Okay, here's the thing about "Joy to the World,": did you know that if you look in most hymnals (those books with all the songs that we used to sing out of in churches) that this song will be listed, not really with the Christmas carols, but with the advent carols? It's supposedly a song that's to be sung before Christmas ever gets here. Why is that significant? Well, it's significant because if you relegate to the "advent hymns/carols" pile, you might miss the fact that the meaning of this song doesn't actually end with Christ's first coming. This Christmas, as you sing "Joy to the World," sing it as someone who's looking for Christ's return, his second coming to earth, when he will restore, judge, and make all things new, right, as they should be. I love Mariah Carey's version of this song from her CD Merry Christmas. Enjoy!
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
("Is come." He's coming. This is the hope of the believer: that Christ will come again. That he will make things right again. What a promise that we have to look forward too, and that will be the day of complete, true joy for the world.)
Let earth receive her King;
(A reminder that he will come as king on that day. The first time he came he was, in essence, king of the world, but that's not how he came. When he returns, he will come in that capacity, to set up reign.)
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
(A foreshadowing of how the entire earth will be "singing" at the return of Christ, when he makes all creation new and redeems it from the damage and destruction of man's sin.)
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
(The ever-increasing number of sins and sorrows on this earth, will be stopped with Christ's return. Not only will they be stopped, but they will be wiped out totally, completely.)
Nor thorns infest the ground;
(An allusion to the curse that God put on man and the earth after Adam and Eve's sin in Genesis 3. With the promise in Revelation, comes the promise of a new Heavens and a new Earth.)
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
(I love these lines, because they remind me that the Gospel, which was instituted by Christ's first coming to earth, is able to reach far and wide. There's not a person that the gospel doesn't have the power to save, and there's not a situation or life that the gospel doesn't have the ability to transform and redeem. Just when I think situations are hopeless, here's a reminder that as far as the curse of sin goes, so does the transforming power of the gospel.)
Far as, 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,
And wonders of His love,
(When Christ is king, his character is proven. The attributes of who he is are seen in the way he changes those who are his. When a people have the gospel, they have change. There can be no question that change will occur, even if it's not as quick or dramatic as we would like. On the hearts of men is where you'll find the record and evidence of Christ's coming.)
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
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