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Cantate
May 7, 2023
St. John 16:5–15
Joy to the World is the most published Christmas hymn in North America, but Watts didn’t write it specifically for Christmas. He was simply trying to paraphrase and interpret Psalm 98, our Introit this evening.
In the first and second stanzas, Watts sings of heaven and earth rejoicing together at the coming of King Messiah to save the world. His words would fit as well in Advent as they do at Christmas and they are fitting today as well. Topay we receive our risen King, crucified but alive, who comes to us in the Holy Communion. Let the whole earth marvel that the King comes to Ft. Wayne in this humble place to be with us.
David begins Psalm 98 by saying: O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.
Watts responds: Joy to the World; the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing.
The marvelous thing that God has done is to become a Man. He has joined Himself to our race and cause. He has taken the mortality of our fallen humanity into Himself. His power is hidden in weakness and His arm made bare on the cross but fools and Hell cannot see it for their vanity. The stronger Man appears weak to the strong and wins the victory. This is our King. His throne isn’t a manager. It is a cross. Let heaven and nature sing for joy that death and Satan are undone.
The newness of this song isn’t its style or even its message. It is the newness of the new creation. It sings the Gospel.
David continues: The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. 3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
And Watts responds: Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ;
While fields & floods, rocks, hills & plains. Repeat the sounding joy.
The Lord has revealed His salvation to the heathen. He is the Lord and Savior of Gentiles as well as of the Jews. Gentiles, you and me, are now the sons of Abraham by adoption in water and by the blood of the New Testament. The Son is the true Israel. He has wrestled with His Father to win us a blessing and Himself a Kingdom. He gives us His own Name in Baptism, circumcising our hearts and defining us. He gives His Blood as a New Testament which cries not for vengeance but for pardon, which speaks better things than that of bulls and goats, and which shields us from the angel of death.
Our salvation is revealed in the history and literature of Israel wherein God has promised mercy and truth. In this salvation, the earth itself, in all its parts, animate and inanimate, birds and dogs and whales and bugs, but also fields, floods, rocks, hills, and plains, all things are being restored by Christ, and all of them have reason to sing and praise.
Thus does David carry on: 5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. 6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Watts sings that praise thus: 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.
The cheerful repetition of the phrase “far as the curse is found” is a reference back to the garden of Eden. There God promised that He would send a Son through Eve who would be bruised by Satan but, who, in that bruising, would defeat Satan for Eve and reverse the curse.
This is the marvelous thing that God has done in Christ He died to undo death. The curse of death infected all the cosmos, but the blessings of redemption flow as far as the curse is found. No corner is left untouched or forgotten, no tribe or language, no mammal or reptile, no start or planet.
David wraps it up thus: 8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together 9 Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
And Watts responds:
He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love.
Christ is Our King. He rules us by truth and grace not by power or force. He judges us according to His own mercy and sacrifice. We, you and I, are the proof of His glorious righteousness and wonders of His love.
O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.
Joy to the World; the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing.
