25 Days of Christmas Carols: Joy to the World

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I love Christmas music.  Old, new, it doesn't matter.  Growing up in kid choir at church meant we learned the stories behind the carols we sang.  I remember so many of these stories and have fact checked many of them over the years with the invention of the internet.  :)  Check back each day for a new carol and story!  I'll be including a video of one of my favorite versions of the carol as well.  Grab the button and share the fun with your friends! 

December 1st: Joy to the World

Isaac Watts wrote Joy to the World, but he meant it more for an Easter song than for Christmas.  He composed versions of David's psalms in 1719 in the English language.  This hymn was one of them, an imitation of Psalm 98.  George Frederick Handel wrote the music to accompany these lyrics.  Isaac Watts wrote many other hymns still sung today.  He may not have intended Joy to the World for a Christmas refrain, but it's so fitting for this season of reflection on all that will come when Jesus returns!

  Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
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 World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, 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,
Far as the curse is found,
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,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.