Psalms in Our Time

Psalm 98: Joy to the World

Joy to the world! the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
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.

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.

Text: Isaac Watts, 1719

Meter: 8,6,8,6
Rhyme scheme: abab

This psalm's original form and picturesque imagery is well preserved in Erik Routley's version. But Isaac Watts took a different approach. He had published a few psalm versions with collections of hymns in 1707 and 1709, but for the most part avoided the Psalms, hoping other poets1 would help create a Christian psalter. Disappointed in this, he undertook the task himself, publishing about 180 psalm versions in 1719.

This psalm illustrates one way that he made "David sing like a Christian"2 (or at least enabled Christians to sing like David). First, he divided the psalm into two sections, splitting the "deliverance" theme in verses 1-3 from the "royal" theme. He had explicitly mentioned as a problem the references to Old Testament worship, such as the mechanical noisemakers and hand-clapping associated with Jewish victory processions: here he simply omitted them3, converting the metaphor from "processional" to "cosmic concerted praise." Then, in his psalm title, Watts explicitly applied the psalmist's "salvation" to "The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom;" necessitating two other changes: the future expectation of justice moved into present tense; and the call to national obedience became a personal challenge ("every heart").

"Antioch": ~1836, Lowell Mason

Incipit: dtlsfmrds|llttd; 17654 32156 67711
Melodic scheme: Through-composed, with repeats

This tune (used universally with this text in America, but not in Britain) fits the text well: it is a lively melody, a joy to hear and to sing. It was published by Lowell Mason in 1839, and at least its arrangement is usually attributed to him4.

In Mason's original arrangement, the repeated section in the middle was for sopranos and altos only; the echo for the male voices was added later.

Use:

This hymn originally had no textual connection or musical association with the birth of Jesus. Its popular association with Christmas6 is unfortunate: its joyful proclamation of God's justice and generosity, and his rule over the world of nature and of humanity, should never go out of season.

It was unfortunately omitted from Sacred Selections, apparently because of that Christmas connection; and, even worse, apparently included in Songs of the Church and Hymns for Worship for the same reason.7

In many congregations, in order to avoid misunderstandings and conscientious scruples, Joy to the World may need to be introduced with a discussion of its real meaning in the context of the psalm (and the gospel.) Only a brief explanation will be needed, if attention is called to the unambiguous expressions in stanzas 2 and 4, which cannot possibly be interpreted as referring to Jesus' time on earth.

Notes:

1Including his friend Joseph Addison: see The spacious firmament on high.
2As described in the Preface to the first edition of the Psalms, online at CCEL.
3Compare Erik Routley's approach in this same psalm. We might be better served through restoration of the "processional" metaphor to its Biblical prominence, in this as in other psalms.
4Its origin is obscured by Mason's attribution "from Handel." It is easy to break the tune down into fragments small enough to be found somewhere in Handel's music; it's not clear that this is a useful exercise.

An arrangement of an almost identical tune is known from a tunebook published in London in 1842; its first (1837) edition is apparently not extant, so the priority is unclear. My sources do not mention that version being attributed to Handel; possibly both arrangements were borrowed from the same as yet undiscovered source. For other tunes dubiously attributed to classical composers, see "Lyons" and possibly "Munich".
6An unnecessary error: the Guide to the Pilgrim Hymnal (Congregationalist) affirms "In America this tune is so indissolubly associated with Christmas that one never thinks of the hymn as being a paraphrase of Psalm 98. Originally text and tune had no particular Christmas significance." The Handbook to the 1978 Psalter Hymnal (Christian Reformed Church) suggests that "Raised eyebrows at singing 'Joy to the World!' in July will lower as soon as the relationship to Psalm 98 becomes clear."
It is also possible that it was omitted because any reference to Christ as king seemed like Premillenialism: in this context, note that the Seventh-Day Adventists change the first line to "Joy to the world! the Lord will come"; apparently they do not so interpret the authentic text.
7Both books also include the Christmas Carol Silent Night, which is hardly useful for any spiritual purpose, whether praise or parenesis.

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Copyright © 2002,2003,2004, Stephen Hutcheson
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These studies are created by members of the West Allen Church of Christ in Allen, Texas