Sing in Exultation

by Jonathan Landry Cruse

Carol singing is as indispensable to the festive season as decking the halls and swapping gifts. This little book contains 25 advent devotions, each unpacking a verse from a well-known carol, uncovering riches in the familiar words we love to sing each December.

Beginning with Scripture’s first hint of Jesus’ coming, and sweeping through to lyrics rejoicing in the hope of His return, these daily devotions not only give us a deeper appreciation for each carol, but a deeper appreciation for Christ this Christmas.

Genres: Christmas, Nonfiction, Devotional, Christian, Faith

112 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2024

Reviews

[Amanda Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this deep and thought-provoking devotional. Will use again next Christmas 🎄 🙂

[Conor · Rating 2 out of 5]

[It would be unfair to give this a negative review just because I happen not to not agree with the author, so I am going to review this book assuming the perspective of an evangelical Christian.]

This book selects a Carol for each day of December and offers a one page meditation, a prayer, and two discussion questions.


The meditations:
The meditations are quite good/generally festive in spirit for the first 11 days. There are a couple historical mistakes but we can let that go.

The second half of December becomes very commitment focused. Day by day we are challenged: are you sacrificing enough for Jesus? Do you go to church enough? are you excited enough about heaven? Do you evangelise enough? do you worship with enough excitement?

Personally, I think there are better Christian meditations to be had in December, rather than just hammering the "give it 100%" line.



The prayers and questions:
The prayers are quite banal, maybe fine for using with kids.

The questions are those silence inducing dead-end questions, all too common in small group bible studies; eg "what will happen when jesus comes again?".


The music:
There is sheet music over the front and back covers so I was surprised that no music is printed for the carols. But worse than that, he hasn't even printed the words for the carols!!!

There is a blank page at the start of each day, so there was plenty of space to print the whole carol and music. Which would have made the book much more useful, and yet no larger.

Then we look at the Carols chosen - The book is subtitled 'Our favourite carols'. And to be sure a lot of classics are included, there are also some less well known ones, which I enjoyed googling. But it seems the author ran out of ideas after 20 carols, so he then included 1 song that he admits is not associated with Christmas at all, 1 song that he wrote himself (I was shook by this self-serving inclusion especially as it isn't even a popular song... YouTube it...) The 3 remaining days he covered by repeating carols he had already used!


For any subsequent printing, here are some others the author could have used: O Holy Night, Coventry Carol, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Away in a Manger, Sussex Carol, The First Noel, Angels From the Realms of Glory, See Amid the Winter’s Snow, The Holly and the Ivy.



Full list of Carols discussed:

Joy To The World X2
O Come O Come Emmanuel X2 (2nd and 5th)
Lo how a rose eer blooming
O little town of Bethlehem
Let all mortal flesh keep silence
Hark the herald
Tell out my soul - not a Christmas carol
O come all ye faithful X2 (9th and 10th)
In The Manger - Authors own song!!
Angels we have heard on high
Infant holy, infant lowly
All praise to you
What child is this
As with gladness men of old
Go tell it on the mountain
In the bleak midwinter
Silent night
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor
Hark the Herald
God rest yet merry gentlemen
Come thou long expected jesus
Once in royal David city

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An edifying devotion to use for family worship during the advent season. Be prepared to sing!

[Brianna Smith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful little devotional on some favorite Christmas hymns that will surely lead your heart to wonder and worship. This would be great for individuals and for families and made even better with a hymnal beside it so you can sing along in exultation to our King!

*I was provided a copy of this book for review.

[Adam Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An encouraging Advent devotional, reflecting on the words of different carols. Each day includes a meditation, a Bible reading, some questions and a short prayer. It would have been helpful to have the whole carol words printed (especially for our church members who don't have internet) and there were more carols he could have included without repeats. But this has been a good book to read through together as church.

[Keziah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Advent devotionals I’ve used - really helpful studies based on lines from the carols we sing each Christmas. Really helped me think more about the words I was singing this Christmas - would definitely use this again

[Meggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful advent reading for personal or family use. The meditations are short and include appropriate bible passages and reflection questions. I’m grateful for how Cruse used carol’s to point readers to Christ in the season of Christmas.

[Josh Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Advent reading book with an entry every day from a different Christmas carol.

[Susan Sanderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sing in Exultation is a useful book of meditations based on Christmas carols, including a new carol with words written by the author, Jonathan Landry Cruse. This new carol is printed with the music as an appendix.
There are meditations for 25 days in December with Bible references to look up and space for journalling. I didn't manage to read it every day, but I did read the whole of it during December and looked up some of the passages in the Bible. I didn't use the journalling space. I may use Sing in Exultation again in the future and perhaps keep a journal. There is interesting information about the carols and the way that language has changed over the centuries.
There were a few carols I didn't know. A spotify playlist is available for all the carols.

[Grady Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT ADVENT DEVOTIONAL

This Advent Devotional is excellent for a father to lead his family through. However, if possible I would recommend having a copy of the complete song for each day. That way you can sing and praise YAHWEH as you worship HIM. The Holy Scripture passages give you pause to meditate and think on JEHOVAH’s Word, and the questions make you respond and discuss what you have learned, but also time to examine yourself.

[Claire Kaat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the way this book caused me to stop and consider the meaning and theological richness of many well loved Christmas carols as well as a new carol the author wrote. It would make a good book for family worship.

[Jonathan Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An encouraging daily devotion for advent.

[Ruth Potinu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book. I appreciated the layout, and the Spotify Playlist to go along with the readings. A wonderful way to prepare my heart for Christmas day.

[Phil Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advent devotional for 2024 - looking at the Bible truths that lie behind carol lyrics. Good stuff but a little too short each day to really get to grips with the truths.

[Chris Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable Advent devotional - one of the better ones!

[Whitney Fahner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reminder. I just wish I had more time to sit with the passages. Hopefully I can revisit this in future years and do just that.

[Sarah Hopkins]

It is interesting and inspiring that Carols draw not only from the two gospels that describe the Nativity - Mark and Luke - yet also older chapters of the Bible, such as Genesis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zechariah and Malachi. They may also draw on Psalms. This has gathered together different parts of the Bible to remind at a time when focus may be more toward Christianity that Jesus is not just in the gospels yet foretold and mentioned throughout the Bible, inspiring a year round interest to catch up on the meaning of not just Christmas but the presence of God's love for us all year round.

[Joshua Bremerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea, especially reading hymns through the lens of redemptive history, and I thought the execution was solid. Nothing terrible; nothing mindblowing. Good devotional.

[Jessica Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had known more of the songs. Not knowing the tunes made it a bit challenging to connect quickly to the short passages. I also didn’t agree with the statement about the wise men’s gifts. It wasn’t bad- just not the best advent devotional.

[Brianna Smith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even more delightful the second time through! This made for a great read aloud devotional that is short enough to be doable each night, yet rich enough to be nourishing.