What made those shepherds burst into praise? First, they praised God for what they had heard—the good news of great joy that a Savior had been born for them. Let's follow their example! Let's raise our own song of thanksgiving that we have heard about Jesus and his salvation.

But they also praised God for what they had seen. And here is the sweetest music of all—what we have experienced, what we have felt deep within, what we have made our own—"the things we have touched concerning the King." Listen closely: it is not enough to hear about Jesus. Mere hearing may tune the harp, but only the fingers of living faith can create the music.

If you have seen Jesus with the God-given sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among your harp strings! Loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp!

Notice something crucial. The shepherds praised God because what they saw matched exactly what they had been told. Look at that last phrase: "as it was told unto them." Haven't you found the same thing? Hasn't the gospel proven to be in your own life exactly what the Bible promised it would be?

Jesus said he would give you rest—have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in him—have you not received all these? Are not his ways ways of pleasantness, and his paths paths of peace?

Surely you can say with the Queen of Sheba, "The half has not been told me!" I have found Christ more sweet than his servants ever said he was. I looked upon his likeness as they painted it, but it was a mere daub compared with himself; for the King in his beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness.

What we have seen doesn't just keep pace with what we have heard—it far exceeds it! So come, glorify and praise God for a Savior so precious, so satisfying, so much better than we ever dreamed.