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December 2, 2013

Joy to the world! the Lord is come,  let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare him room.  And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Words by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Music by G. F. Handel (1685-1759) and Lowell Mason (1792-1872)

This familiar stanza comes from perhaps the most published and performed Christmas carol in the history of the church: Joy to the World.  The lyrics were written by the great hymn writer Isaac Watts, and first appeared in his 1719 collection entitled The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship.  Based on Psalm 98, the song heralds the return of Jesus for his second Advent.  It was not about announcing his birth, as is commonly thought. 
Psalm 98 begins with the words “O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvelous things.”  It goes on to call everyone to

 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise,
 and rejoice, and sing praise.  Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with
 the harp, and the voice of a psalm.  With trumpets and sound of
 cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King (vv.4-6).

Making that joyful noise was Watts’ true calling.  When he was fifteen, young Isaac complained in the church pastored by his father of the then-traditional method of singing Psalms with tedious, awkward rhymes (which even the Wesleys referred to as “scandalous doggerel”).  Evidently he was challenged by a church member to “Give us something better, young man.”  Watts believed that the Psalms should be re-interpreted from Old Testament Judaism into the context of Jesus Christ, and hence “imitated in the language of the New Testament.”  His introduction of extra-Biblical poetry into the writing of the Psalms enabled him to “renovate” them into versions better adapted for singing. 

Joy to the World is a good example of a combination of what one scholar refers to as “doctrinal objectivity” and “emotional subjectivity.”   More simply put, the words move back and forth from theological attributes and principles related to the work of God to how it actually inspires and makes—or  should make—one feel.  Charles Wesley was also a master at moving between the subjective and objective in his hymns.  Isaac Watts was revered by the Wesleys (They called him Dr. Watts), and had a huge impact on their understanding of hymnody and worship.  

The tune, or melody, of Joy to the World was not written by Watts.  The first four notes of the hymn are the same as two choruses, Lift Up Your Heads and Glory to God, in George Frideric Handel’s Messiah.  The hymn composer, Lowell Mason, adapted in 1839 a melody for Joy based on the tunes by Handel. 

It would be inconceivable to sing of Christmas without this timeless piece, which, through its hopeful and majestic glorification of the coming reign of God in Christ, blesses secular and spiritual alike:

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.


  
 

 

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