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…

Did you know…

From this psalm Isaac Watts found the inspiration for his popular hymn “Joy to the World,” often classified as a Christmas carol but more accurately identified as a “kingdom hymn.” Watts described Christ’s second advent and not His first, the messianic kingdom and not the manger. 

Jesus, Son of God, was sent down to earth the first time with the mission to seek and to save the lost.  He began with God’s chosen then extended salvation for sins to the whole world.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) 

“In the beginning God” …Words from God’s lips created the world in which we live.  All came into being merely by the spoken words from God’s lips.  “And it was good.” This was God’s own affirmation of the work well done.  His first created humans, however, turned their eyes from God, easily distracted, to evil’s attention and intention to destroy their relationship with their Creator.  Because God wants our undivided love, Adam and Eve were separated from God.  Mankind was then separated from God.  But God never left his people.  God gave humanity a sacrificial system to atone for their sins.  But that system became corrupt by humans.  God’s extreme love brought His ultimate Plan to set the world right.  That Plan was Jesus, His Son.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let all their songs employ
while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy…

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”, begins John the gospel writer about Jesus.  Jesus, who stood with God at the beginning of Creation, was sent down to earth to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin.  No one but Jesus, God’s Son, could do this.  Jesus came to earth, said and did only what His Father in heaven told him to say and do and completed the mission perfectly.  We are saved and redeemed from all our sins because of Jesus’s work on the cross of dying and rising from defeated death to life.  Jesus went back to heaven after appearing to His beloved to prepare a place for all who believe and follow Him forevermore. 

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…

Ah, Jesus is coming back a second and final time to complete God’s Plan to set things right. Jesus, alpha and omega, beginning and end, will come to claim His own and take all who believe to the kingdom home He has prepared for us!  There Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords will rule forever and ever, Amen!

“He’ll straighten out the whole world,
He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.”

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.

Worship and Wisdom, Psalms and Proverbs

Psalm 98, The Message

Sing to God a brand-new song.
He’s made a world of wonders!

He rolled up his sleeves,
He set things right.

² God made history with salvation,
He showed the world what he could do.

³ He remembered to love us, a bonus
To his dear family, Israel—indefatigable love.

The whole earth comes to attention.
Look—God’s work of salvation!

⁴ Shout your praises to God, everybody!
Let loose and sing! Strike up the band!

⁵ Round up an orchestra to play for God,
Add on a hundred-voice choir.

⁶ Feature trumpets and big trombones,
Fill the air with praises to King God.

⁷ Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
With everything living on earth joining in.

⁸ Let ocean breakers call out, “Encore!”
And mountains harmonize the finale—

⁹ A tribute to God when he comes,
When he comes to set the earth right.

He’ll straighten out the whole world,
He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.

TRUTH:  He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.

Proverb 28:13-14, The Message

You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it;
    you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.

¹⁴ A tenderhearted person lives a blessed life;
    a hardhearted person lives a hard life.

WISDOM:  Repent and be saved.  Jesus did all the heavy lifting for you.

Abba Father,

Thank you for saving my soul and making things right between you and me.  Thank you for paying the debts of my sins in full, never to be remembered or visited again!  Thank you for laying down your life for mine!  Thank you for loving me the way you do.  Thank you for loving the world they way you do.  Help me to love like you love each day of my life.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Joy to the world, the Lord has come!  And He’s coming back again!  Be ready!