I Heard The Bells
Scripture references: Job 17:1-2, 13-16 and Psalm 139:7-12
Introduction:
Something I’ve always appreciated and gravitated towards when it comes to song lyrics, is honesty. There are certain songs that when you listen to the words, you can tell they came from a deep place in the writer’s heart…not trying to appease a record label or write a ‘hit song’. The writer is simply being honest and transparent about their emotions, beliefs and experiences, whether it is coming from a place of hope or despair (or both).
We will be hearing one such song this coming Sunday, as we sing the Casting Crowns adaptation to the beloved carol: “I heard the bells on Christmas Day”. This contemporary adaptation is very much a tribute to the original composer of the carol, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow wrote the words to this song during the American Civil War…a tumultuous time in our nation’s history. He had experienced despair as many did during this time, but Longfellow also had suffered personal loss even before this time. I like the way Justin Taylor puts it in this blog post from The Gospel Coalition:
“On Friday, December 25, 1863, Longfellow—as a 57-year-old widowed father of six children, the oldest of which had been nearly paralyzed as his country fought a war against itself—wrote a poem seeking to capture the dissonance in his own heart and the world he observes around him that Christmas Day.
He heard the Christmas bells ringing in Cambridge and the singing of “peace on earth, good-will to men” (Luke 2:14, KJV), but he observed the world of injustice and violence that seemed to mock the truthfulness of this optimistic outlook.”
Devotional:
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
This line from the song always seemed to jump right off the page to me. This is the honesty and transparency that I appreciate in song writing. We see many examples of this in Scripture as well. Authors all throughout the Bible cry out to God in both joy and despair. One such example is Job…
As I’ve studied through this book, I am continually stunned at the raw, brutal honesty in Job’s words to God and to his friends. Job, after losing virtually everything he had is now suffering even further, finding his own body wracked with unbearable pain. He seems to reach a point of despair, devoid of hope in Chapter 17:
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation. -Job 17:1-2 ESV
If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?” -Job 17:13-16 ESV
It is hard to read these words. These are the words of someone who is not only accepting death, but welcomes it, as he states in other passages. He is at the point where he questions if hope will even follow him as he is brought down to Sheol, to the grave. In light of this, there is something very profound that we come across when we pay close attention to Job. In many cases, we see allusions or direct connections to the Psalms. In many ways, there are Psalms that parallel or even seem to respond to the words we read in Job and provide the hope that seems almost impossible to see when we are in despair.
Take a look at David’s words in Psalm 139…
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you. -Psalm 139:7-12 ESV
Though separated by time, we can envision this as almost a ‘call and response’ between Job and David…
Job: “If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness…”
“Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?…”
David: “If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”
“If I say, “Surely darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
Wow…what Job would have given to have David as a friend and comforter, in place of the friends he had…who only seemed to kick him while he was down.
What do we take from this?
There will be times when we might feel like Job, or like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow…where we despair and feel like all hope is lost. It is important to know that God’s Word meets us in this place of despair by showing us the words of His people who were in that same state!
God meets us in that place of despair…and then gives us the comforting words of His servant David. When all we see is darkness, we are reminded that even darkness is as light to Him! There is hope for peace!
Like Job, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow found himself in a place of despair. But like David, he found his hope and peace in the words of very next verse of his song. May we be reminded and join together in this hope for peace!
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
Peace to all of you this Christmas season!
Sean Wagner