Below is an excerpt of an article I wrote AFTER Christmas 3 years ago…on my favorite hymn for this season and every season: Joy to the World. See below for the words
Some of you may be thinking, ‘’Whew, we did it! Christmas is over!” Some of you may even be thinking, “Good, now we can stop singing all of those infernal Christmas carols in church!” Warning – it’s never too late to sing,”Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Or, as my friend, Pastor Scotty Smith has taught me, Joy to the World is NOT merely a Christmas song.
Faith Hill did a new album this year centering around Isaac Watts’ famous hymn. It is amazing to think how many voices have joined in singing at least the first line and probably the refrain in the last month. In cars, in stores, in churches, in Christmas programs, people have proclaimed, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!” Perhaps it is the first four words that our secular society is drawn to – indeed, in what could be called a rather depressing year, isn’t joy what the world needs now? And yet, if that were all the world needed, why aren’t more people singing the Three Dog Night version, “Joy to the world, all the boys and girls…Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me!”
I believe people join to sing these words because whether they know it or not or believe it or not, they are deeply drawn to the good news that the Lord IS COME! As Wikipedia says, ‘is come’ is incorrect modern English usage and we would now say, ‘has come.’ Whichever way you put it, the tense is important – present perfect – meaning, as all of my former English students will recall:), the action is completed (perfect) and the action is happening in the present. God is with us in Jesus. And this really is the best news people in our alienated and isolated world can hear.
The hymn also reflects the intersection of heaven and earth that is essential to understanding what God is up to in the world. (And if you want to understand this intersection more, I highly recommend you take that gift certificate to Amazon and order up a copy of N.T. Wright’s,Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church). “Let earth receive her King” and “Let every heart prepare him room” remind us that both earth and its inhabitants are impacted by our King’s arrival. “Let heaven and nature sing” remind us that in Christ’s birth, the intersection of heaven and earth has begun.
Verse 2 continues the theme, telling us the response this great good news calls forth from us: “Let men their songs employ.” Not only do we sing this joy to the world, but we do so by living this joy in this world. If we do not live and proclaim this good news, the rocks, hills and plains will. “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40). We have a story that heaven and nature will sing, so let us sing our songs of redemption with them. Article continued…
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.
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.
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.
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