{"id":3801,"date":"2024-12-15T23:49:05","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T23:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/?p=3801"},"modified":"2024-12-15T23:49:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T23:49:05","slug":"the-hymn-story-of-joy-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/15\/the-hymn-story-of-joy-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"THE HYMN STORY OF JOY TO THE WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Isaac Watts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that \u201cJoy to the World\u201d was not written as a Christmas carol? In its original form, it had nothing to do with Christmas. It wasn\u2019t even written to be a song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaac Watts, who wrote \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d was one of the great hymn writers in church history, and nothing shows that better than the fact that he wrote one of his most famous hymns by accident. In 1719, Watts published a book or poems in which each poem was based on a Psalm. But rather than just translate the original Old Testament texts, he adjusted them to refer more explicitly to the work of Jesus as it had been revealed in the New Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those poems was an adaptation of Psalm 98, \u201cMake a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Psalm looks forward to the day when the Lord will come to judge the world in righteousness. ln this hymn, Watts reinterpreted the Psalm to rejoice in the coming of the Christ as our Lord and Saviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a century later, the second half of this poem was slightly adapted and set to music to give us what has become one of the most famous of all Christmas carols, \u201cJoy to the World.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This hymn was sung to various tunes for many years. Then in 1839, Lowell Mason, a banker who happened to be quite interested in church music, published the tune that we now associate with \u201cJoy to the World.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts wrote some 600 hymns altogether and is considered to be the father of Christian hymnody. His hymns include such favourites as \u201cWhen I Survey the Wondrous Cross\u201d and \u201cO God, Our Help in Ages Past,\u201d but the favourite of favourites is \u201cJoy to the World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel Standard<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"