Joy to the World!

   "Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises." Psalm 98:4
                  
 There is just something about the word JOY. It makes me smile, it warms my heart, it makes me want more of Jesus. : )

The author of Joy to the World!, Isaac Watts, was an English hymn writer and theologian. He is also known as the 'inventor 'of the English hymn.

"Until Isaac Watts came along, most of the singing in British churches was from the Psalms of David. The church - especially the Church of Scotland - had labored over the Psalms with great effort and scholarship, translating them into poems with rhyme and rhythm suitable for singing. 

As a young man in Southampton, Isaac had become dissatisfied with the quality of singing, and he keenly felt the limitations of being able to only sing these Psalms. So he 'invented' the English hymn."

He did not neglect the Psalms though, but rather "studied them from the perspective of Jesus and the New Testament, and then formed them into verses for singing."

In 1719, Issac Watts wrote Joy to the World! It was his "interpretation of Psalm 98, which says: 'Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.' Isaac pondered the real reason for shouting joyfully to the Lord...the Messiah has come to redeem us."

This song always gets me in the Christmas mood.

Here is Faith Hill singing 'Joy to the World!'

                   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 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.

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.

*All quotes from Robert J. Morgan's book "Then Sings My Soul: Book 2" a collection of great hymn stories.

Song #1- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Song #2- O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Buy it HERE on Amazon