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| At Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, Indianapolis, IN |
Joy to the world! The Lord has 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!
Let field and flood, rock hill and plain
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 wonders of His righteousness
And wonders of His love.
NOTES ON THE HYMN
- I know. I didn't do the repetitions of the last line of each verse. Sorry.
- One of the best known songs of the Christmas season, but this actually is an advent hymn. In fact, it's based on Psalm 98 and is focused on the 2nd Advent (Christ's return) rather the 1st Advent (Christ's birth).
- The third week of Advent is the Advent of Joy. So I spent a lot of time trying to decide which song would be most appropriate. A who tenth of a second.
- I started this series with a Watts song. Time for another one. The only other author I had repeated was Charles Wesley.
- By the way, did you know the music was written by George Frederick Handel? (I just saw a picture of him; to me, he looks like he'd fit in a hard rock band.) The music was adapted from the Messiah.
- The meter is the common meter (8,6,8,6). By the way, the other Watts song in my series - "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" - is also common meter. So
