San Francisco Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

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125 Joy to the World

Today we will use the much-loved Joy to the World! It is a paraphrase on Psalm 98, by the famous hymnwriter Isaac Watts, who wrote these words in 1719.

The tune is named ANTIOCH (after the city in Syria where believers in Christ were first called “Christians”), and it is by Lowell Mason in 1836. He arranged the tune based on Handel's Messiah. The opening recalls “Lift Up Your Heads” and “Glory to God,” and the last line is similar to the opening of the tenor solo, “Comfort Ye My People.” Its provenance is exceptional, with both words and music from two musical greats.

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 earth, 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 sin and sorrow 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, and wonders of His love.