Joy to the World & the Second Coming of Jesus (A Special Christmas Episode) Episode #24

The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt

Recently I heard that the song “Joy to the World” was not written as a carol, and that it isn’t about Christmas. This surprised me, since I’ve only ever known it as a Christmas carol.

Isaac Watts wrote “Joy to the World” in 1719. The opening line is often misread (mis-sung?) as Joy to the world, the Lord has come…but the wording is actually Joy to the world, the Lord IS come. That much I knew already, and have often wondered why it is sung incorrectly so much of the time.

The verb IS holds within the hope of the future…and in 1710, when it was penned, Jesus had of course already been born as a baby in Bethlehem Judea. It is said that he was writing about the future return of the Lord, and that it is based on Psalm 98 which does lean toward the second coming of Jesus.

Could it really be that Joy to the World is about the coming King, rather than the newborn King?

It was written as a poem originally, not as a song. And it was set to music by Lowel Mason around 100 years after Isaac Watts wrote it. It was released at Christmastime and of course became popular as a Christmas song. I read that it has become the most published Christmas carol in America. That’s pretty substantial!

It works as a Christmas song, clearly. And it does point us to the hope that came at the birth of Jesus.

But it is worth applying this hope to the soon return of Jesus, isn’t it?

Psalm 98 says this:

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Let me read it now as a prayer of blessing for you this Christmas season, and as we look toward the new year and the Second Coming.

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.

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.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

The King is coming soon to judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. May we live today ready for that moment, and may this Christmas be one in which we truly say, with a boldness that rings with hope, Let every heart prepare Him room! He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love. Joy to the world, one day soon the Lord is come again!

Merry Christmas to you and may the Lord be glorified in your home and mine, in your heart and mine, this Christmas.