"But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name
shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings
and His beams, and you shall go forth and gambol like calves
released from the stall and leap for joy."
(Malachi 4:2)
All this night bright angels sing
Never was such caroling!
Hark, a voice loudly cries,
"All ye mortals wake and rise!
O'er the earth Rides a Sun,
Shines still bright tho' day is done!"
"Wake, O earth, wake everything!
Wake and hear the joy I bring!
Wake and joy, For this night
Heaven shows each twinkling light,
Angels Pow'rs, All that be,
Wake and joy this Sun to see!"
"Hail, O Sun! O Blessed Light!
Sent into this world by night;
Let Thy rays Shed their pow'rs
Into these dark souls of ours.
God and man We confess:
"Hail! O Sun of Righteousness!"
"All This Night"
(All This Night Bright Angels Sing)
(1630)
Adapted from a poem by
William Austin
(1587-1634)
"The Sun of Righteousness"
Here is a reference to the first and to the second coming of Christ.
God has fixed the day of both. Those who do wickedly, who do not
fear God's anger, shall feel it. It is certainly to be applied to the
day of judgment, when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire;
to execute judgment on the proud, and all that do wickedly.
In both, Christ is a rejoicing Light to those who serve Him faithfully.
By the Sun of Righteousness we understand Jesus Christ.
Through Him, believers are justified and sanctified and so brought
to see light. His influences render the sinner holy, joyful, and fruitful.
It is applicable to the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit,
brought into the souls of men.
Christ gave the Spirit to those who are His, to shine in their hearts,
and to be a Comforter to them, a Sun and a Shield. That day which to
the wicked will burn as an oven, will be to the righteous as bright
as the morning. It is what they wait for, more than those that
wait for the morning. Christ came as the Sun, to bring, not
only light to a dark world, but health to a distempered world.
Souls shall increase in knowledge and spiritual strength. Their
growth is as that of calves of the stall, not as the flower of the field,
which is slender and weak and soon withers. The saints ' triumphs
are all owing to God's victories; it is not they that do this,
but God who does it for them.
Behold another day is coming, far more dreadful to all that work
wickedness than any which is gone before. How great then the
happiness of the believer when he goes from the darkness and
misery of this world, to rejoice in the Lord for evermore!
-Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
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