ever listen to the words??

There are some songs that we just sing because we know the words.  But there comes a time when we have been singing them for so long, we know what word comes next but we really stopped listening to the words we are singing.  We sing from habit instead of appreciation of the words themselves and their meaning.  The message has been lost over time, if we ever got a message from the song in the first place.  One such song is Joy to the World........  have you ever thought about the meaning of the words?? 

JOY !!! 

Lets just look at the first two lines. 

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;


What does this say to you?  What if we translate it out of sing songy verse and into a mode similar to what we would use if we were speaking.  If we did that, it might look like this.

Hey, today is a great, awesome, happy, rockin day.  It's the absolute best day ever because the one we have been waiting for , waiting for for like ever, has come today, the guy who makes it all better, solves all the problems and leads us to eternal happiness, the king of forever and everything  was born today. The world received a way out, a way up, he was born today!!

Next line

Let every heart prepare Him room,

What does this say to you?

This is more of an instruction the way I hear it.  Here the song is telling us to get on the wagon, have some faith, make room for some big time grace, open your heart and let Jesus in, open your heart and let Jesus lead, open your heart and give the man...... THE man all the room he needs.

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Moving on......

Heaven and nature sing......  Heaven would be who exactly, and who is nature that it would sing ??  Well, what I hear the author saying here is that this day is SO glorious that the Angels in heaven are happy enough to sing out and nature, why nature is the all the things on earth that God made, the clouds, the rivers, the trees, the stones, everything of the earth feels that a big thing, a huge thing, a glorious joyous marvelous thing is happening today.


moving a little further along.....

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

Again, JOY......  the world should be happy, all the people, all the creations, everything in the world should be mad with joy because the promise has begun to be fulfilled.  The Savior has come, he has arrived, Jesus is in the house !!  Let all mankind sing out and relish the coming of enough grace to get them into God's very presents. 

moving a bit further along......

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy

Even the fields and floods, even the rocks know Jesus was born today......  Joy has come, it has come to be with us , wretched tho we are, Joy has come, Grace has come, the promise is here with us today...... 

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,

Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Why has he come ?  Why are we supposed to be so happy ?  That is what this stanza tells us about.  He came to destroy the power of sin, sin can no longer enslave us as we have been given the power of His grace thru faith.  We could never save ourselves, the law made that all too clear, but now grace has come to save us and we have been brought freedom, freedom brings us joy !! The thorns have been struck down, the curse has been removed, he comes to make his blessings flow, all his blessings.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

He has come to rule over us with truth and grace, he has come to free us from the plague, the immutable stain of our sin is what he and only he can lift away.........

And makes the nations prove
we prove it by our faith first and in his grace we prove it by following him, by loving him, and by living in his will thru his enabling grace


The glories of His righteousness,

the glories are proved out by our salvation, his gift , his grace, unearned, undeserved, but heaped on us non the less...... why oh why will he bless us so........ you need only read , or sing, a little farther now......


And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.


His LOVE..... his love defies understanding...... it defines who he is...... God is love........  he loves us....  he loved us before we were even created, and he loved us while we were yet sinners... a love that we cannot even begin to grasp........  a love that brought us grace....... grace is a concept we cannot fully wrap our heads around ...... 


now......... now we can think about the words, the message in the song...... we can sing it anew from our hearts... let us sing now......



Joy to the World , the Lord is come!


Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, 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 sins and sorrows 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, wonders, of His love.