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JOY TO THE WORLD!

The Forgotten Meaning of Christmas

Joy to thre World FORMATindd.indd 1 8/2/13 12:27 PM

Pa r ac l e t e P r e s s BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS

2013 First Printing

Joy to the World! The Forgotten Meaning of ChristmasCopyright © 2013 by Paraclete Press, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-61261-411-3

Unless otherwise noted, all Scriptural references are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked niv are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scriptures marked kjv are taken from the authorized King James Version of the Bible.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) is a registered trademark of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748. Joy to the world! : the forgotten meaning of Christmas / by Isaac Watts and Paraclete Press. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61261-411-3 (hard cover-jacket : alk. paper) 1. Christmas poetry, English. 2. Hymns, English. I. Title. PR3763.W2A72 2013 821’.5 —dc23 201302108

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduce, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete PressBrewster, Massachusettswww.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America


Pa r ac l e t e P r e s s BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS

Isaac Watts and Paraclete Press

JOY TO THE WORLD!The Forgotten Meaning of Christmas


T H I S B O O K I S D E D I C AT E D T O

everyone who sings in church, joins a choir,or visits their neighbors singing carols at Christmas,

thereby keeping the great hymns alive.


V E R S E

1Joy 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.

V E R S E

2Joy 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.


V E R S E

3No 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.

V E R S E

4He 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.


JOY TO THE WORLD!


c o n t e n t s

i n t r o d u c t i o n

The Forgotten Meaning of Christmas13

1Let Earth Receive Her King

29

2Let Men Their Songs Employ

33

3No More Let Sins and Sorrows Grow

3 7

4He Rules the World with Truth and Grace

41

5For the Twelve Days of Christmas

r e f l e c t i o n s o n c h r i s t t h e K i n g f r o m t h e w r i t i n g s o f i s a a c w a t t s

45


a p p e n d i x

More Christmas Hymns about the Second Coming

97

n o t e s

105


13

i n t r o d u c t i o n

The Forgotten Meaning of Christmas

T he lyrics to “Joy to the World” were

written in 1719 by the English,

Nonconformist hymn writer Isaac

Watts (1674–1748).

A poet since childhood, Watts grew up to

become a pastor and hymn writer. He wrote

some 750 hymns and was often called, even

during his own lifetime, the Father of English

Hymnody.


14

Many of Watts’s hymns are among the most

familiar in the world. “From All That Dwell

Below the Skies,” “O God, Our Help in Ages

Past,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,”

and “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed,” for

instance, are found in hundreds of hymnbooks,

across many Christian denominations, and sung

regularly by millions in praise of God.

Watts’s work was celebrated during his

lifetime in England, as well as in America.

Benjamin Franklin was among his earliest

admirers; in fact, he was the first publisher of

Watts’s songs in the young American colonies

in 1729.

“Joy to the World” was later put to music in

1839 by an American musician named Lowell

Mason. Today, it is the most popular Christmas

hymn in the world. But there’s more to the story

of this great hymn.

It is such a beautiful song.


Let earth receive her King!

Repeat the sounding joy!

No more let sins and sorrows grow!

He rules the world with truth and grace . . .

. . . And wonders, wonders, of his love!


16

Very few people know that Isaac Watts did

not write “Joy to the World” to be a Christmas

hymn. It was written simply to imitate one of the

psalms of David: Psalm 98. Watts was working

on a larger project to “retranslate” the Psalter

into modern use, and he intended “Joy to the

World” to inspire people to sing the words of

the ancient Psalm in everyday English.

The text of the hymn was first published in

1719 in England in a volume titled The Psalms

of David Imitated in the Language of the

New Testament, and Applied to the Christian

State and Worship. A writer of multiple

thick volumes of sermons, theological and

philosophical treatises, addresses, songs, and

other translations, Isaac Watts viewed The

Psalms of David as the major work of his life:

reinterpreting the emotion, passion, and ideas

of the Hebrew psalmists, infusing them with

Christian theology.

He was sometimes criticized for presuming

to “rewrite” a part of the Bible. How can one

-


17

improve upon the already powerful language

of emotion and spiritual yearning present in

the Psalms? But Reverend Watts said that it

was precisely because of the power in those

ancient words that they ought to be rendered

anew for each age—in language that will

encourage people to praise God.

Praise abounds in “Joy to the World.” How

blessed our lives might be if we praised God

with words—and songs—like this every

moment of every day.

HEAVEN AND NATURE SING

REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY

HIS BLESSINGS FLOW

GLORIES OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

-


18

Watts believed that the Psalter ought to be

translated differently for singing than for read-

ing. He explained:

The design of these two duties is very

different: By reading we learn what God

speaks to us in his word; but when we

sing, especially unto God, our chief design

is, or should be, to speak our own hearts

and our words to God. . . . We breathe

out our souls towards him, and make our

addresses of praise and acknowledgment

to him.

Perhaps this means, don’t just read (or study)

this book; use it to sing.

Watts went on, most passionately:

It is not always necessary that our songs

should be direct addresses to God; some

of them may be mere meditations of the


19

history of divine providences, or the

experiences of former saints; but even

then if those providences or experiences

cannot be assumed by us as parallel to

our own, nor spoken in our own names,

yet still there ought to be some turns of

expression that may make it look at least

like our own present meditation, and that

may represent it as a history which we

ourselves are at that time recollecting. 1

In other words, make the words of the hymn

your own.

Now, pause for a moment and read the words

of David’s Psalm 98 in the King James Version

of the Bible that Isaac Watts knew and loved:

O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath

done marvellous things: his right hand, and

his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.-


20

The LORD hath made known his salvation: his

righteousness hath he openly shewed in the

sight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy and his truth

toward the house of Israel: all the ends of

the earth have seen the salvation of our

God.

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.

Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the

world, and they that dwell therein.

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills

be joyful together before the LORD;

for he cometh to judge the earth: with

righteousness shall he judge the world,

and the people with equity.

-


21

Those were the words of God that inspired “Joy

to the World.”

When we sing Watts’s new version of the

Psalm, Christ’s presence is assumed in those

phrases. The Lord King, who is making known

his righteousness, is not just God the Father,

but God the Son.

“Joy to the World” is about Christ the

King—even though the ancient psalmist, of

course, lived centuries before Christ. How do

we reconcile this?

There are some who object to inserting

Christian imagery (language of the New

Testament) into the Hebrew Psalms (the Old

Testament). But on this point, too, Watts

was adamant. These were the principles he

followed:

[The Psalms] ought to be translated

in such a manner as we have reason to


22

believe David would have composed

them if he had lived in our day. . . .

Were [David] now to transcribe them,

he would make them speak the present

circumstances of the church, and that in

the language of the New Testament.

He would see frequent occasion to

insert the cross of Christ in his song, and

often underline the confessions of his

sins with the blood of the Lamb.

He would often describe the glories

and the triumphs of our blessed Lord in

long and flowing verse, even as St. Paul,

when he mentions the name and honors

of Christ, can hardly part his lips from

them again.2


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