Christmas Song Spotlight #1

One of my favorite Christmas memories is caroling--outdoors with the frost nipping at your nose or indoors at a local nursing home seeing the faces of the elderly light up. This Christmas season we will post some of the well-known Christmas songs and give a background of who wrote them and why they were written.

Joy to the World

Isaac Watts (1674-1748), known as the "Father of English Hymnology" wrote the lyrics in 1719 based on Psalm 98. The music was adapted and arranged by Lowell Mason in 1839 from an older melody believed to have originated from Handel. As of the late 20th century, "Joy to the World" was the most-published Christmas hymn in North America.

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 nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour 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.

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.

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.