Joy to the World
When Isaac Watts wrote his famous song poem 'Joy to the World', it wasn't meant for Christmas time - it was based on Psalm 98 and looked at Christ's second coming. But does it work both ways? Watch and find out.
Well, it's December, so today's Friday Classic Hymn is going to be a Christmas song—one of our Christmas favourites. It's been around for years and is sung every year by millions of people. I'm sure you know it. As always, if you have some comments or memories of this song, please write them in the comments below. It'll be great to hear your memories and how you remember this song.
For me, it's just a favourite. I remember the Salvation Army used to come down our street here in Boksburg and play the song on their instruments. I've always just loved it, so let's take a look at it—it's "Joy to the World."
The Story Behind "Joy to the World"
The author of this classic hymn is Isaac Watts. He's known as the Godfather of English hymnody. He is really one of the greats. He was born in 1674 in Somerset, England, and his family were nonconformists, meaning they were Christians but they weren't into the Church of England—they didn't agree with the Church of England's policies and structures, so they kind of did their own thing aside from the recognised church of the day, which made them rebels in a sense.
From an early age, he showed a real knack for writing poetry. In fact, there's a famous story about how young Isaac was one day scolded for not closing his eyes during prayers. He responded to his parents when they pointed this out with these words: "A little mouse for want of stairs ran up a rope to say its praise."
His dad was not impressed by this, as you can imagine, and started to dole out some punishment to his boy for being so insolent. He responded by saying this: "Oh Father, Father, pity take and I will no more verses make." So he obviously just had a knack for writing good poetry even from a young age.
He grew up and received a good education. Before long, as a young man, he was pastoring a local church in England. But really, Watts was more interested in education and scholarship than he was in preaching. This comes out in his enormous selection of hymns that he published.
Now remember, he was a nonconformist—he wasn't into the sort of church norms of the day. One of the things that frustrated him about the church of his time was that the church only wanted to sing words directly out of the Bible, so the songs were always hymns that were composed directly from Psalms. This was frustrating to him because he saw how the people in the church were just bored singing the same old stuff. He took quite literally the words of the Psalms that said "sing a new song to the Lord" and started to write new music—which was very radical—new words, all scriptural words, all based on Scripture, but just different phrasing and different ways of putting it across so that it could create something interesting.
I can relate to that. I love the old hymns—as you know, I'm doing this series on old hymns—but I believe strongly that we need to do new songs as well. Remember, the old hymns were new once as well. Thank goodness the people of the day said, "We're going to sing these new songs," and they've become today's classics. I hope that we can sing the great worship songs of today with passion so that they can become tomorrow's classics.
In 1719, Watts published his famous Psalms of David, a collection of rewritten Psalms—or rephrased Psalms—from a Christian perspective. He went through every Psalm in the Bible and kind of reworded them to explain how we as Christians can interpret them. When he got to Psalm 98, the words of today's classic hymn, "Joy to the World," came out.
Strangely, it was not at all meant to be a Christmas song. As we'll see when we go through the lyrics in a moment, this poem was actually more about the second coming of Christ. But somehow, over the years, the song became a Christmas song—and it does work both ways, it really does. But I wonder sometimes how Watts would feel about it if he had to hear us singing this every Christmas. Would he go, "No, you're getting it all wrong"? But I think it works both ways. In fact, I think he'd probably be pleased because this is his most well-known song. In fact, none of the other Psalms in this collection are even known or enjoyed today—it's only this one. So surely he would enjoy that.
Watts died in 1784, but he lives on—he really does—through these beautiful poems that he wrote, and in particular this one. Every year comes around and we sing "Joy to the World," don't we? I don't think I could remember a Christmas where this song hasn't been part of it for me, and that's special—that such a wonderful song can live on in our lives. So let's have a look at it. I wonder if you're going to see it more as a Christmas song or more as a second coming song as we go through these lyrics.
What Do the Lyrics of "Joy to the World" Mean?
Before we start with the lyrics, I actually want to look at the form of these poems because I never really realised the beautiful shape that these four lines take. When we sing it, we repeat the last line and it kind of messes up the symmetry of the words. But look at this first verse—how beautiful the four-line form is. Lines one and three rhyme, and lines two and four rhyme:
"Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; let ev'ry heart prepare Him room and heav'n and nature sing."
I love that—it's got such a nice ring to it. But of course, we sort of lose that in the way we sing it. Nonetheless, the words are precious. Let's look at them.
Verse 1: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King"
"Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King."
Now, Psalm 98 often talks about joy. Obviously, when he was reading this and paraphrasing it, that struck him—and it'll strike you as well if you read the Psalm—how he talks so much about the joy that the earth will feel when God comes. Verse 9 of Psalm 98 talks about how God is going to come and judge the earth.
Perhaps he was looking at that as he wrote, you know, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come." Jesus has arrived. He has come to finish the work that He started. God has come to the earth, so receive Him—receive Him. Let earth receive her King, he says. I love that.
"Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room."
In other words, you know, he's saying God is here, God has come, and He's come to judge the earth. Will you make room for Him in your heart? He wants to reign as King of your life. He wants to be number one in your life. Will you make room so that He can not only be here on earth but be King in your heart?
"And heav'n and nature sing."
Heaven—all the spiritual beings—and nature, everything on earth singing. That's a beautiful picture. In the Psalm as well, the psalmist writes about how fields and seas and rivers and mountains all join creation in singing God's praise. A beautiful picture.
Of course, when Jesus came the first time, we praised Him and gave Him glory. In every Christmas time we think back on His coming, and we join in—all of creation—and praise His name. But of course, as well, when He comes again, we're going to bow at His feet and worship Him and join, hopefully, if we know Him, in the whole earth singing His praise.
Verse 2: "Joy to the earth, the Saviour reigns"
"Joy to the earth, the Saviour reigns."
The same theme as the first—take joy, take joy, he says, because the Saviour reigns. Remember, Jesus came to the earth to bring God's Kingdom into being. It wasn't a political kingdom—it wasn't Him becoming King and overseeing all the rulers on earth—but it was Him being King of our hearts. Again, it's all linked up, you see. So again, we have to ask ourselves: does the Saviour reign in our hearts?
But He is coming again, and in His second coming, He will come to rule the earth as a political leader in force, and He will finally put everything right. So it works both ways.
"Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy."
See, again, he's saying men and women are to sing songs of praise and employ songs to give Him glory. All creatures and all things on earth will join in. Again, he says it—floods and fields and rocks, hills and plains—all repeat the worship of the people.
Verse 3: "No more let sins and sorrows grow"
Now, verse three is the one that we often leave out in our time for some reason, and it's a pity we do because it's actually a very profound verse.
"No more let sins and sorrows grow nor thorns infest the ground."
Now, in Genesis, remember when Adam and Eve sinned, the earth was cursed because of their sin. So now all people are under the curse of sin until they find redemption in Christ. This is his point here—that in Christ, the curse of sin is reversed and we are redeemed, and the earth is redeemed by the saving grace of Jesus.
"He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found."
So Jesus came to bring blessing to a cursed earth. When He came, He offered redemption to all people who will place their faith in Him. So instead of being under sin's curse, we are freed and set free from our guilt and set free to live good and holy and loving lives. Have you known the saving grace? Only Jesus can set us free from the curse of sin and give us the freedom that we need to thrive in this life.
Of course, the earth will remain cursed until He comes again and the earth passes away, and the new heavens and the new earth are brought into being. What a day that will be.
Verse 4: "He rules the world with truth and grace"
"He rules the world with truth and grace."
Now, this is a reference to John 1:14, which says this: "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling amongst us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus came to the earth and rules it in a spiritual sense with grace to forgive and truth to convict and make us into the people we should be.
"And makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love."
What does this mean? Well, verses 2 and 3 of the Psalm say this: "The Lord has made His salvation known and revealed His righteousness to the nations. He has remembered His love and His faithfulness to Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."
So when Jesus came, this happened. God's glory was on show for all nations—not just for the Jewish people any more, but for the Gentiles too. He revealed His righteousness and His glory through Jesus, and all people have the opportunity to come to God through Him now. So the great Christian mission is to take this good news to all the ends of the earth, as the Psalm said, so that everybody—whatever culture, whatever part of the world—can come to know this Jesus who broke the curse of sin and brought redemption to the earth.
We believe that one day, when this is complete—when all the people groups in the world have heard the good news—Jesus will return and come to make all things new.
Conclusion
You know, it's a deep song, and I think it works both ways, as I've said. It talks about when Jesus first came and offered redemption and salvation, and it also looks forward to when Jesus will come again and complete the work and finally will rule the world completely, and sin's curse will be swallowed up.
So let's sing it this Christmas—which is why I have my Christmas hat on—but as we sing it, let's think about both of these applications: looking back and remembering with joy what He did, and looking forward and hoping with joy for what is to come.
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References
Psalm 98
Genesis 3 (The curse on creation)
John 1:14 (The Word became flesh, full of grace and truth)
Watts, Isaac. The Psalms of David (1719)
