Joy to the World

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Joy to the world! the Lord is come!

Author: Isaac Watts (1719)
Tune: ANTIOCH (Handel)
Published in 1847 hymnals

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	Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come

Piano/Organ
	Where's the Newborn King? (A Hide-and-Se…

Choral
	Joy to the World

Representative Text

1 Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King!
Let every 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.

2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #219

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Author: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

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Related Texts

First Line:	Joy to the world! the Lord is come!
Title:	Joy to the World
Author:	Isaac Watts (1719)
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Notes:	Spanish translations: See "Dichosa Tierra, Proclamad" by S. D. Athans, "Gozo al mundo el Señor" by Anonymous; Swahili translation: See "Furaha kwa ulimwengu"
Copyright:	Public Domain

Year A, Advent, Third Sunday
Year A, Christmas season, Christmas Eve
This is recommended for Year A, Christmas season, Christmas Eve by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year A, Christmas season, Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year A, Christmas season, Christmas Day by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year A, Christmas season, First Sunday after Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year A, Christmas season, First Sunday after Christmas Day by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year A, Christmas Season, Second Sunday after Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year A, Christmas Season, Second Sunday after Christmas Day by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134.
Year A, Epiphany season, Baptism of the Lord (First Sunday)
Related to Isaiah 42 (NPM)
Year B, Advent, First Sunday
Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Eve
This is recommended for Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Eve by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Eve
Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year B, Christmas season, Christmas Day by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year B, Christmas season, First Sunday after Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year B, Christmas season, First Sunday after Christmas Day by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year B, Christmas season, Second Sunday after Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year B, Christmas season, Second Sunday after Christmas Day by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134.
Year B, Easter season, Sixth Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Easter season, Sixth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 25 (30)
Year C, Advent, Second Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Advent, Second Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year C, Advent, Third Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Advent, Third Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Eve
This is recommended for Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Eve by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.
Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Day
This is recommended for Year C, Christmas season, Christmas Day by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #134 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #92.

Chinese

生命聖詩 - Hymns of Life, 1986 #89

English

10 shown out of 1272

Korean

Norwegian

Boerneharpen. 3. del. En Sangbog for Uge-og Sondagsskolen og Hjemmet #d27

Spanish

Welsh

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Notes

Scripture References:
st. 1-3 = Ps. 98
st. 2 = Ps. 96:11-12
st. 3 = Gen. 3:17-18

Isaac Watts (PHH 155) wrote this text as a paraphrase of Psalm 98. He published it in his Psalms of David Imitated (1719) under the heading “The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom.” The paraphrase is Watts' Christological interpretation.

Consequently, he does not emphasize with equal weight the various themes of Psalm 98. In stanzas 1 and 2 Watts writes of heaven and earth rejoicing at the coming of the king. An interlude that depends more on Watts' interpretation than the psalm text, stanza 3 speaks of Christ's blessings extending victoriously over the realm of sin. The cheerful repetition of the non-psalm phrase "far as the curse is found" has caused this stanza to be omitted from some hymnals. But the line makes joyful sense when understood from the New Testament eyes through which Watts interprets the psalm. Stanza 4 celebrates Christ's rule over the nations.

Liturgical Use
Christmas Day, but also at any other time of year in relation to Psalm 98. Raised eyebrows at singing "Joy to the World!" in July will lower as soon as the relationship to Psalm 98 becomes clear.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook
================
Joy to the world, the Lord is come [nigh]. I. Watts. [Ps. xcviii.] First published in his Psalms of David, &c, 1719, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, as the 2nd pt. of his version of Psalm 98. T. Cotterill gave, in the first edition of his Selection, 1810, a much altered version of text, which was repeated in the authorized edition of 1820 with the repetition of stanza i. as stanza v. This arrangement is known by st. ii., which reads, "Ye saints, rejoice, the Saviour reigns," &c. Bickersteth's arrangement in his Christian Psalmody, 1833, also in 5 stanzas; but the added stanza (iii.) is from Watts's version of the first part of the same Psalm. Both of these texts have been repeated in later collections. In addition there are also the following: (1) "The Lord is come; let heaven rejoice," in Hall's Mitre Hymn Book, 1836; and (2) "Joy to the world, the Lord is nigh," in the Irvingite Hymns for the Use of the Churches, 1864. In its various forms, but principally in the original, it is in use in most English-speaking countries. It has also been translated into several languages, including Latin, in E. Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1870, "Laetitia in mundo! Dominus nam venit Iesus!"

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

ANTIOCH (Handel)

All tunes published with 'Joy to the World'^ top

For Leaders

Bulletin Blurb
Worship Notes
Scores

In Genesis 3, one of the great tragedies in all of Scripture occurs. Adam and Eve sin against God, and are banished from the garden as God puts a curse upon the ground. It is a heartbreaking rupture in God’s perfect creation, and it is hard not to read this text without feeling a twinge of despair. And yet, before the curse comes a promise. God declares that the woman shall bear offspring that will crush the head of the serpent. Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God, will come to break the curse, to renew the creation, to make whole what is now broken.

In Psalm 98, all of creation is called upon to make a joyful noise before God, for the Lord has come to “judge the earth,” and restore His Creation. We should not fail to see our own hand at work in the destruction of creation, in our sins of waste and decadence. This “judgment of the earth” is, in some part, a judgment of us as caretakers. But God is merciful and full of grace, and rather than leave everything in our hands, He gives us the Life-giver. In this beautiful hymn, Isaac Watts makes the connection between the coming of Christ into this world and the beginning of that restoration. Christ brings “joy to the world,” a light where there is darkness, growth where there is decay. And we, along with all Creation, respond with a song of praise.

Text:

Surprisingly, this hymn was not written for Christmas. Rather, Isaac Watts wrote the hymn as a paraphrase of the last five verses in Psalm 98 for his 1719 publication, The Psalms of David Imitated. In this hymnal, Watts rewrites many of the psalms using a Christological lens. His versification of Psalm 98 is no different. Verse nine of the psalm reads, “…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.” Watts unapologetically interprets this as a reference to Christ. The theme of “Christ coming” made it an apt hymn to be sung at Christmastime, and it has since become one of the most beloved Christmas carols.

Albert Bailey writes, “It is one of the most joyous Christmas hymns in existence; not in the sense of merry-making but in the deep and solemn realization of what Christ’s birth has meant to mankind” (The Gospel in Hymns, 54). Watt’s text has almost been left untouched by editors, with one exception. The line “far as the curse is found” is left out of many hymnals, since there is no reference to this “curse” in the actual psalm. However, when seen through the eyes of the New Testament and Gospel message, the reference to Genesis 3:17-18 becomes quite clear.

Tune:

There are multiple theories as to where this melody came from. Some believe that Lowell Mason was the arranger; others believe he only changed four notes of an existing tune. What is quite clear, however, is that the tune, ANTIOCH, is derived from various melodies found within Handel’s Messiah. The opening phrase sounds like “Glory to God,” and the last four measures, with the text “heaven and nature sing,” sound like the beginning of “Comfort ye my people.” The tune is thus often attributed to Handel, with Mason as the arranger and combiner of text and tune.

When/Why/How:

This joyful hymn is always a favorite on Christmas day. It could be sung at the beginning of the service as an announcement of the birth, or nearer the end - a final hymn of praise in which we express the joy that has built up throughout our worship. It could also be sung as a hymn of assurance after a time of confession of how we have failed to take care of God’s creation. If you really want to mix things up, try singing the hymn during a service themed around Creation, rather than at Christmastime. Just be sure to make the connection to Psalm 98 clear!

Music resources

Five Carol Accompaniments for Brass Quartet and Organ - Congregation, Choir, Organ and Brass
Lovelace, Austin. Joy to the World - SATB Choir, set to the Sacred Harp tune PAXTON
12 Carols for about 12 Singers (Easy-to-Prepare Christmas Anthems for SAB Choirs)
Proulx, Richard. Joy To the World - SAB Choir and Trumpet
Hayes,Mark. Joy Hallelujah! (Joy to the World/Hallelujah) - Choir and Piano
Hopson, Hal. Joy To The World - Choir
Helman, Michael. Joy to the World-Variations for Organ
Behnke, John. Five Familiar Carols For Christmas - Organ
Worship! Contemporary Hymn Accompaniments - Piano

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

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Arrangements

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