Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“For He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, and the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 98:9).
“Joy to the World” is not a Christmas hymn. This sentence might be a little hard to believe for many people, but the reality is that this lovely hymn never talks about Jesus’ birth. Yes, the first phrase says,  “Joy to the world! the Lord is come” but the background of this hymn is Psalm 98, which is about the second coming of the Lord.

Nevertheless, this hymn is good to be sung during Christmas time, any time of the year, like Easter season, but also it can be used as a missionary hymn.
Who is the author of “Joy to the World”? Many of you know about the author, Isaac Watts. The son of a schoolmaster from Southampton. Isaac Watts was born on July 17, 1674, and he was a very smart child, starting to learn Latin when he was four years old, and able to write fine poems when he was seven.

During this time, churches in Britain, especially churches in Scotland, sang just the Psalms for their worship services, and Watts become dissatisfied with the quality of singing, and he felt that the churches have a limitation only singing these Psalms, so he “invented” the English hymn.

Now, let us make clear that Watts did not neglect the Psalms, in fact he created a particular hymnal where he translated, interpreted and paraphrased the Old Testament Psalm through the eyes  of New Testament faith. The name of this collection was “The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament” and “Joy to the World” was part of this collection, like “O God Our Help in Ages Past” (Psalm 90).

“Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let ev'ry 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.

Joy to the earth! 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.”

The melody is a work from Lowell Mason, and for many years people thought that the composer George F. Handel wrote the melody, but this is wrong. Lowell Mason, a musician born in Massachusetts in 1792, called the “Father of American church music” used parts of Handel’s famous oratorio “Messiah” to compose the melody for “Joy to the World.” The firth phrase of “Joy to the World” is from the choral piece “Lift up Your  Heads” a setting of Psalm 24, and the second part of “Joy to the World” uses the tenor solo called “Comfort Ye My People” a setting of Isaiah 40.

“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.”

So, during this Christmas season, sing this hymn and praise the Lord, because, after all, our Messiah has come to save us, and one day he is coming back to take us home.

In His service,
Israel