Christmas in the Psalms - Joy to the World
Christmas through the Old Testament • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! Welcome to CHCC. Christmas is nearly upon us! Hard to believe that another year has come and gone; and yet, 2026 will be here in just a few short weeks. We began a 2.5 part Christmas Series last week called “Christmas Through the Old Testament.” And our series began by looking at Christmas in the Prophets. And what we came to see is that the Prophets paint a very clear image of the promised Messiah.
And the reality is, there are quite a few prophecies that focus on the birth of the Messiah. Isaiah tells us He would be born of a virgin and that He would be royalty. He would rule and reign on the throne of His father, David.
And Isaiah makes a birth announcement in chapter 9 that is very unique. It is unique because it is a birth announcement not given after a birth like every other announcement is. Rather, it is given 700+ years beforehand.
Second, it is a royal announcement. He prophecies that the Messiah would be given the “throne of his father, David’ and “of his kingdom there will be no end.”
What is more, this birth announcement doesn’t come with one name, but with four! Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And what makes this even more unique is that these names given are more than just names, but also what this Messiah would accomplish.
“Wonderful Counselor.” This indicates supernatural wisdom—wonderful news for us who need guidance and direction.
“Mighty God.” This indicates supernatural power. Again, wonderful news for those of us who are weak.
“Everlasting Father.” A beautiful indicator that this Messiah will care for His people, as a good father would care for his children. Great news for those who feel alone and unappreciated.
“Prince of Peace.” This title indicates that the Messiah will usher in something that has not been established since the inception of sin in the world; and that is restored relationships. Again, wonderful news for us who lack peace with one another and with God.
Lastly, Isaiah’s announcement is unique because each name has a godly connection elsewhere in his book, thus revealing the deity of the Messiah.
Many other prophecies are given—about the star, about Bethlehem, about the weeping in Israel (due to the mass murder of newborn boys in Bethlehem), about the Messiah coming back into Israel out of Egypt, about Him being a Nazarene, about the Messiah being of the line of David, a stump of Jesse.
So the prophets put together a clear profile of the Savior and as we look at the prophecies, Jesus comes into view.
This morning we will approach the Psalms with the advent of Christ, the celebration of Christmas on the forefront of our hearts. And this morning’s focus will be a bit different than the prophetic words of last week.
While there are prophecies in the Psalms, such as Psalm 89:3–4 which says, “You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah”
And Psalm 130:8 which makes a clear declaration: “And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
I want us to focus on the heart of Christmas today. What is the central theme, or the central emotion surrounding Christmas? Joy. Perhaps the most well known and most sung song at Christmas is Joy to the World.
Isaac Watts, the writer of the beloved Christmas song, pulls all the thematic elements of the Psalms 96-98 to bring together the Christmas carol.
He pulled the themes of kingship, of salvation, and even of judgment through the lens of the Psalms alongside the New Testament.
So this will be our primary focus this morning; we will approach what is called “The Christmas Psalms” and see how they connect to the song, “Joy to the World,” and more importantly, how they apply to Christ.
And ultimately, this reflection—I hope—will challenge us to be filled with great joy.
PRAY
A Song of Praise
A Song of Praise
I would contend that our cultural celebration of Christmas today has lost the focus of joy. In its place is the stress and anxiety of a different celebration altogether. I think of the common question asked around this time of year: “Are you all ready for Christmas?” What is the question really asking? “Have you finished your Christmas shopping?” At least that is how I interpret it.
In reality, our hearts should always be ready for Christmas. In fact, the joy that comes in celebrating the arrival of the Messiah should be upon our hearts every day of the year as believers.
So next time someone asks you if you’re ready for Christmas, you should respond, “Always!” So let us walk through “Joy to the World” and consider if this is how we approach the Christmas season.
JOY TO THE WORLD
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
The connection in the Psalms.
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.
The words of the Psalm encourage us to sing a new song! Why? Because the Lord has done marvelous things! What things? He has brought salvation! For who? The house of Israel and all the ends of the earth!
The opening portion of this Psalm challenges us to approach Christmas with the same excitement and joy that the shepherds show in Luke 2.
If you don’t remember this part, let me remind you. The angels appear to the shepherds in the field. They give them “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
A mirror of Psalm 98. And what do the shepherds do? After the angels depart, they run into the town of Bethlehem looking for a baby laying in a manger—a pretty specific sign. You don’t see a newborn laying in a stone feeding trough every day.
And they come upon Jesus along with Joseph and Mary. And they tell them exactly what they heard from the angels. And afterward it tells us the response of the shepherds.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
In essence, the shepherds responded with the exhortation of Psalm 98—they sang a new song for the Lord has done marvelous things! This is to be our heart as well. And this is the heart behind the song. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”
Singing a new song transforms our hearts and our attitudes; it changes our perception. Even in the most trying times, even in the most difficult trials, when our focus is on the wondrous miracle of Jesus’ arrival and what it means for us, it allows us to be joyful.
LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING!
The next words to come in the song are: Let earth receive her king! What beautiful words!
And this is the theme of Messianic kingship. And we see this primarily in Psalm 96, which its whole overarching theme is that of Messianic kingship.
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
The visuals here speak of royalty; they speak to a king! Words like splendor, majesty, strength, and beauty. The words speak to power. He made the heavens, He is great! He is feared! He is above all gods—false idols.
This is the long awaited and promised king!
AND HEAV’N AND NATURE SING!
At the end of verse one, Isaac Watts writes, “And Heaven and nature sing!” And again, Watts writes a similar visual in verse 2 so we will combine them. He writes, “While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy!”
Throughout Scripture there is a visual of creation responding to its Creator. Many of these are found in the Psalms.
All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.” Selah
Of course the “Christmas Psalms” are filled with similar language as well.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
before the Lord, for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
Jesus even alludes to this during a confrontation with the Pharisees. During His triumphal entry,
saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
The imagery is beautiful as it portrays Jesus as He is. He is the Creator King and His Creation—which mankind is the pinnacle of—worships Him!
VERSE THREE
Let us move into verse 3 now which Watts writes,
“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.”
This portion of the song moves from curse to reversal; from Genesis to Revelation.
So to understand and appreciate these words we will move (momentarily) out of the Psalms and into Genesis 3 and the entrance of sin and the curse that came with it.
After Adam and Eve sinned, God pronounced judgments upon mankind.
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
And Jesus’ arrival brought forth a promised hope of restoration to the curse upon creation. And the ultimate, eternal fulfillment will come at Jesus’ return.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
HE RULES THE WORLD WITH TRUTH AND GRACE
In the final verse, Isaac Watts begins with the declaration that Jesus “rules the world with truth and grace.” This is, in essence, a paraphrase of the final verse of the Christmas Psalms.
before the Lord, for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
And these selection of Psalms (96-98) ultimately begin and end praising God for establishing and maintaining and ruling and reigning in His kingdom. And while the Psalms tell us all about God and His greatness and His might and His glory and His power and His love; they also tell us about ourselves, or rather they tell us how we respond to the wonderful character of God. So these so-called Christmas Psalms give us instruction for our hearts.
A Response of Praise
A Response of Praise
Psalm 96 in particular calls for a particular response. It gives five exhortations—to sing to the Lord, to declare His glory, to bring an offering, to worship, and to proclaim Him to the nations. But with our focus this morning on the Psalms I want to focus in on the first exhortation—to sing to the Lord. I know we’ve talked about joy a lot this morning. But there is another emotion and mindset that, as Christians, we should have. And this is also highlighted during Christmas and that is hope.
And perhaps you are here this morning and you say, “Matt, I don’t really have a lot of joy right now. I don’t feel very hopeful.” Perhaps life has dealt you a difficult hand and the emotion you feel most is sorrow or grief or frustration or even anger.
And if that is you this morning, can we read through Psalm 96 together? Can I encourage us to apply the exhortations by the Psalmist to our own lives? Because I would contend that if we live in this manner with this heart, even in the midst of great sorrow, that we will have joy and there will be hope.
I: SING!
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Maybe you’re thinking, this isn’t starting off well. I can’t hold a tune; I can’t even clap on beat. You don’t want to hear me sing. And maybe you’re right. Maybe I don’t want to hear you sing. But God does! He loves to hear your praise! So long as it comes from your heart.
Now this isn’t just singing, but singing to the Lord. We sing with His attention in view. It is a Godward act. Paul even calls for this kind of heart towards one another and in so doing, I believe we also worship God.
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
So why do it? The Psalmist tells us in a later part that we do it for a couple of reasons.
Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
And not just any word is good and fitting. We can sing all sorts of songs, but what the Psalmist means is songs toward God and of God.
And I think you know what I mean. We begin every church service with worship where we bring praises to God; words that are fitting of God.
And we don’t do it because that’s just how we’ve always done things and we don’t want to rearrange the order of operations. No, we do it because it is good and it is fitting! And it prepares our hearts to receive God’s Word.
So, as the Psalms tell us, we sing of God’s righteousness (Ps. 51:14), we sing of His strength (Ps. 59:16), we sing of His steadfast love (Ps. 59:16), we sing of His ways (Ps. 138:5), and His word (Psalm 119:172).
And the assumption here is that the words we sing of His righteousness, strength, love, ways, and word are true; they line up with the whole of Scripture. In fact, the psalmist says explicitly, “My tongue will sing of your word, because all your commandments are right” (Psalm 119:172); that is, they are straight in line with reality, the word of God. And so are my songs. That’s what makes them good and fitting in their verbal content: they express truth that accords with God’s word.
What about in our suffering? I know I mentioned earlier to follow these exhortations in Psalm 96 to find the joy and hope that surrounds Christmas. However, there are times, Scripturally, that suffering may silence our singing. And there are actually three ways our singing relates to our suffering, and I’ll explain.
Singing is stopped by suffering.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
It is interesting, isn’t it, that James separates our responses depending on our hearts? Are they heavy? Pray. Are they glad? Sing. And he could have said, sing a sad song or a glad song. But there are sufferings and sadnesses that are so deep that the only thing we can bring forth are groans of prayer.
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart
is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day,
and like vinegar on soda.
Think of Paul’s words in Romans.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
He says this because there is a kind of brokenness that needs silence rather than singing. We actually are given an example of this in the Old Testament. The Jews who have been captured and exiled to Babylon are being mocked by their captors.
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
I love how Pastor John Piper explains it. He says:
There are seasons of suffering that are too painful, even for songs of lament. Time must pass. Perhaps the day will come when there is sufficient emotional resourcefulness for the sad songs. Till then, faith holds on in silence.
We see this in the story of Job and his three friends.
And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
So there are instances in our lives where singing is silenced by suffering. And that is a biblical and God-honoring response. Those seasons are okay. Yes, ultimately as believers, we are joyful and hopeful; but sometimes—even when those emotions are present—sometimes, they are secondary to our suffering. And the reality is, life is really complex and we can be both joyful and sorrowful as believers. We can be both hopeful and broken.
2. Singing is sustained in suffering.
Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
The Psalmist here finds himself between the waves of God crashing over him and this sense of abandonment on the other. And yet, right there in between those two things, he writes, “at night, his song is with me.”
While sometimes the sorrow requires a silence, there are times when sorrow brings forth a proper song, a song that sustains the suffer in their faith. Perhaps the best example I can think of is the heartbreaking and faith-filled song written by Horatio Spafford.
And I’ve mentioned this before, but Spafford wrote the song “It Is Well With My Soul” after he had lost four daughters at sea. It is a song that is a response of faith in the midst of the storm.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Similarly, when Paul and Silas find themselves imprisoned in Philippi, they being beaten by their captors and they respond to it with the singing of hymns to God!
Why were they singing? As a witness, yes. But I don’t believe that is the sole reason or even the primary reason. They sang to experience the nearness and greatness of God in the midst of their suffering.
The response of the heart of the believer is—in essence—”Life is hard, but God is good.”
3. Singing follows after suffering.
That leads us to our last point. Singing follows after suffering. As I mentioned earlier this morning, for believers, we hold to the hope of eternity. An eternity where God promises there will be no mourning, no crying, no pain, no death! Isaiah puts it another way.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The suffering will cease, the singing will not. So, we can take heart. Even though singing is sometimes stopped in our suffering, I think our most common experience in this world is that singing is sustained in our suffering. And if Jesus is your song—if the Savior is your song, then for you (and all the redeemed) the day is coming when suffering will be no more, and singing will follow the end of suffering forever.
The celebration of Christmas is ultimately the celebration of hope. Because the arrival of the Messiah ushers in salvation. It ushers in an eternal restoration. It ushers in eternal peace.
So even though life on this side of heaven is difficult, even though it is filled with sorrow and pain and confusion and suffering, we continue onward with hope in our hearts because of God’s redeeming love and redeeming work of the cross.
I think Paul put it beautifully in his letter to the Romans.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
The promised glory that awaits the believer is so great that all the sufferings that you and I may face are not even worth the time in comparing them.
And staying in Romans here as we close, Paul gives us instruction for life.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
ALLOW GOD TO SPEAK ON THIS
CLOSE WITH PSALM 98:1-3
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.
PRAY
