The Lord Has Come
DECEMBER 22, 2009 (TUESDAY)
[The blogs for this week are reproductions of the Christmas week blogs of 2007]
Yesterday I told you my favorite Christmas carol is Silent Night. A close second is Joy to the World.
There are many little ditties that have come into being during our lifetime. We enjoy singing Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, Let It Snow, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and many more, but none of these type Christmas songs can hold a candle to the grand old songs of Christmas, like Joy to the World. Isaac Watts wrote the words. All of his hymns came from the Scriptures and Joy to the World was no exception, based on five verses in Psalm 98. A century later Lowell Mason adapted the music from an earlier hymn, parts of which had appeared in Handel’s The Messiah.
Some think that it’s a song about the Second Coming of Christ. Most take it as a Christmas carol, celebrating the Advent of Christ. Either way, it is difficult to hear or sing this song without feeling joyful.
JOY TO THE WORLD
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.
Joy to the world! the Saviour 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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Psalm 98:4-8 (KJV):
1 Sing to the LORD a new song
. . . .
4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together
(This blog is a reproduction of the Dec 20, 2007 blog)