The Angels’ Song (1)—Peace - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.
Luke 2:14

The Angels' Song (1)—Peace
When angels sang this, they sang what they had never sung before. "Glory to God in the highest," was an old, old song; they had sung that from before the foundations of the world. But now, they sang as it were a new song before the throne of God, for they added this stanza: on earth peace. They did not sing that in the Garden of Eden. There was peace there, but it seemed an everyday thing, and scarce worth singing of. There was more than peace there; for there was glory to God there. But now, man had fallen, and since the day when cherubim with fiery swords drove out the man, there had been no peace on earth, save in the breast of some believers who had obtained peace from the living fountain of this incarnation of Christ. Wars had raged from the ends of the world; men had slaughtered one another.

There had been no peace on earth since Adam fell. But now, when the newborn King made his appearance, the swaddling band with which he was wrapped was the white flag of peace. That manger was the place where the treaty was signed, whereby warfare should be stopped between man's conscience and himself, man's conscience and his God. Do you not feel that the gospel of God is peace to man? Where else can peace be found, but in the message of Jesus? For peace is nowhere to be found but in Him of whom it is said, .

And what a peace it is, beloved! It is peace like a river, and righteousness like the waves of the sea. It is the peace of God that passes all understanding, which keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. This sacred peace between the pardoned soul and God the pardoner, this marvelous peace between the sinner and his judge, this was what the angels sang when they said, peace on earth.

C. H. Spurgeon