Joy to the World
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A Psalm.
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!
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
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.
Introduction
Introduction
We sing a song every Christmas, that wasn’t intended to be a Christmas song.
Although this doesn’t really cause too much controversy, the song cased much controversy when it was written.
The song is Joy to the World by a man named Isaac Watts.
Isaac Watts was a man from the late 1600’s and early 1700’s that was a prolific hymn writer.
In fact many of the songs that our church sings are from him.
Mainly because we sing a Psalm every week and he is the author of many of the songs we sing for the Psalms.
He was a very controversial person of his time.
He would be called a non-conformist, someone who goes against the teaching of the Church of England.
At the time, many would only allow the Psalms to be sung at church, and the Psalms had to be as close to the words as possible to the scripture.
In other words, they did their best to not change the words, but put the words to some kind of meter, or timing, that would make it possible to sing.
This may have worked if we spoke Hebrew, but maybe you’ve noticed that the translation of the Hebrew into English takes some of the poetic value out of them, at least the type of poetry that we use in singing.
They called what Wats did to the Psalms, as he did with Joy to the World from Psalm 98, metrical paraphrasing.
In other words, he changed the words trying to retain the meaning of the Psalm but making it easier to sing and understand for the congregation.
I know, unbelievable.
He did this because even as a teen he saw that no one seemed to be understanding or expressing their faith through the wooden interpretations of the Psalms they used for singing.
This Psalm is a call for real emotion. There is a proper way to understand the meaning of this Psalm and when you do, as a believer, this stirs up praise.
And although the language he uses in many of his hymns may need to be updated for us, at the time there was a huge difference for the people.
Compare the first lines of Joy to The World with its metrical version of the time.
Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
All earthly creatures, praise the Lord God, And sing for joy at His behest.
We have received much from Isaac Watts and he has been a blessing to the church.
I wanted to look at the Psalm he used as the basis for this hymn and see if we can understand what brought him so much joy.
Psalm 98 teaches us we should rejoice...
Psalm 98 teaches us we should rejoice...
Because He Saves His People v. 1-3
Because He Saves His People v. 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.
This Psalm is one of six that encourage worshipers to sing a new song to God.
Each time we are told to sing a new song, it is a response to the salvation that God has provided and victory over an enemy.
For example
I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Many preachers have used this to help them sell new types of music to their congregations or to encourage their congregation to get out of “ruts” in their lives, spiritual or otherwise.
But this is not the intention of the author.
There is a call here to contemplate the truth about how God works in the lives of His people, and to let that understanding influence our emotions to the point where we are deeply moved.
Moved to the point of song!
We are to understand what God has done, and respond with great, spiritual emotion! That emotion is then supposed to cause action.
The author of this psalm wants us to think about the things God has done and respond with whole hearted worship.
He says that God has done marvelous things.
The NASB says they are wonderful things and they can also be translated as amazing things.
Scott Harris said that according to this psalm marvelous things are things that:
God intervened in a situation where it was obvious that God had done it by His power.
The way in which He intervened showed His righteousness to every nation.
He did it because He remembered His faithfulness and love.
These are very particular circumstances and it would be possible to think that maybe the Psalmist was thinking of one particular situation.
But the Old Testament is filled with examples of marvelous things that God has done in saving His people.
Maybe the first example you can think of is the Exodus.
In saving the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt.
God remembered them in their oppression
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
It was done in a way where their was no mistaking who was doing the saving, like when the Lord brought a plague of hail
Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.” ’ ”
Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses,
All the nations heard about what God had done
and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
And you can just keep going through the Old Testament and finding examples of things that God has done for His people that are worthy of these new songs.
The book of Judges where God’s people would cry out, God would bring a miraculous victory, and the story would spread to other nations.
Into the later history of the divided kingdom, Hezekiah prayed and God sent angels to defeat Sennacherib’s army.
This is why this psalm is so general, it’s not talking about a single event that brings God such praise, but it is how we are to respond when God works in the lives of His people, every time.
Because this is how he works throughout all of history.
And in no clearer example than in the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, do we see a reason to sing a new song.
The culmination of centuries of prophecies and promises finally kept, when God remembers His steadfast love and faithfulness by miraculously reaching into our world and giving us a savior, to which all the ends of the earth have seen.
And we have the privilege to see all these things unfold in history, but also to trust in that faithfulness for the future.
Knowing that the God who is able and faithful to keep His word, will certainly keep it when it comes to the prophecies and promises that are to be in our future.
And certainly we will be singing new songs in the future when we see all that God has done.
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps,
and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
We should rejoice because He saves His people
We should rejoice because He saves His people
Because He Reigns Over the Nations v. 4-6
Because He Reigns Over the Nations v. 4-6
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
This invitation to praise isn’t just for His people, but for the whole earth.
The NASB translates this to shout joyfully to the Lord.
In this part of the psalm the whole earth is joining Israel to praise God for His mighty victory.
And all sorts of instruments are used with the shouting to magnify his praise.
Music has been an important part of praise to God since the foundation of God’s creation.
According to Job
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Genesis chapter 4 tells us that instruments were created after only the 5th generation of man.
Like the pattern of God’s marvelous works in the first part of this psalm, the pattern of worshipping God with songs and music go from the beginning of the Word, throughout its history and into the future.
We are commanded as God’s church to sing together in worship to our Lord.
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And when we are done here on earth we will continue into eternity.
And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
Notice it’s the same topic we will be singing about, Our God reigns over all of the earth!
Christians have a unique form of worship.
When we get together we hear preaching from God’s word and we sing together.
We learn about God’s works in the past, we see these promises and how they apply to ourselves and to our lives and we look forward to the fulfilment of God’s promises in the future.
In response to this understanding of the word, we break forth in praise.
This means our singing should never be for the sake of singing alone.
This is not just a thing we do.
If we truly understand who God is and what He has done, our response will always be praise.
And those who understand the reality of how singing and music are integrated into the being of man, understand why we sing.
There is something unique about the way God made us in contrast to the rest of Creation.
There isn’t another being that can appreciate the beauty of music, like man.
We recognize the noise produced by birds to be beautiful, but the birds themselves can’t comprehend their own song past an instinctual level.
It is a gift to be able to appreciate beauty.
And when the culture of man degrades, as it inevitably does, so goes the value of the music that culture produces.
So it is with us, God gave us this ability in order that we would be able to worship Him in a unique way. A way that helps us express the truth that we understand and the emotion that comes from the understanding of a God who does marvelous things.
So let us make a joyful noise before the King, let all the earth shout joyfully because the Lord reigns over all the nations!
He is in control and He is good. He deserves our praise!
He saves His people and He reigns over all of the nations and
He saves His people and He reigns over all of the nations and
Joy Because He Judges Over the Earth v. 7-9
Joy Because He Judges Over the Earth v. 7-9
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.
Now the whole earth is instructed to join in praise to God, not just Israel and not just the nations.
The sea and everything in it is to roar in praise.
The rivers are to clap their hands in joy while the hills sing.
All of the cosmos is singing in anticipation that the Lord will come and judge the earth.
We again have the ability, as limited as it is now, to see the beauty of the metaphors here.
We can take in a landscape and ascribe its beauty to its maker.
We can enjoy the sights and sounds and smells of the ocean or the mountain range.
We can be moved to true joy by a hike in nature.
And when we do this, we can understand, with the help of scripture, our place in this world.
And when we look around at this beauty and see the marring effect of sin on this fallen world, we can rejoice with all of nature that the Judge is coming with righteousness and equity.
Why would a coming judgment be a cause of praise and celebration?
Because while judgment brings condemnation upon the guilty, it also removes the oppression of evil doers and restores the world to its proper estate.
The scriptures are full of descriptions of the Lord pouring out His wrath upon the ungodly of this world at His return, yet that same judgment is the vindication of the righteous who are delivered from that coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Romans 8:18-25 describes the creation itself as groaning while it waits for its redemption that will come with the return of the Lord.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Creation, along with us, longs to be free from the current slavery to corruption, and so we find here in this Psalm the joyful shouting and singing in anticipation of the Lord’s return to judge.
And so the psalmist finishes this Psalm with another mighty victory of God, but this one was different than any victory they had experienced in the past.
This was a victory to look forward to, a victory that wouldn’t just win the battle, but the whole war.
But how do we praise him for this seeing that He comes to judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity, or uprightness?
Especially knowing that we would fail the test and be judged unrighteous ourselves.
This is the mighty victory that we celebrate today.
That Christ came into the world to save sinners.
He came to live and die and be raised again so that everything in the creation could be reconciled to the Creator and be brought under the reign of the King of kings.
as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And we celebrate His reign over us, even in this world where everything is not put into the right place yet.
But we know that one day it will be.
Everything will be made right.
So, by faith, we join the sea and the rivers and the hills and mountains and everything else in the universe to celebrate the reason for our hope.
The Lord is king!
Conclusion
Conclusion
And he will reign forever and ever.
And this is what prompted the hymn writer to write the following words, that we enjoy singing today, and we will be singing songs like it into eternity, because of the truths it explains.
Praise for the gospel.
1 To our Almighty Maker, God,
New honors be addressed;
His great salvation shines abroad,
And makes the nations blessed.
2 He spake the word to Abraham first;
His truth fulfils the grace;
The Gentiles make his name their trust,
And learn his righteousness.
3 Let the whole earth his love proclaim
With all her diff'rent tongues,
And spread the honors of his name
In melody and songs.
Part 2, The Messiah's coming and kingdom
1 Joy to the world! the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let ev'ry heart prepare him room,
And heav'n and nature sing.
2 Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.
3 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.
4 He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.