A Meditation for Christmas
My new project of daily meditations on the Psalter (of which I wrote earlier) is a long way from completion, but Advent and Christmas are done, so herewith a meditation for Christmas.
Christmas Day
Psalm 110 A Psalm of David.
1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
[Glory be to the Father and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.]
Meditation
These words, as even Jesus’ enemies acknowledged, refer to the Christ as David’s lord, that is, his master. Now if David is the king, how then can his son be his lord? How can he have another lord? Who but God can be the king’s master? See, there must be Another within God Himself. Therefore the Christ is none less than Another within the Godhead. And yet he is also David’s son. As Jesus once asked His adversaries, how can this be? The answer is found in the truth and wonder of the Incarnation, foretold here: only if the Word has become flesh; only if God and man are become one Christ; only if the Christ is one with the Father; only if this Man is the only true God; only if the Babe of Bethlehem is the One by whom the heavens and earth were made. And so this Child is also Priest forever, since He is the One whom all the priests foreshowed, after the order of Melchizedek. He is the express Image of the Father, and therefore greater than all the fathers of Israel, for even Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. He is Judge forever, whom all the judges foreshowed: He shall judge among the heathen. So let all His enemies quail at this blessed birth, for He shall fill the places with their dead bodies. He shall gain victory for His people over them all, and even over death itself. Behold in this Holy Infant the beauties of holiness, the One whose birth all other births reflect, born this day from the womb of the morning, that is, from the blessed most fruitful womb of the Virgin Mary. And as the hart stoops low to drink water and lifts up its head, so does Christ stoop low into the humility of a Pauper’s birth, that He might finally rise from all shame and death into eternal glory and the right hand of the Father, bringing man back to God. O happy Christmas Day!