My Favorite Christmas Hymn Isn’t About Christmas

My favorite Christmas hymn is “Joy to the World.”  Written by Isaac Watts—probably the greatest Christian hymn-writer of all time—it was an adaptation of Psalm 98.  I love the song for its theological depth, biblical allusions, and joyful tone (after securing such a tune from Lowell Mason about one hundred thirty years after Watts penned the lyrics). 

Interestingly enough, though, Watts didn’t write it as a Christmas hymn!  Again, the lyrics are based on Psalm 98, which is about the return of Christ. What do we expect from Christ’s return? That he will judge the living and the dead in righteousness, bring about a new creation and reign over all things forever. Psalm 98 reinforces these ideas, even calling for praise that “he will judge the world with righteousness” (98:9).  Now consider some of the lyrics of the hymn: 

 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King!

 

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!

 

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,

He rules the world with truth and grace,

and makes the nations prove

the glories of His righteousness

and wonders of His love

 

Psalm 98 envisions even more. There, the psalmist says that all of creation should rejoice. Not merely the people in creation, but creation itself should rejoice—the seas, rivers, hills (Ps 98:4–8).  And what does Watts enjoin us to sing?

 

Let every heart prepare Him room,

and heav'n and nature sing,

 

Let men their songs employ,

while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

repeat the sounding joy 

 

Watts has given us a wonderful song about Christ return. But we’ve adopted it as a cherished Christmas song. And, I think that’s just fine. 

 

When Melinda and I were married, we had a beautiful wedding. But the wedding didn’t just happen. It took lots of planning, lots of money. There was lots of excitement and celebration. It was wonderful!  But after we had been married for several years, we were talking and agreed that it was kind of a shame that you have that big celebration before you really year understand what you’re celebrating. You’re happy, you’re excited about new life with someone else, but it’s only once you’ve been married for a while that being to realize just how much more you can love a person and even what real love looks like. It’s only after you've experienced the marriage that you can truly celebrate the realities of marriage. At the wedding, you’re really celebrating all that is to come rather than what is at that moment.

 

It’s similar with the birth of Jesus.  When we read the Gospels, there is an amazing amount of celebration and rejoicing associated with the birth of Christ. There is the miraculous conception itself; not to mention the heavenly host shooting the across the night sky singing and proclaiming the glories of God. There are the shepherds who rejoice and magi who eventually come to worship.

 

But all of that is preparation and anticipation of what is come. It wasn’t just that Jesus was born, or that he was supernaturally conceived in a virgin mother. The thing worth celebrating—that which should cause our hearts to rejoice and our eyes to weep; that which should give us pause every year—is that God sent his Son to "save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21). And the fullness of that salvation is still to come!  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection we have hope for the consummation of all things seen in a fully redeemed people, living in a new creation, under the perfect lordship of Christ, for all eternity.

 

So, though my favorite Christmas hymn is really about the second coming of Christ, it’s more than appropriate to sing at Christmas.  Because in “Joy to the World” we hear the great news of Psalm 98 and are helped to remember the fullness of salvation that will one day be realized because of the humble, glorious birth of Jesus. By singing the hymn during our celebrations of his first coming, we joyfully anticipate what will be fully known during his second coming.