Read: Revelation 5
And . . . among the elders I saw a Lamb. (v. 6)
On Christmas Eve 1918, a service was held in the chapel of King’s College in the University of Cambridge. The bloodbath of World War I had ended barely a month before, and many a Cambridge man lay buried in Flanders fields. It was a somber Advent season. The college chaplain wanted to celebrate Christmas with a special new service, so he selected a series of Scripture readings to retell the story of God’s saving purposes. The readings began in Genesis with the story of the fall, and climaxed with John 1: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (v. 14).
The King’s College service of Lessons and Carols has become the world’s most widely broadcast Christmas celebration. The lessons remain the same; the carols that illustrate them mostly change each year. But the service always opens with a boy soprano from the choir singing the first verse of the processional hymn, “Once in Royal David’s City”: Once in royal David’s city / stood a lowly cattle shed, / where a mother laid her baby / in a manger for his bed.
Then, verse by verse, the hymn builds, first with the choir joining, then adding organ, and finally the whole congregation singing the final stanza—Not in that poor lowly stable, / With the oxen standing by, / we shall see him, but in heaven, / set at God’s right hand on high.
Jesus is no longer in the stable. One day everyone will see that.
As you pray, praise God for his glory.
Listen along: Once in Royal David’s City – King’s College Choir
About the Author
David Bast is a writer and pastor who served for 23 years as the President and Broadcast Minister for Words of Hope. Dave and his wife, Betty Jo, have four children and eight grandchildren. Dave enjoys reading, growing tomatoes, and avidly follows the Detroit Tigers.
