Christmas Day 2022
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Psalm 98
CHRISTMAS DAY December 25, 2022
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!
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
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. 1
“This is the Word of God” – “Thanks be to God.”
A recent Pew Research poll indicated that even the growing secularity we are experiencing in America, as has occurred elsewhere in the world, the celebration of Christmas remains one of the most common and acceptable holidays (even for the non-religious.)
Some lament and blame the secularization of Christmas through pop culture, the marketing of the season, the spirited but irreligious Christmas movies that populate cable and streaming services. Then, there’s the presumed battle over “Merry Christmas” that some have taken up, only to feign to keep Christ in Christmas while appearing to remove Christ from Christian.
Some traditions are wonderful. One is that of singing the carols that we have all grown up with. Sometimes, there are new renditions of old carols or hymns. Some are good. Others just cash-grabs by musicians to gain from the sales of recordings of public domain songs with copyrighted add-ons.
But, sometimes, it’s the old standby that is best. One of the classics is the carol “Joy to the World.”
The lyrics were written by Isaac Watts in 1719. The melody came from “Antioch” by Handel (famous for his Messiah and Hallelujah chorus) then adjusted as what we traditionally know by Lowell Mason. We’ve been singing the hymn for years during this season.
Joy to the world; the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!
Let ev’ry heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the earth the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields & floods, rocks, hills, & plains
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.
He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.
It’s a Christmas carol that says nothing about a manger, a stable, Mary, Joseph, King Herod, angels, shepherds, or even wise men. In fact, it doesn’t even say the name Jesus, much less “baby Jesus.”
Yet, it is one of the most loved, one of the most sung Christmas carols of all time.
The hymn is based on Psalm 96...
Psalm 96:11-12
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Genesis 3:17-18
17 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; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field. 3
and Psalm 98 which I read earlier.
Watts lyrics were drawn from Scripture and over the centuries as we sing this song, we extol the truth (not of the song’s lyrics) of God’s Word.
And like good Christmas carols that are truly hymns of the faith, these songs are not intended to be only sung one month each year. The declaration of the goodness of God and his great story of redemption through the incarnation is not seasonal.
Yet, we sing this at Christmas most often and that is good.
But some traditional Christmas songs are not really about the birth of Christ. Of course, we know songs like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” have nothing to do with Jesus, but there are others.
Good King Wenceslas is about an event on the second day of Christmas – December 26, but nothing about Christ.
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow is about a heatwave in California when colder weather is longed for. If sung in Australia,
it has to come in June or July.
• Do You Hear What I Hear is actually a plea for peace during the
Cuban missile crisis. And...Joy to the World not primarily about Christmas. It is not focused on the incarnation of Christ, but on his second coming. It is about all bowing before Christ and acknowledging him as king. It is about the curse of sin being removed forever. It is about the glorious Kingdom of God. It is about the nations glorifying him.
It’s about creation “repeating the sounding joy.”
It is a proclamation of a coming day.
SO WHY AT CHRISTMAS?
Because you cannot look ahead to the fulfilment of all that God has promised without acknowledging the promises already fulfilled. The birth of Christ is our focus this season, but the birth is not the end of the story. Christmas puts the nativity scene back out so that we can look back at a promised fulfilled, but the joy that resounds within Christ followers is not centered on a moment in history, but in a story that continues and will lead to a glorious moment of victory.
When we sing this song, we proclaim the ultimate joy in Christ we can have now and that which is to come.
Luke 2:15-16
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.4
Revelation 21:1-5a
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 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.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Joy to the world. Let heaven and nature sing. Merry Christmas.
End Notes
1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 98:1–9). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 96:11–12). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 3:17–18). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
4 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 2:15–16). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
5 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Re 21:1–5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
