The Songs Tell the Story: A Family Advent DevotionalSample

The Song that’s Not a Christmas Song (Really)

“Joy to the World” is on most people’s lists of Christmas favorites. Did you know that it wasn’t even written as a Christmas carol?

Isaac Watts wrote a book of poems based on the psalms. He wanted people to read those Old Testament passages with a New Testament point of view. Watts wanted people to think of Jesus as their King when they read Psalm 98:7–9, which says, “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.”

Compare those words to: “Joy to the world the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King! . . . And heaven and nature sing! And heaven and nature sing! “Joy to the World” was written one hundred years after Isaac Watts had written his book. It is an adaptation of Psalm 98 from Isaac Watts’ book.

Jesus is the King of Christmas, and that is what we are supposed to remember when we sing “Joy to the World.” The last stanza of that hymn says:

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.

Isaac Watts wanted people to understand that God rules the world with truth and grace, but it is our job to help others know the “wonders of His love.”

People need joy. People need Jesus to be their King. Jesus told his disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy might be in you, and your joy may be full” ( John 15:11). He wanted them to have his joy, the joy that comes from choosing God as your King.

Will you make Jesus your King and live with his joy?

That is how you give “joy to the world.”