Joy to the World

“Joy to the World” is a popular Christmas carol with words by Isaac Watts. As of the late 20th century, “Joy to the World” was the most-published Christmas hymn in North America.  The words of the hymn are by English writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98, 96:11–12 and Genesis 3:17–18. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts’ collection The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship. The paraphrase is Watts’ Christological interpretation. Consequently, he does not emphasize with equal weight the various themes of Psalm 98. In first and second stanzas, Watts writes of heaven and earth rejoicing at the coming of the King. An interlude that depends more on Watts’ interpretation than the psalm text, stanza three speaks of Christ’s blessings extending victoriously over the realm of sin. The cheerful repetition of the non-psalm phrase “far as the curse is found” has caused this stanza to be omitted from some hymnals. But the line makes joyful sense when understood from the New Testament eyes through which Watts interprets the psalm. Stanza four celebrates Christ’s rule over the nations.” The nations are called to celebrate because God’s faithfulness to the house of Israel has brought salvation to the world. Watts’s 1719 preface says the verses “are fitted to the Tunes of the Old PSALM-BOOK” and includes the instruction “sing all entitled COMMON METER”. In the late 18th century, “Joy to the World” was printed with music several times, but the tunes were unrelated to the one commonly used today.  The tune usually used today is from an 1848 edition by Lowell Mason for The National Psalmist (Boston, 1848).  Mason was by that time an accomplished and well-known composer and arranger, having composed tunes such as “Bethany”, which was used for the hymn Nearer My God to Thee. Mason’s 1848 publication of the current tune was the fourth version to have been published. The first, published in his 1836 book Occasional Psalm and Hymn Tunes, featured the present day tune (in a different arrangement) with the present-day lyrics; the first such publication to do so. The name of this tune was given as “Antioch”, and was attributed as being “From Handel”.  A very similar arrangement of the tune to today’s arrangement, and also with the present-day lyrics, was published in Mason’s 1839 book The Modern Psalmist. It was also titled “Antioch” and attributed to Handel.