1. 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 heaven and nature sing, And heaven, and heaven, 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  (Isaac Watts, 1719).

 

Sometimes the words to Christmas carols seem harsh when we don’t feel joyful. The writer of “Joy to the World,” Isaac Watts, was not particularly a happy man. His life was not always full of joy. In Watts’ lifetime, he wrote some 750 hymns. One of the most famous was the Christmas carol most everyone knows: “Joy to the World.” His life wasn’t easy. He was an unattractive man and as a young man, was jilted by the woman he loved. Soon after this, his health broke and he lived the rest of his life as a semi invalid.

So how was Watts able to write the joyful words to this carol based on Psalm 98?

Shout to the Lord, all the earth;
    break out in praise and sing for joy! for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice,
    and the nations with fairness (Psalm 98:4,9).

Sometimes, the Christmas season seems an insult to our situation. We might be in financial difficulties. Or our health, like Watts’, is not good. It could be disappointment in a person. It could be grief in the loss of a loved one in death–or perhaps even more difficult–the death of a relationship.

Last evening, we watched a musical rendition of The Christmas Carol. The conclusion to the story is the same as all other versions of the story: a change of attitude in Scrooge. When he went to bed, his attitude was one of mean-spiritedness,  stinginess. During the night he was visited by spirits and when he woke up, his outlook was completely different. He came to the conclusion it was better to share his wealth instead of keeping it to himself.

I read somewhere that when in a difficult time to list the things we might be grateful for. I learned that to list them helped my attitude to change, just like Scrooge’s.

How about you? Can you list five things you are grateful for? How about starting today?

Below is one version of Joy to the World, but there are many to choose from on YouTube. You decide!

I’m going to challenge you to list five things every day you are grateful for this Christmas season. Let me know if your attitude was changed by doing that.

This coming Sunday, our church is sponsoring a “Blue Christmas” worship service and you are invited if you live in the Vancouver area. It is a more subdued, yet hopeful worship service for some who don’t feel very joyous this season for whatever reason. We hope to see you there.

I’ll close with a famous quote from A Christmas Carol.

“God bless us everyone!”

As they say in England, “Happy Christmas.”

Get these Blog posts emailed directly to you.