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Joy to the World

Christmas is a great season for singing some great carols. While there are many to choose from, one of the most famous is "Joy to the World". It's a song based after the Gospel account: Luke 2:8-17 (NIV)
2:8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,


Remember this great carol?

1. Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room;
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing.
And heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.

2. 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 the sounding joy

3. No more let sin 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.

4. 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.

Here's a couple of things you may not know. Watts originally based the song on his ongoing work to put music to the Psalms. When he got to Psalm 98, he used the words of the Psalm as the basis for writing the words to this song we only think of as a Christmas carol.
Psalm 98:1-9 (NIV)
98:1 Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn-- shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.


Isaac Watts was the son of Isaac Watts (so really he's Isaac Watts II). His father was a part of a group of "free thinkers", which meant he was not a part of the Church of England, and politically was not aligned to the powers-that-be. Because of his father's affiliations, Watts the junior was not allowed to enter Oxford or Cambridge and instead studied at the Independent Academy at Stoke, Newington, until the age of 20, when he left on his own to go back to live with his father. Evidently, after a time with his father he left and landed a position as the assistant of Dr. Isaac Chauncey (another Isaac!) at Mark Lane Independent Chapel in London. Within 3 years, Watts became the minister at age 26! His church grew rapidly and his position enabled him to finally publish some of his work.

He dove into the Psalms and wrote songs we know: "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" and "Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed?", "I Sing the Mighty Power of God", "Jesus Shall Reign" (my favorite) and over 500 more!!. These and many more were published in 1719 in The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship. Whew! After many years, his work began to gain acceptance.

The song we sing today has a different tune than Watts used with his version of "Joy to the World". He intended for the lyrics to be sung to the tune of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". In 1836, Lowell Mason of New Jersey, a student of the classical German composer Handel, wrote an upbeat melody he called "Antioch". He searched and searched for lyrics that would fit perfectly with his song and eventually came upon "Joy to the World" by Isaac Watts. Notice the version here has both Handel as the music on top, and Watts as author below:

The combination of Watts' words and Mason's music is the Christmas carol we love today. No one is sure how it became such a popular Christmas carol because the only lines linking it to the New Testament story of Christ's birth is "the Lord is come" and "let Earth receive her King". But in the early half of the 1900's, it became a regular on radio during the holidays and "Joy to the World" was soon a classic.

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