Joy to the World

Psalm 98
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.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.

If I have a moment in the day, I like to read newspaper editorials. I believe it is mainly to jolt myself out of my complacent attitude and to remind myself how most people in the world do not truly have Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They possess no truth and have relativistic thinking as their only compass.

Such was my experience in light of reading the Register today. A columnist had entitled his column, "Christmas is what we want to make of it." Right away, I knew I had found a goldmine of worldly lies and misplaced hope. The article had quotes such as, "After all, in America the Christmas holiday is whatever we want to make of it", "Nobody owns Christmas--and how we choose to celebrate it shouldn't offend anyone else just because they choose to do it differently, or not at all", or "We can celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, or revel in Santas and reindeers, or simply enjoy a quiet day off from work, or any combination thereof."

All of these points are enough off the mark of Biblical truth to elicit a reaction, but I was left extremely sad when I finished reading the article. What prompted my despair was, in his attempt to encourage those experiencing loss or sadness this December, his hope and advice was this, "I hope that the memories of joyous Christmases past, and the hope for joyous Christmases in the future, will give you comfort in this Christmas present." To him, joy can be grasped at by finding memories of happiness or uncertain futures of possible happiness to get us through the present. This was depressing!

In the face of this article, I was reading a book that tells the history of hymns and carols. The song Joy to the World was written in 1719 by Isaac Watts. He took the 98th Psalm in the Bible and used this as his inspiration. This song has survived nearly three hundred years to tell us that true happiness and joy is that the Lord is come! He is our King and Savior, who humbled Himself to live a perfect life for us and who died to pay the penalty of Christians' sins. Because of this, we know our futures are secure in a perfect, eternal place with Christ and our Heavenly Father.

"Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let earth receive her
King. Let every heart prepare Him room, And heav'n and nature sing, And
heav'n and nature sing, And heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing.
Joy to the world! 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."

This is true joy--a joy that transcends circumstances and memories. It is realizing that Christmas is NOT what WE make it. Thank goodness! It is joy because of Jesus Christ coming for us so many years ago. God made Christmas and will continue to be faithful to His promises. People might find comfort in their autonomy and ability to choose Santa over Jesus, but this is a fleeting struggle for happiness. To my dear friends and family, who are my brothers and sisters in Christ, joy to you for our Lord is come!