And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. The word for "praising" х ainountes (G134)] - used of the song of the angels (Luke 2:13), and in Luke 19:37; Luke 24:53 - would lead us to suppose that theirs was a song too, and perhaps some canticle from the Psalter; meet vehicle for the swelling emotions of their simple hearts at what "they had seen and heard."
Remarks:
(1) Not in the busy hum of day, but in the profound stillness of night, came these heavenly visitants to the shepherds of Bethlehem. So came the Lord to Abraham (Genesis 15:1-21); and once and again to Jacob, (Genesis 28:1-22; Genesis 32:1-32; Genesis 46:2, etc.) It was in the night season that Jesus Himself was transfigured on the mount. And who can tell what visits of Heaven were paid Him when He spent whole nights alone in prayers? See Psalms 4:4; Psalms 63:6; Psalms 119:55; Psalms 119:62; Psalms 119:147-148; Isaiah 26:9; Job 35:10.
`Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear, It is not night if Thou be near: O may no earth-born cloud arise To hide Thee from thy servant's eyes.
`Abide with me from morn till eve, For without Thee I cannot live: Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I cannot die.' (-KEBLE)
(2) What a view of heaven is here disclosed to us! As it teems with angels (cf. Deuteronomy 33:2; 1 Kings 22:19; Psalms 68:17; Psalms 103:20-21; Psalms 148:2; Daniel 7:10; Matthew 26:53; Matthew 25:31; Revelation 5:11), all orderly, harmonious, and vocal, so their uniting principle, the soul of all their harmony, the Object of their chiefest wonder and transport, is the Word made flesh, the Saviour born in the city of David, Christ the Lord. Accordingly, as Moses and Elias, when they appeared in glory on the mount of transfiguration and talked with Him, "spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31); so we are told that "these things the angels desire to look into" (1 Peter 1:12); and among the wonders of the Incarnation, this is said to be one, that He "was seen of angels" (1 Timothy 3:16). Is this our element upon earth? Would our sudden transportation to heaven bring us to "our own company" (Acts 4:23), and "our own place" - as Judas went to his? (Acts 1:25). By this may all men know whether they be traveling there.
(3) If we would thoroughly sympathize with heaven in its views of Salvation, and be prepared at once to unite in its music, we must take the elements of which salvation consists as heaven here presents them to us. Since the "peace on earth" of which they sing-expounded by that "good will to men" which is its abiding result-means God's own peace, or His "reconciling the world unto Himself by Jesus Christ," we must regard this as the proper spring of all peace between man and man that is thoroughly solid and lasting. And even in experiencing, exemplifying, and diffusing this, let that "glory to God in the highest" which is due on account of the birth into our world of the Prince of peace, and for all that He has done to unite earth to heaven and man to man, be uppermost and first in all our thoughts, affections, and praises.
(4) What wondrous contrasts are those shepherds of Bethlehem invited to contemplate-the Lord of glory, a Babe; Christ the Lord, born; the Son of the Highest, wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger! Yet what was this but a foretaste of like overpowering contrasts of Infinite and finite, divine and human, Fulness and want, Life and death, throughout all His later history upon earth? "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Nor is the Church which He hath purchased with His own blood and erected upon earth a stranger to analogous contrasts.
(5) When the Evangelist says, "It came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven," we are reminded that this was but a momentary visit-sweet but short. Like their Master, they "ascended up where they were before," even as the shepherds returned to their flocks. But the time is coming when they and we shall dwell together. And so shall we all and ever be with the Lord.
(6) Our Evangelist tells us that the shepherds "found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger." But he does not tell us what passed between the visitors and the visited in that rude birthplace of the Son of God. apocryphal gospels would probably manufacture information enough on such topics, and gaping readers would greedily enough drink it in. But the silences of Scripture are as grand and reverend as its disclosures. In this light, when we merely read in the next verse, "And when they had seen [it], they made known abroad the saying that was told them concerning this Child," we feel that there is a Wisdom presiding over these incomparable Narratives, alike in the dropping as in the drawing of the veil, which fills the soul with evergrowing satisfaction.
(7) The shepherds, not lifted off their feet, "returned" - "glorifying and praising God," indeed, but still returned-to their proper business. So Jesus Himself, at twelve years of age, after sitting in the temple among the doctors, and filling all with astonishment at His understanding and His answers, "went down with His parents, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them" (Luke 2:51). Thus should it ever be; and O what a heaven upon earth would this hallowing of earthly occupations and interests and joys and sorrows by heavenly conversations make!