If your Christmas celebrations are anything like mine, you’ll probably start singing Christmas songs this week. Or maybe you’ve been hearing “Silent Night” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” in your house for weeks. “Joy to the World” is a song that you are sure to hear this holiday season.
But what if I told you this old favorite song isn’t a Christmas song? Technically speaking, at least. And what if I told you it was written so that it could be sung before Christmas?
On Sunday, December 2, Christians worldwide will celebrate the first day of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas. In the past, this has been a time for people to think about themselves and the world around them, to long for things, and even to cry. It’s time to get ready for the coming of the Savior by remembering why we need one in the first place. So, during Advent, Christians also look forward to the day when the baby in the manger will finally make everything right.
Traditions have changed and grown as time has gone on. Parts of fasting have been replaced by feasting, so Advent is now more often seen as a way to ease into Christmas. But in the early 1700s, when Isaac Watts was pastoring a nonconformist church in London and writing hymns, Advent was all about wanting good and fair rules to be in place.
At this time in history, it wasn’t easy to be a pastor who wasn’t part of the official Church of England. Religious freedom and the right to worship as one’s conscience told them did not exist in the way we think of them today. Watts’ own father had been jailed more than once because of his beliefs. Watts was very smart, but he couldn’t go to Oxford or Cambridge because he wasn’t an Anglican.
Watts wrote the words that so many of us know and love:
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.
At this time in history, it wasn’t easy to be a pastor who wasn’t part of the official Church of England. Religious freedom and the right to worship as one’s conscience told them did not exist in the way we think of them today. Watts’ own father had been jailed more than once because of his beliefs. Watts was very smart, but he couldn’t go to Oxford or Cambridge because he wasn’t an Anglican.
Watts wrote the words that so many of us know and love:
Rejoice, everyone! The Lord has come. Let the Earth welcome her King. Let every heart make room for him. Let heaven and nature sing. Let heaven, heaven, and nature all sing.
Watts wrote, “Joy to the World” based on Psalm 98, which says that all of creation praises its true king. So, “heaven and nature sing” comes into play. Even though the psalmist uses very poetic language (“the rivers clap their hands” and “the mountains sing together for joy”), it is clear why the earth is happy. Because he is a good and fair king, the earth praises the king of creation. He rules “in righteousness and the peoples with equity” (Psalm 98:7-9 NIV).
Watts picks up on this idea in the last line of “Joy to the Word,” which says:
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.
What does all of this have to do with Advent? And maybe even more important, why do we sing this strange Christmas song?
As we start Advent this year, it’s easy to see all that’s wrong with the world. We see the lies, wrongdoing, and chaos. We see how broken the world is in many ways. When we think about the future, it’s easy to give up and feel hopeless. It’s easy to think that it’s our job to make things right, that we have to “fix” the world.
But the message of Advent and Christmas is that hope doesn’t depend on how smart or brave people are. It doesn’t depend on kings or leaders on earth. Christians, on the other hand, put their hope in the king of all kings. Hope comes from the One who is fair, honest, kind, and full of grace. The baby in the manger gives us hope.
Advent asks us to live in this reality, to stop, think, and name all the ways we are not enough while he is. It asks us to trust someone outside of ourselves who is more kind, loving, honest, and fair than we could ever be. Then, Advent asks us to raise our voices and hearts and sing with all of creation, “Joy to the world! The Lord is come!”
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