Monday, January 4, 2010

JOY TO THE WORLD

By Tim Claubaugh

TEXT: Psalm 98; Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
MUSIC: arr. from George F. Handel, 1685-1759, in T. Hawkes’ Collection of Tunes, 1823.
TUNE: ANTICOH
METER: Irreg. 4 4 6 4 4 6 6 8

Isaac Watts had a way of “Christianizing” the Psalms. The hymn “Joy to the World” is an example of that since the text for this favorite Christmas Carol comes from the later part of Psalm 98. In the Church, Psalm 98 is THE Christmas Psalm since it is sung as the Responsorial Psalm for “Christmas: Mass During the Day.” This hymn is known as a Christmas Carol, but can actually be sung throughout the year especially whenever the topic or theme of “Kingdom” comes up in the readings.


On the Website, Lectionary.org, Richard Niell Donovan writes of this hymn:

“Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was born to Dissenting parents (people who refused to accept the authority and practices of the Church of England). As a boy, he sang hymns outside prison walls to encourage his father, who had been arrested for his non-conformist beliefs.

Isaac showed promise as a poet at a very young age. As he grew, he became increasingly unhappy with the hymns that he sang in church each week. In those days, hymns were psalms set to music. Watts saw that the hymns thus reflected little or nothing of the New Testament, and set out to remedy that error. His hymns –– at least his earlier hymns –– reinterpreted the psalms in the light of the Christian faith. In 1719, he published a book of hymns entitled, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament.

One of those hymns was ‘Joy to the World,’ based loosely on Psalm 98, which says, ‘Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises’ (Psalm 98:4). That psalm looks forward to the day when the Lord will come to judge the world in righteousness. In this hymn, Watts reinterpreted the psalm to rejoice in the coming of the Christ as our Lord and savior.

This hymn was sung to various tunes for many years. Then in 1839, Lowell Mason, a banker who happened to be quite interested in church music, published the tune that we now associate with ‘Joy to the World.’ Mason borrowed liberally from classical music, and acknowledged his debt to Handel's ‘Messiah’ for parts of this hymn tune.

Watts wrote some 600 hymns altogether, and is considered to be the father of Christian hymnody. His hymns include such favorites as ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ and ‘O God, Our Help in Ages Past.’ But the favorite of favorites is ‘Joy to the World.’”


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 us, our songs employ;
While fields and floods,
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, 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.

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