"God Make You Strong and Valiant Gentlemen"

The Christmas carol, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is over 500 years old.
It is a song of Joy and Celebration. We often sing Christmas Carols each year because of tradition
without knowing their meaning, and such is the case with this Christmas carol.

I recently received a devotional from "Girlfriends in God" and they were talking about the actual meaning of this. So I also researched it and it was interesting to find out the true, historical meaning of this carol.

To understand the first line of the hymn, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," years ago, the words
"rest" and "merry" had different meanings. "Merry" meant strong or valiant, as
in Robin Hood and his merry men: they were not happy, but strong and valiant.
Rest meant, "to make." So the line means, "God make you strong and valiant,
gentlemen." The next line then makes sense, "Let nothing you dismay". How can we be strong and courageous in the face of difficulties? The next line tells us how.

"Remember, Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day." The coming of God to be
with us and that He might bear our sins is sufficient reason to be strong and courageous in this world. If God be for us my friends, then who can be against us?
So... God rest ye merry, Gentlemen (and women).

The real meaning of this IS "good tidings of comfort and joy!"