Joy to the World

Three hundred years old! That is how old the song Joy to the World is. That's incredible!

Written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, this beloved song/hymn still echoes through our churches, schools and carol services across the planet. What is even more interesting is that apparently Isaac Watts didn't even write the words as a song at all. He was busy working on a poetic reflection of the Psalms and was trying to create a modern paraphrase of each Psalm. These were compiled into a book called "The Psalms of David". 

When Isaac read Psalm 98 he was inspired to write the words we sing today (mostly) and when you look at the Psalm in the light of his song, we can see the deep connection. 

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.

One of the other interesting facts about Isaac Watts' work on the Psalms was that he was trying to read each Psalm in the light of Jesus Christ - the promised Messiah. This is why I love his words even more! As many of you know that was the title of one of my books (Jesus in the Psalms) - I am convinced that the words of the Old Testament become so much more meaningful when read in the light of Christ.

The Challenge for us this Advent is to 'prepare room in our hearts for the coming of Christ.' 

We can only truly sing that 'The Lord is come', if we have made a decision to treat Jesus as our Lord.

Thoughts?

Living in Grace
D3LM3