Advent - Joy

Psalm 98:4-6

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; 

break forth into joyous song and sing praises! 

Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, 

with the lyre and the sound of melody! 

With trumpets and the sound of the horn 

make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! 

 

Isaac Watts is known as the "Godfather of English Hymnody." He wrote over 700 hymns, including 15 in the current edition of the Methodist Hymnal. He wrote When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Our God In Ages Past, Alas and Did My Savior Bleed, and many others.

 

He also wrote the words to Joy to the World; one of the most famous Christmas songs ever written. It is instantly recognizable, and it ranks behind only Silent Night in number of recordings of Christmas songs. It appears today in over 1,300 different hymnals. I believe it was the first Christmas song I learned to sing as a child, and it is the first song I learned to play on the trumpet in third grade band.

 

Joy to the World is an immensely popular Christmas song, but the truth is that it was not written as a Christmas song. In fact, it wasn't even written as a song. It was written as a poem titled "The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom," based on Psalm 98 and was part of Isaac Watts' 1719 poetry book The Psalms of David. Based on the Psalms, but inspired by the New Testament, Watts reinterpreted the Psalms to be more about the life of Jesus. He was concerned that the church suffered from a lack of joy in worship, and his interpretation of Psalm 98 was written to urge the church to be more joyful. Verse 4 of Psalm 98 reads, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises," which Watts reinterpreted to read "Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns, Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy."

 

In 1836, Lowell Mason, a music teacher in Orange, New Jersey, with inspiration from Handel's Messiah, wrote a tune called Antioch. Three years later, after reading the works of Isaac Watts, he put Watts' poem to his tune and Joy to the World was born.

 

It is not really known how the song became a Christmas song. Nevertheless, it is a joyful song adapted from a joyful Psalm, sung at Christmas; a time of Joy. The song reminds us that Jesus came into the world as one of us, and because he did, we can be children of God.

If that's not a cause for joy, I don't know what is.

 

Prayer:

Father, thank you for becoming one of us. Thank you for loving us enough to provide a way to be in relationship with you. May we always remember that love, and may we always reflect it to those you love. Amen.

 

This episode was written and read by Cliff McCartney.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.