Hail the Sun of Righteousness

I’ve always been a big fan of Christmas, and in recent years I have come to increasingly appreciate the hymns of Christmas. The theology of the incarnation of Christ is remarkable, and singing about it causes as much joy as it does contemplation. So imagine my shock when I noticed a “spelling error” in one of my favorite seasonal tunes.

It all started, innocently enough, during a Sunday morning church service about a year ago. We had just reached the magnificent third verse of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” when I noticed the PowerPoint slide read as follows:

“Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and Life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.”

Did you see it too? Sun of Righteousness? “Surely that can’t be right. Fred Holcombe (our music minister) must have overlooked that error,” I concluded. It had to be “Son of Righteousness.” And just to prove myself right, I grabbed the hymnal in front of me and searched for the song, found it, and read the same thing again, “Sun of Righteousness.” What a mistake Charles Wesley (writer of the hymn) made comparing the “Son” of God to the “sun” that burns in the sky.

(Total side note: Every time I think of how the sun and stars burn, I’m reminded of the following dialogue in the brilliant scene from “The Lion King” which goes something like this, since I’m going completely from childhood memories here: And yes, I’m about to use a parenthesis inside of a parenthesis. Sue me.

( Timon and Pumbaa staring at the night sky)
Pumbaa (a gastro-intestinal beast of a warthog): “What do you suppose all those lights are up there?”
Timon (a sarcastic meerkat): “They’re fireflies. Yeah, they all got stuck up in that big black thing.”
Pumbaa: “I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.”
Timon: “With you, everything’s gas.”

I warned you. Total side note. That had absolutely nothing to do with the point of the article.)))))))) Just making sure I closed all the parentheses there.

Back to Wesley. How could such a revered scholar and song writer have missed this! Jesus was the “Son” of God, not the “Sun.” Well for about the next three or four months I was at a loss for explaining any of this. And then I read something in Malachi that caught my eye, where God says: “But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). Oh my! I shouted, “The editors of my NKJV did the same thing!” (When I’m sure I’m right about something, I’m sure I’m right). I determined that my two years spent studying Hebrew ought to solve this problem.

(This is about to get boring. If you don’t care about Hebrew words and their usage in Scripture, feel free to skip down to the next paragraph. On the other hand, this is the most important paragraph of the whole shebang so don’t skip it. Endure the boredom.)

The Hebrew word for “Sun” in Malachi 4:2 is “shemesh” which means (wait for it…) sun (yep, s-u-n. You’re welcome for that insight). It’s the most prominent word for sun in the whole Old Testament. When Scripture talks about the sun standing still (Joshua 10), it uses “shemesh.” When Solomon uses the phrase “under the sun” thirty-plus times in Ecclesiastes, he uses the phrase “thachath ha shemesh” every time. Apparently, Malachi meant “sun.” So did the NKJV editors. So did Wesley. So did Holcombe. They were right and I was wrong. (There, I said it. Moving on.)

But why “sun”? How is this Messiah like the sun? Turns out the word “shemesh” is related to a similar Aramaic word for activity. Just as the sun is constantly active, so the Messiah would be continually and actively portraying righteousness, making Him the “Sun [universal center of activity] of Righteousness.” Malachi was prophesying that the coming Savior would be a beacon of flawlessness, perfectly representing God because He is God. There is even a play on words here: “the Sun … shall arise.” The rising of the Sun of Righteousness brings healing for those who fear the name of God.

So my arrogance was flattened, but my knowledge increased. I’m sure it’s for the better. Then again, since “knowledge puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1), I’m sure I’ll be back to my arrogant self in no time. Until then, sing it with me as we celebrate Jesus’ first coming and wait for His second: “Hail the Sun of Righteousness…with healing in His wings!”