The Pilgrim Path---Psalm 98: 1—4

Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for him.

The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

“JOY TO THE WORLD”

You know you have gotten well into Advent when you sing this hymn. My—my, the glories of Christmas---the Savior is come to the world! This is an Isaac Watts hymn---with George Fredrick Handel Music (arranged by Lowell Mason). Majestic and beautiful. Isaac Watts was somewhat marvelous in his own right. He was working on his Latin at age 5---his Greek at 9---his French at 11---and his Hebrew at age 13. He was not one to waste his time! One of the works he is most well-known for is this one: Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament (1719). That is how we got the hymn, “Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come.” The hymn finds its origin in Psalm 98---especially verse four (4).

Look at this acrostic that Watts produced—based upon the letters of his name (when he was seven years old):

“I”---I am a vile, polluted lump of earth

“S”---So I’ve continued ever since my birth

“A”---Although Jehovah, grace doth daily give me

“A”---As sure this monster, Satan, will deceive me

“C”---Come therefore, Lord, from Satan’s claws relieve me

“W”---Wash me in Thy blood, O Christ

“A”---And grace divine impart

“T”---Then search and try the corners of my heart

“T”---That I in all things may be fit to do

“S”---Service to Thee, and Thy praise too.

Watts would write around six hundred hymns. He was---and is---a “joy” to the Church of Jesus Christ!

From Jerry Bridges: Joy does give spiritual strength. The joy of discovering the sufficiency of God’s grace enabled Paul to delight in weakness, in insults, in difficulties (II Corinthians 12: 9-10). So, the choice is ours. We can be joyless Christians, or we can be joyful Christians. We can go through life bored, glum and complaining, or we can rejoice in the Lord, in our names being written in heaven, in the hope of an eternal inheritance. It is both our privilege and our duty to be joyful. To be joyless is to dishonor God and to deny his love and his control over our lives. It is practical atheism. To be joyful is to experience the power of the Holy Spirit within us, and to say to a watching world, “Our God reigns.” Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It is a result of his work, but it is also something we must do. We must, by his power, rejoice. This is a part of the practice of godliness.

HYMN

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 heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns: let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

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.

Based on Psalm 98

Isaac Watts, 1719

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason