There is an enormous spiritual difference between knowing about God and knowing of God. Sometimes those with the most knowledge about God, are the very least when it comes to their personal knowledge of God. And unfortunately that can even be true of those whom we might assume – by their education and vocation­ – to be the closest to God. There is no more telling example of that truth than a patrician priest by the name of Zechariah, whose example and experience are writ large in our Christmas story. It wasn’t until much later in life, at the very zenith of his priestly career, that he made the surprising spiritual journey from prayerless priest to Christmas prophet. This morning we’ll consider his personal testimony of that transformation, and its important message to us, through his recorded psalm in Luke 1:67-79, in a message entitled, “Coming to the Knowledge of Salvation”.

Over the next several weeks we turn our hearts and minds to the joy and wonder of our Savior’s birth.  As we do so, we’ll direct our attention to the deeply personal, deeply prayerful, musical expressions of three individuals who were as different as they were unique.  A very young peasant girl; a cultured, patrician priest; and a very obscure, very devout, and very aged prophet.  Each of whom left to us the spiritual legacy of a psalm, every bit as timeless and valuable to our personal devotion and corporate worship as any psalm of David.   And like the psalms of David, each an intensely personal expression giving poetic voice to an intensely personal experience.  Taken together, an eloquent reminder that the sights and sounds of the nativity are nothing if not personal.  This morning we’ll hear and consider the first of those psalms, in Luke 1:46-55, in a message entitled, “The Song of the Soul Set Free”.