“O Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, oh tidings of comfort and joy.”
I wrote yesterday of my love of the Christmas carol God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. I especially love those words above that come at the end of every verse. Comfort and Joy.
David who wrote Psalm 23, which always brings comfort to my soul, also wrote Psalm 30. He concludes that song with these words, “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.” [vs 11-12]
God turns our wailing (our mourning) into dancing. He removes our sackcloth (our grief) and clothes us with joy. He gives us songs in our silence.
Not only comfort, but joy. I remind people often, as I have done in these devotions, that the opposite of the “Joy of the LORD” is not sadness nor tears. It is weakness and defeat. Even amid our greatest losses, where we need God’s abundant comfort, we can have the “Joy of the LORD.” It is that joy which births songs in our hearts and allows us to come to our Blessed LORD with thanksgiving.
The chorus of “tidings of comfort and joy” expresses so much. With the coming of the Christ Child, God brought both comfort and joy to this fallen world. Now, while we walk our path through life, we are assured and reassured that He will give us songs in the night to comfort our souls. “Oh tidings [such great tidings] of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, oh tidings of comfort and joy” are ours.
