Sunday, January 03, 2010
Joy to the World!
“At Christmas we need bifocal vision.”
I found this in The One-Year Book of Hymns, something I did not know about the song “Joy to the World,” and thought it worth sharing:
“...Isaac Watts based this text on the last half of Psalm 98, which celebrates the coming of the Lord to judge in righteousness. The psalmist calls on all creation to sing and shout for joy at His coming. There is nothing in the psalm or in Watts’s paraphrase that specifically mentions the birth of Jesus Christ, just the Lord’s return in judgment.
“So should we stop singing this at Christmas? Not at all! This hymn celebrates God’s involvement with His people - and this work of God began at the stable in Bethlehem. At Christmas we need bifocal vision. We need to look back and praise God for the glorious gift of His Son, Jesus. But we should also look forward to Christ’s return, when God will bring a righteous conclusion to all things. Then we will begin to fully enjoy the “wonders of His love” for all eternity.”
The One-Year Book of Hymns, ed. R.K. Brown and M.R. Norton, devotionals by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen. Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL 1995. Dec. 25 entry.