“JOY TO THE WORLD”
Christmas Caroling In The Word – Message 4
Rev. Todd G. Leupold, Perth Bible Church, 12/21/2008 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Sadly, our period in history is not, by any means, the first to argue, fight or shoot at one another over our opinions about what does and does not make a worthy song of worship. Nor is ours the first in which there were scores of people in the congregations who sang the words of their worship songs from habit and rote memory, rather than from heart and with imminent understanding – even during such ’high holy seasons’ as Christmastime.
In the first half of the 18th Century in England, many of the hymns that we still fondly remember and sing today were written. Some of them were popular from their inception and kept with the traditions of their day. Others sought to make adjustments respective to a changing and adjusting people and were met with great criticism. Interestingly enough, of those that continue to survive and be sung today, the most prolific hymn-writer was one of these ’radicals.’ Isaac Watts, the author of such hymns as ’O God, Our Help in Ages Past,’ ’I Sing The Mighty Power of God,’ ’When I Survey The Wondrous Cross,’ ’At The Cross,’ ’We’re Marching to Zion,’ and many others, was met with great controversy by his own contemporaries. In fact some of the church leaders of his day insisted that no ’sound Christian’ should ever sing a hymn written by Isaac Watts!
One of his earliest and most controversial songs, however, grew to become one of today’s most popular and endeared Christmas carols - “Joy To The World,” written in 1719. What, you may ask, could be so controversial about “Joy To The World”? In Watt’s day many of the most prominent Christians (especially the Calvinists, of which Watts himself was), taught that ALL songs sung in church MUST be very close, literal word-for-word translations of the Psalms. When Watts wrote “Joy To The World,” he based the lyrics on Psalm 98. However, rather than write it as a very close, literal word-for-word translation, he re-wrote it as an expressive paraphrase.
Why would Watts so ’buck’ the traditions and conventions of his day, especially in relation to communicating Scripture? It starts with his experiences as a teen, where he became increasingly frustrated that so few people seemed to be genuinely showing or understanding their faith while they were singing the psalms in the traditional form. He began to write his own hymns in order to bring more life and understanding to worship. To accomplish this, he sought to write songs that remained true and accurate to Scripture, but that would also be expressed in words and ways that people would more easily understand, remember, and celebrate.
This morning, I would invite us to look more closely at this carol, it’s spirit, and it’s truth!
SCRIPTURE: PSALM 98:1-9
*** As we read this morning’s Scripture, let us do so in parallel with Watt’s paraphrase.***
Psalm 98:1-3
Sing a new song to the LORD, for He has performed wonders; His right hand and holy arm have won Him victory. The LORD had made His victory known; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; and the ends of the earth have seen our God’s victory.
“Joy to the World”, verse 1a-c
Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room,
Psalm 98:4-9a
Shout to the LORD, all the earth; be jubilant, shout for joy, and sing. Sing to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and melodious song. With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn shout triumphantly in the presence of the LORD, our King. Let the sea and all that fills it, the world and those who live in it, resound. Let the rivers clap their hands; let the mountains shout together for joy before the LORD,
“Joy to the World”, verse 1d-2
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.
Psalm 98:9b
for He is coming to judge the earth.
“Joy to the World”, verse 3 (normally and sadly often skipped in our singing today)
No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make the blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found.
Psalm 98:9c-d
He will judge the world righteously and the peoples fairly.
“Joy to the World”, verse 3 (normally and sadly often skipped in our singing today)
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, and wonders of His love.
I trust and pray that this comparison helps make the meaning of the words self-evident for us here today. But, where is the specific Christmas connection? For that, we must look more closely at Luke 2:10-12.
FIRST, WHAT IS THIS JOY?
A.) What Is Joy Generally?
The New Webster’s Dictionary (Expanded Edition, 2004) defines joy as: Pleasure caused by the acquisition or expectation of good; delight; exultation; cause of joy or happiness.
The late Oswald Chambers, in his devotional My Utmost For His Highest, wrote: Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and reborn, not the successful doing of a thing.
It has been said, as well that: Joy is a gift given and received, not a thing that can be manufactured or manipulated.
Pastor Jim Kane, in as sermon on “Tasting the Fruit,” expressed:
Joy is like the hidden note in the glass. Joy is tuning in to what God is doing around you, seeing the world through his eyes, picking up on his delight in us as his children. Anyone can find happiness for a while… Happiness depends on what is happening to you. Joy is different; joy goes deeper. Joy is when your whole being sings because you have caught a glimpse of God at work. Joy can creep up on you and surprise you in unexpected places. (semoncentral.com)
B.) What is the Joy of Christmas, Luke, & Isaac Watts?
1.A Great Joy
Every word in the angel’s proclamation is emphatic!
The joy’s of earth can be hard to find and are small and fleeting. But this joy, the joy that comes down from the Heavens and is brought by the LORD and Creator Himself, is easily found by those who seek it, immeasurable in its fullness, and eternal in its duration!
2.A Pure & Holy Joy
As in verse 14, it is a joy that is best expressed, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!”
Coming from our perfectly Pure & Holy God, this joy itself then must be pure and holy.
What a contrast to the purported joys of our own world and fleshly existence! The late ’Prince of Preachers,’ Charles Spurgeon perhaps puts this best:
“The joy of sin is a fire-fountain, having its source in the burning soil of hell, maddening and
consuming those who drink its fire-water; of such delights we desire not to drink. It were to
be worse than damned to be happy in sin, since it is the beginning of grace to be wretched
in sin, and the consummation of grace to be wholly escaped from sin, and to shudder even at
the thought of it. It is hell to live in sin and misery, it is a deep lower still when men could
fashion a joy in sin. . . There are those who, to-morrow, will pretend to exhibit joy in the
remembrance of our Saviour’s birth, but they will not seek their pleasure in the Saviour: they
will need many additions to the feast before they can be satisfied.”
3.A Specific Joy
This is a specific joy that is based on the truth, reality and results of this specific news! What is this news?
God Himself has come to the earth! He has come at this time not as the Maker & Judge of the Law, but as the merciful public defender of those who seek an escape from their transgressions of the Law! The Law itself, as a revealer of sin and sinfulness, is a natural source of great dismay, worry and fear. But, now, God the Saviour has come to the world that through Him we may have a choice beyond inevitable dismay, worry and fear. That, through the Savior and His work on work, even the hopeless law-breaker may find an inexhaustible well of forgiveness, freedom and JOY!
He has come at this time not to judge our sin, but to offer to remove it; not to punish us for our transgressions, but to provide forgiveness; not as an angel of holy vengeance, but as a suffering servant of mercy.
A specific joy whose source is a specific Being – Jesus Christ, Savior, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
SECOND, FOR WHOM IS THIS JOY?
“for all the people . . . unto us . . . born for you”
It is a gift to all of humanity, and yet it is also at the same time a very personal and individual offer just for YOU!
It is a joy that ALL are in grave need of, and ALL are welcome and able to receive in the proportion with which they receive the Joy-bringer – His “way, truth and life.”
THIRD, WHY?
Because, under the Law alone, we are all far short and have a past, present and future that can only be one of disappointment, despair, condemnation, and eternal death.
Galatians 3:23-24 “Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
FOURTH, FOR HOW LONG? HOW DOES IT END?
For long as Christ is God & Saviour – that is, for eternity!
So long as our focus is upon Him, His work, and His promises, we always have reason for this great joy!
Psalm 23:6 “Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
Isaiah 35:10 “and the ransomed of the LORD will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake (them), and sorrow and signing will flee.”
CHALLENGE: POSSESSING JOY TO THE WORLD
To again quote Spurgeon:
“It is joy to all nations that Christ is born, the Prince of Peace, the King who rules in righteousness ... beloved, the greatest joy is to those who know Christ as a Saviour. . . the further you submit yourself to Christ the Lord, the more completely you know Him, the fuller will your happiness become. Surface joy is to those who live where the Saviour is preached; but the great deeps, the great fathomless deeps of solemn joy which glisten and sparkle with delight, are for such as know the Saviour, obey the anointed one, and have communion with the Lord Himself . . .you will never know the fullness of the joy which Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the power of the Holy Spirit you take the Lord your Master to be your All in all, and make Him the fountain of your intensest delight.”
