O Little Town of Bethlehem
One of the great Christmas songs, written by a minister after he spent a Christmas in Bethlehem and observed it's still, silent beauty.
It's December, so let's do some Christmas hymns for the next few weeks. I've already done a few last year when I started the series, so you can see the playlist that I'll share below for you to see the other ones. There are some beautiful Christmas songs, aren't there? Some of the most profound and lovely hymns of our faith are songs about Jesus' birth.
Today's hymn is one I think that is very beautiful. This is my mum's favourite Christmas carol, and we sing it every year. I think our band Crossroad has been playing Christmas carols every year for about 13 years. We travel around to different churches, and we used to have carols here at the house every year, which was great fun. A lot of you have come to those, but nowadays I'm doing it at the church now that I'm there. We always have a special time, and this is a song that we've sung, I think, at every carols event we've ever done. It's such a classic and so beautiful, and we love it.
Do you know this song? Do you enjoy singing it? I found out that there's a different tune to the one I'm used to, so I'm going to sing the different tune today, but it's probably the one you're most familiar with. I wonder if you have any stories to share about this song. Do you remember singing it somewhere? Has it meant something to you in your life, or do the words today jump out at you and mean something? Please share that sort of stuff in the comments below. I love to read how this music touches you.
If you haven't subscribed to my channel, can I ask you to do that please? It's free, and it really helps this channel to grow and reach more people. I'd appreciate it. So let's talk about the history of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
The Story Behind "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
The author of the song is Philip Brooks, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1835. He graduated from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in 1859 and was a very good pastor, very well-loved. First, he was a pastor in Philadelphia, and then later in Boston. Then he became the bishop of all the Episcopal churches in that area until he died.
Brooks was a large man—6'6"—and was a powerful preacher. They said he preached really fast and very powerfully, but so well. He was called the prince of preachers in that area. He was actually quite influential in trying to stem the tide of the Unitarian movement that was flourishing in the area. I spoke about this in last week's video, "Nearer, My God, to Thee," because the lady who wrote that was a Unitarian, so you don't see much of Jesus in her songs. But Brooks was one of those who preached against the Unitarian doctrines and said, "No, God is three in one." He was quite well respected for this.
This song was written after an experience of his. Brooks went to the Holy Land in 1865 and spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, worshipping at a church there. This was a deep and profound moment in his life—looking out over Bethlehem at Christmastime and thinking, "This is where it happened. This is where Jesus was born."
A few years later, in 1868, he was busy preparing his Christmas sermon and started to think about that experience he had in the Holy Land. Before he knew it, he had written a few verses about it: "O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie." The picture was still fresh in his mind. He finished his little poem and took it to Lewis Redner, who was the organist and the Sunday school superintendent, and said to him, "Please, can we sing this? Can you write a tune for this so that we can sing it this Christmastime?"
Redner, even though he was a brilliant musician and composer, struggled to do this. He worked and worked and couldn't get a tune going. Eventually, they were thinking they were going to have to drop it and not actually do the song at all. But the night before Christmas, he woke up in the middle of the night, and the tune was in his head. He believes it was a gift from God. He put the tune to the words, took it in, taught it to the kids, and the next day they sang it for the Christmas service.
In the minds of Brooks and Redner, this song was going to just fade away—just a song written for one occasion and then forgotten. But to their surprise, it started to gain popularity. They published it, it started being sung everywhere, and even today it is still going. As I said, I've sung it every year for as long as I can remember.
Sadly, Brooks died a sudden death in 1893, which really shocked everybody. He was so well-loved by the children in his community. Many people spoke about the memories of him sitting in the front of his church teaching the kids, and they all loved him. It's said that when one little girl found out that he had died, she said to her mum, "How lucky the angels are." A beautiful song written by a great man of God. Let's have a look at the words that he wrote.
What Do the Lyrics of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" Mean?
Verse 1
"O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie." Obviously, he could still picture it from the time he was there—this quiet town where Jesus was born.
"Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by." Though the town is silent, there are stars above shining down.
"Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light." It's not just the light from the stars, but the everlasting Light—Jesus Himself, the Light of the world—is shining because He came that night.
"The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." The hopes of all the Jewish people for their Messiah came that night, and the fears of all the world were also met in Christ because He's the one who can calm fear. He's the one who can give us a life free from fear. In Christ that day came great hope and the stilling of all fears because He is the One, the Holy One of God, born in a manger.
Verse 2
Now verse 2, I always had backwards. I didn't realise until today, as I was looking through all these hymnals, I always started in the middle with "O morning stars," and then "For Christ is born of Mary" was halfway through. But apparently he had them the other way around.
"For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above, while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love." While this town is sleeping and doesn't even know what's going on, all the angels are gathered above to witness what's happening. Beautiful.
"O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth, and praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth!" He's calling the stars, much like the psalmist would call all of creation to sing and praise God. He's saying, "Morning stars who are seeing this, proclaim it! Witness to this birth that you've just seen!" I suppose as the psalmist wrote, "The heavens declare the glory of God," and that day the morning stars themselves must have seemed to be shining brightly in praise of God.
Verse 3
"How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given." Again, this is a picture of how silent and still it was. The whole town of Bethlehem could have risen up with great fanfare if God had made it known. If He had chosen to make it a big, loud occasion, then that's what He would have done. But instead, it was silent. Nobody really knew about it except the select few that God chose to reveal it to, so that a whole big thing didn't start too early, but that Jesus' whole plan could be fulfilled. So silently the gift was given.
"So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heaven." Beautiful line. Through Jesus, God brings the blessings of Heaven to the human heart. You come to Him, kneel before Him, give your life to Him—He will bless you with the blessings that only Heaven can give.
"No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in." Again, this silence—nobody heard, nobody really knew apart from a select few. This is different, by the way, from when He's going to come again. When He comes again, there's going to be a loud blasting of a trumpet, as we know. But when He came the first time, it was into the silent, still little town of Bethlehem.
But as he says, for the meek soul who wants to receive Christ, even though we're living in a world of sin, Christ will enter in. He didn't just enter into the little stable there, but He enters into every heart who seeks Him, who invites Him in, and who gives their lives to Him.
Verse 4
Now verse 4 is one that I've never seen before because it's usually dropped. Normally we just sing four verses, but he actually wrote five. The fourth one went like this:
"Where children pure and happy pray to the blessèd child, where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild; where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door, the dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more." I love this.
Today, even today, Christmas comes to a place where children call out to Jesus and where people in misery cry out and reach out to Him who can help them, and where charity stands—in other words, where there are acts of love and kindness and compassion—and faith, holding wide the door for people to come to Christ. He says out of that dark night, glory breaks, and Christmas comes again.
I hope this will be a picture of our Christmas this year, or whenever you're watching it. Maybe this needs to be the picture of your Christmas, with God's glory coming through these types of things, so that real Christmas can take place.
Verse 5
Verse 5 is also beautiful, where he calls Jesus to come again into our lives.
"O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray." Of course, He's ascended again, but now he's saying, "Come, come back down."
"Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today." Let us be born again because You've come to live in us. Cast out our sin and be the centre of our lives.
"We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell." We can hear all of creation and the angels singing about the great news today.
"O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!" Which, of course, is "God with us"—the name that Jesus was given.
Conclusion
Wow, what a beautiful song. It reminds us what Christmas is all about. It reminds us as well that Christmas was a quiet moment, and God often does things in the quiet moments. A lot of Christmas carols are very loud and emphasise the fanfare of the angels in heaven praising, but here he's talking about the silence, the quietness of it, and how Jesus still quietly comes into our hearts. Wonderful, isn't it?
Well, I'm going to sing Redner's original tune, and this is not the one I knew—I knew a different tune—but I'm not going to sing that one. I'm going to sing the original tune, and it's a beautiful piece of music. Do you know it? I hope that you'll sing it with me now, and I hope that the song will just take you into Christmas.
Thank you for watching my channel and for supporting me. I really appreciate those who support me on Patreon and on PayPal. It really helps me just do this every week. God bless you, and enjoy singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
