Surprisingly, there are no “merry gentlemen” in this Christmas carol—unless we count the fellows doing the singing! All being well, the gentlemen referred to would have been in nightshirts and nightcaps and sound asleep. The comma between “merry” and “gentlemen” suggests it’s their rest that should be merry, not the gentlemen!
The authors of this song of redemption are unknown, but tradition has it they were watchmen, paid extra by the local burghers to guard the town over the Christmas period. Their job usually would have involved patrolling the nighttime streets with a lamp. They would announce the time on the hour, following that with a reassuring “And all’s well!” At some point though, perhaps overcome by the Christmas spirit, they seem to have started singing!
Reminding their cozy patrons that they were saved through Christ, the watchmen also encouraged those listening to love each other in Christian brotherhood. All hearing their song should entrust their night’s rest to God, and the knowledge of Satan’s inevitable defeat should be enough to make that rest a merry one.
Surprisingly in such a happy song, Satan is mentioned twice, but the presence of his name does nothing to lessen the overwhelming “tidings of comfort and joy!”
The tune may have been brought to the English West Country by French merchants, but the lyrics were born on the streets of an unknown English town in the fifteenth century. The publication, in 1833, of Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern brought them to a wider audience.
In taking the news of Christ’s birth out into the frosty street with a joyful song, those unknown believers may well have been the world’s first Christmas carolers. If the watchmen could have foreseen how popular caroling would become, they probably would have been very merry gentlemen indeed!
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.
1 CHRONICLES 16:9