Joy To The World
In early 18th century England there lived a man named Isaac Watts. Watts was very nearly a literary genius, as well as a theologian and poet. Watts began writing verses as a small child. When he was a teenager, he complained that the songs sung in church were hard to sing. His father said, “Well, if you think the worthy songs we sing in church are inadequate, why don’t you write some that are better.” So, he did. For the next two years Isaac Watts wrote a new hymn every week. People especially loved his poems, particularly one based on Psalm 98, a Biblical passage which announces a message of joy and celebration to the world.
Nearly a century later, a Boston composer and music publisher, Lowell Mason, found Watt’s poem of joy and wanted very much to publish it. There was only one problem—it really need a proper musical setting. So he began to search for one. In his search he came upon a beautiful melody within Handel’s Messiah. And so Mason published Watt’s poem, set to Handel’s music and created one of the world’s most beloved and popular Christmas carols of all time, “Joy to the World.”
“that which we have seen and heard (about Jesus) we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be full (complete).” 1John 1:3-4
Aiming to experience God’s joy this season, Pastor Larry
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