Isaac Watts - Joy to the World: The Forgotten Meaning of Christmas

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APPENDIX

I SAAC WATTS WASN'T THE FIRST to begin what was once a rich tradition of writing songs to imitate the Hebrew Psalms. The Swiss reformer John Calvin was the first, in Geneva in the early sixteenth century; he wanted to encourage his otherwise stoic congregations to actually sing during worship!

There may have been as many as seventy complete and partial versions of the Psalter published in vernacular verse, suitable for singing, before Isaac Watts ever wrote and published his own in 1719.

Sprinkled throughout these various versions are Advent and Christmas hymns that are simultaneously looking to the Incarnation of Christ and awaiting his second coming.

Reproduced below are a few popular examples over the centuries.

Charles Wesley, for instance, wrote the following song after the same Psalm 98 that inspired Isaac Watts to write Joy to the World. It is similar to Joy to the World, with imagery that refers to both the first and second comings of Christ. We have not sung this one in church for centuries probably simply because no one ever put the words to a melodious tune!

[VERSES 1, 2, 6, AND 7]
BY CHARLES WESLEY

Sing we to our conquering Lord

A new triumphant song;

Joyfully his deeds record,

And with a thankful tongue:

Wonders his right hand hath wrought;

Still his outstretch'd arm we see;

He alone the fight hath fought,

And got the victory.

God, the almighty God, hath made

His great salvation known;

Openly to all display'd

His glory in his Son:

Christ hath brought the life to light,

Bade the glorious gospel shine,

Show'd, in all the Heathen's sight,

His righteousness Divine.

Ocean, roar, with all thy waves,

In honour of his Name;

He who all creation saves

Doth all their homage claim:

Clap your hands, ye floods! Ye hills,

Joyful all his praise rehearse;

Praise him till his glory fills

The vocal universe!

Lo! he comes with clouds! He comes

In dreadful pomp array'd!

All his glorious power assumes,

To judge the world he made:

Righteous shall his sentences be:

Think of that tremendous bar!

Every eye the Judge shall see!

And thou shalt meet him there!

This other popular hymn by Charles Wesley is sung in thousands of churches every Advent season. The song depicts the entire life of Christ, never mentioning the coming in the stable, focusing entirely on the Kingship of our Lord.

BY CHARLES WESLEY

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,

once for our salvation slain;

thousand thousand saints attending

swell the triumph of his train:

Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!

Christ the Lord returns to reign.

Every eye shall now behold him,

robed in dreadful majesty;

those who set at nought and sold him,

pierced, and nailed him to the tree,

deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,

shall the true Messiah see.

Those dear tokens of his passion

still his dazzling body bears,

cause of endless exultation

to his ransomed worshipers;

with what rapture, with what rapture,

with what rapture

gaze we on those glorious scars!

Now redemption, long expected,

see in solemn pomp appear;

all his saints, by man rejected,

now shall meet him in the air:

Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!

See the day of God appear!

Yea, amen! let all adore thee,

high on thine eternal throne;

Savior, take the power and glory;

claim the kingdom for thine own:

Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!

Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.

And then there is this beautiful hymn, written by Martin Luther in 1523 and later put to memorable music by Johann Sebastian Bach, praising the Child in the manger, while never forgetting the King and Kingship that are forever his.

BY MARTIN LUTHER

Savior of the nations, come;

Virgin's Son, here make Thy home!

Marvel now, O heaven and earth,

That the Lord chose such a birth.

Not by human flesh and blood;

By the Spirit of our God

Was the Word of God made flesh,

Woman's offspring, pure and fresh.

Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child

Of the virgin undefiled!

Though by all the world disowned,

Still to be in heaven enthroned.