Joy to the World
A Psalm Paraphrase That Became A Christmas Hymn
The season of Christmas provides more than a celebration of the nativity of Jesus Christ. It also gives a glimpse of what a Christianized world looks like. Most noticeable is the singing of Christmas hymns and carols. The foremost of these was not originally a Christmas hymn but a paraphrase of the second half of Psalm 98. Still, Isaac Watts’s Joy to the World does what all good Christmas hymns and carols do—rehearse the victorious comings of Jesus Christ.
Text Background
In 1719, Isaac Watts published The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Applied to the Christian State and Worship, a collection of psalm paraphrases in metered rhyme. Widely considered the “Father of the English Hymn,” Watts did not merely go about versifying psalm texts into English poetic form. Instead, as aptly named church hymnologist David W. Music writes, “Watts’s paraphrasing technique involved giving the general sense of the psalm text but interpreting it in light of the gospel message as found in the New Testament.”1 Watts was essentially expositing the text of the Psalm in a particular manner, creating a hymn “that had a background in the psalms.”2 In other words, Watts was moving away from the metrical psalm tradition. Previous authors predominantly used texts strictly based on the shape and structure of the Psalms. Watts was instead writing imitations from the psalms while simultaneously bringing in New Testament themes. One could say he was hymnifying psalmody.
Watts sourced his paraphrase of Psalm 98 on verses five through nine and included the heading, “The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom.” Watts began with the iconic line, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come.” However, this is by no means the climax or culminating idea of the text. It is only the opening salvo. The subsequent declarations boast of Messiah’s reign and rule on earth. One might say that this is where the hymn finds its strength and postmillennial potency. The hymn describes the work of the gospel on the earth. In the same ambiguous manner that the hymn implies multiple comings, so does it speak of Christ’s current reign and not-yet completion of his work on earth. R.J. Rushdoony adds, “The joyful news of the birth of Christ is this restoration of man to his original calling with the assurance of victory. This has long been celebrated in Christmas carols.”3
Watts’s text has survived unaltered. Although there were early publications with slight adjustments to the lyrics, such as, “The Lord is come; let heaven rejoice” or “Joy to the World, the Lord is nigh,” these were not kept in later editions. This was due in part to the tune that would later accompany the text.
Tune Background
Early on, there were a few common meter tunes paired with Joy to the World, the familiar tune that has predominantly carried Watts’s text is one that was arranged from preexisting music material. Nineteenth-century American church musician and educator Lowell Mason seemingly borrowed material from a tune called COMFORT, made some changes, and re-titled it ANTIOCH in 1836. Early hymn compilations listed both COMFORT and ANTIOCH as being arranged from Handel in the early printings, likely coming from portions of Handel’s Messiah. Joy to the World (ANTIOCH) version was printed in Mason’s The Modern Psalmist in 1839. Lowell Mason and his contemporaries in nineteenth-century America were fond of European classical composers such as Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. Numerous hymn tunes in the church’s hymn tune repertoire were sourced from classical melodies by European composers.
ANTIOCH is a fitting tune for the text. The descending melody of Joy to the World comes down, picturing the Lord coming down to earth. Mason’s arrangement of Handel’s themes creates a back and forth from treble to bass clef to the lyrics “heaven and nature sing” and “repeat the sounding joy.” The long-short, dotted rhythm of “to the world” would have been seen as royal, only adding to the connection to Christ’s reign. A triumphal yet joyful, march-like quality further illustrates the kingly qualities of Christ’s reign.
Advent or Christmas?
The Christian calendar year begins with the season of advent, the four Sundays before Christmas Day, December 25. Depending on what portion of the Church you are referencing, the Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It goes for twelve days of feasting and remembrances. The church has historically sung some songs during Advent and some during Christmas. Hymns like Joy to the World are difficult to categorize as an Advent or Christmas hymn. That ambiguity is a purposeful design. Professor Music highlights that Watts used the present-tense “is” rather than “has.” He writes that “has” “would have placed the Lord’s coming in the past, i.e., a celebration strictly geared toward the nativity. With "is," Watts located the advent in the present without necessarily excluding it also having occurred at a particular point in history; the implication of this ambiguity is that the arrival of the Lord is not just a long-ago event but also a present and future occurrence.”4
Now consider how a triad of notes in a musical chord can simultaneously possess three distinct tones and yet also possess a combined loveliness of harmony; so too can Christ’s comings be represented similarly in texts like this. Just as excellent poetry can carry multilayered meaning that allows each reading to focus on a slightly different nuance, so can the unfolding of Christmas hymns and carols like Joy to the World. They preach and declare what Christ has done and is doing on earth and in time. Some Watts scholars would also point to the second coming of Christ in the meaning of this hymn. In any case, there is ample reason to sing this text both in the season of Advent and in the season of Christmas.
Conclusion
Watts spoke of Christ’s rule “with truth and grace” that “makes the nations prove.” Christians and non-Christians alike rehearse this in song. Whether hearing Willie Nelson, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, or Whitney Houston, there should be a smile on our faces when we hear these messianic messages coming from such a wide range of people who would not be the poster children of Evangelical Christianity. One might even say that the rocks, or rock stars, are crying out, “the Lord is come.” Yes, the Lord has come. Yes, the Lord comes in judgment today. Yes, the Lord will come again one day.
In times of either trial or triumph, we can give thanks for the glimpses of forward progress in seeing his “blessings flow far as the curse is found.” A hymn-like Joy to the World should be celebrated as a sermon on the reality of Christ’s earthly reign. That is the beauty of Watts’s wording that encourages the reader to hold all the meanings in mind and consider the fullness of the Advent of our Lord Jesus. Joy to the World, Christ has come, is coming, and will come again.
This article was written for the Fight Laugh Feast Magazine, Issue 3.4, and was published here with the editor’s permission. You can subscribe to this quarterly print magazine at flfnetwork.com.
David W. Music, “Isaac Watts’s Psalms of David Imitated at 300,” Artistic Theologian 7 (2019): 47.
Music, “Isaac Watts’s Psalms of David Imitated at 300,” 47.
R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, Vol. 1 (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1973), 825–26.
David W. Music, Repeat the Sounding Joy: Reflections on Hymns by Isaac Watts (Mercer University Press, 2020), 132.