Joy to the World Isaac Watts grew up in Southampton, England in the late 1600s. He was the son of a radical free-thinker--also named Isaac--who was shunned by the Church of England and spent many a night in jail for his nonconformist ideas! Isaac, the son, grew up challenging authority in the same way his father did. Because he was not a member of the Church of England, Isaac Watts was not allowed to enter Oxford or Cambridge even though he was a brilliant thinker. He studied at the Independent Academy at Stoke, Newington until the age of 20 when he left on his own to go back to live with his father. While living at home, the younger Watts complained to his father about the dull and uninspired hymns of their church. Watts senior challenged him to come up with something better! And so he did. At first, the hymns he wrote were not accepted by most and Isaac was even labeled a heretic for his new ways of thinking about faith. But, after years of earning his living as a tutor, Isaac Watts became the assistant of Dr. Isaac Chauncey (a third Isaac in our story!) at Mark Lane Independent Chapel in London. In three short years, Watts became the minister at age 26! His church grew rapidly and his position enabled him to finally publish some of his work. While studying Psalm 98, Isaac was inspired to write a song based on the emotional experience of King David. He was touched by the words, Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises and soon put his paraphrase into the song which would become Joy to the World. Isaac Watts hymn was not readily accepted, however, because most British Christians did not like the idea of rewriting Scripture! Isaac persisted and continued to translate more of the Psalms into song with such titles as When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and This is the Day the Lord Has Made. These and many more were published in 1719 in The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship. Whew! After many years and an iron will, his work began to gain acceptance. However, the song we sing today has a different tune than Watts used with his version of Joy to the World. He intended for the lyrics to be sung to the tune of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. In 1836, Lowell Mason of New Jersey, an ardent student of classical German composers like Handel, wrote an upbeat melody he called Antioch. He searched and searched for lyrics that would fit perfectly with his song and eventually came upon Joy to the World by Isaac Watts. The combination of Watts words and Masons music is the Christmas carol we love today. No one is sure how it became such a popular Christmas carol because the only lines linking it to the New Testament story of Christs birth is the Lord is come and let Earth receive her King. But in the early half of the 1900s, it became a regular on radio during the holidays and Joy to the World was soon a classic. https://youtube/watch?v=DLT9dSt8cwg
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 07:06:21 +0000
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