Throughout the Yuletide season, notice the music in the malls, stores, and shops. It’s one way the Gospel still invades our secular world. Sometimes you can gently start a Gospel chat based on a carol wafting through the air. Perhaps that song will be “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”

This carol evolved in hundred-year segments. An early version dates to the mid-1600s, when the opening line said: “Sit you merry, gentlemen.” By the mid-1700s, the poem had the words we sing today: “God rest ye, merry gentlemen.” By the mid-1800s, it had been married to a cheerful dance tune, giving us the carol as we know it.

But look at the first line again. In its historic meaning, the word “merry” was not an adjective describing “gentlemen.” It was part of a common greeting: “God rest ye!” or “God rest ye, merry!” We find it in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, for example, when the nurse says, “God rest all Christian souls!”

The meaning is: May God grant rest to you by giving you a merry heart, gentlemen! So “God rest you merry” is a benediction of sorts: “May God give you rest, gentlemen. May God grant you peace and joyful happiness.” It’s similar to Ruth 1:9, when Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, “The Lord grant that you may find rest.”

That’s my prayer for you this season. May God give you rest through His strength and joy this season, gentlemen and gentlewomen! But let’s take it a bit further. In the Gospels, Jesus talked about giving rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Just as our bodies grow tired, tense, and weary, so do our souls.

Perhaps your soul acutely feels the strain and pressure of life right now. You need rest for your soul. Well, rest is one of the gifts Jesus brought with Him. He brought the reality of rest to a weary world. He came to bring you internal calm.

The Bible tells us He shared our humanity—becoming a human being, Bethlehem-born—“That by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15, NIV).

He didn’t do this for angels, but He did it for us! He “became a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18, NIV). In this way, He gave us the promise of entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1).

It’s hard to rest when you’re afraid. Fear is the enemy of rest. Have you ever tried to go to sleep—this may take you back to your childhood—when you heard sounds in the attic or outside the window? Even today, a thousand fragments of fear can puncture our rest like a nail in a tire. That’s why Jesus came—to give us the salvation and the protection that subdues our fears and gives us rest in our souls.

We Can Rest in His Salvation

We find rest for our souls by leaning into His salvation. Our eternal fears are banished. Salvation is the action of God, centered in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, whereby we are set free from sin, death, and the devil. We are delivered from bondage into eternal life with all its blessings to be enjoyed both now and forever.

When the baby Jesus was brought into the temple precincts by Joseph and Mary, He was blessed by the old man Simeon who took the child in his arms and prayed, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:28-30).

When Peter defended the apostles before hostile Jewish rulers, he said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

When the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, he stated this theme by saying, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Take a drive through your city and keep your eyes open for tense, unhappy people. They may be broken down by the side of the road. They may be shouting at someone with road rage. They may be homeless. They may be young people crowding the malls trying to impress each other, but there is loneliness in their eyes. Oh, the needs!

What this world needs is the rest that comes from the Lord—the salvation of God who delivers us from death, hell, and despair. He gives us forgiveness, and He grants us abundant life. We can rest because we have been given a gift: The gift of salvation from God, born in the package of a baby. Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret.”

We Can Rest in His Protection

We can also rest because we are protected. Isaiah wrote, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). The apostle Peter said, “We have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while” (1 Peter 1:4-6, NLT).

During the Blitz of London, German bombers were hitting the city every night with devastating bombs. Many homes didn’t have cellars, so a man named John Baker invented a box and named it for Herbert Morrison, the minister of home security at the time. The Morrison Shelter arrived at people’s homes free, but it needed to be assembled. It had 359 parts!

When assembled, it was a protective box with a solid steel top, welded wire mesh sides, and a metal mattress. It was designed to let a family sleep with some sense of security. It protected people from collapsing walls and flying debris. Many a family found enough peace of mind to get some rest while sheltered inside it.

In a dangerous world of tension and fear, we have protection from the Lord. He’s our shelter in the time of storm (Isaiah 25:4), and we can rest in His salvation and protection. He guards us from the evil one, and we simply need to calm down enough to visualize His vigilant care for our souls. We need rest from fear!

Mark Buchanan wrote, “In a culture where busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness, rest is sloth. But without rest, we miss the rest of God: the rest he invites us to enter more fully so that we might know him more deeply. ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’”¹

James Gills wrote, “This abiding rest in Christ is not characterized by an absence of meaningful activity or by a lack of purpose. Rather, it is reflected in freedom from restlessness and discontentment that plague every human heart.”²

Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

So may God rest you merry, ladies and gentlemen. “Let nothing you 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”!

Are you resting in Him? Have you felt rest in your soul? Look to the Babe of Bethlehem. Jesus came bringing rest for you through the salvation He provides and the protection He gives. This Christmas rest in Him and be merry!

Citations:

¹ Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 3.
²James P. Gills, Resting in His Redemption (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2011), 5.