll admit it is mostly because I love the haunting melody and chanting rhythm. I like the words, too, but as I was doing a little (light, internet) research for this blog I found out a few interesting things. I only knew three verses, but did you know there are actually NINE? It's a long story song, with verses about all the major "manger scene" players. Here are the two most well-known verses:


God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

God rest ye merry, gentlemen!
Let nothing ye dismay.
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

Now to the Lord sing praises
All you within this place!
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface.

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy


The punctuation in that first line always threw me off. Shouldn't it be, "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen?" That's what I grew up thinking it meant. God give you rest, you happy people! Nope! The lyrics, which originated in the 1700s, actually mean "God make and keep you happy, gentlemen." It's kind of a neat difference, right?

Here are two other cool differences. First, one source suggests the word "deface" has an archaic meaning that would make more sense to us as "efface." In other words, the meaning of the last line is not "everyone else out there doesn't respect Christmas" but rather "the holiness of Christmas outshines everything else." Secondly, in many of the original copies of the lyrics, the words into the chorus were "which brings tidings of comfort and joy" or "this brings tidings of comfort and joy." I like that.

If you want to read more of the nine verses and totally fascinating history of the song, which for most of the 1800s was THE most popular Christmas carol, you can check it out here. But interesting as it is, I don't want to get derailed with a history lesson.

Let nothing ye dismay. Stop your fear. Stop your worrying. Don't let anything make you forget or overlook the huge - epic, even - truth that Christ was born to save us when we were gone astray. Not after we got better on our own. Not after we proved we were good enough or brave enough or obedient enough. We would never be able to.

Be humbled. But don't be dismayed! Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

While we were still gone astray, that's when Christ came for us: to make known the love of God. That's why he came at Christmas. That's why he died for us. That's good news.