Joy to the World

“Joy to The World” Psalm 98

Isaac Watts wrote “Joy to the World” in reference to this Psalm. In Watt’s day most people sang psalms in their worship services, and in England where he grew up, Watts didn’t think that the metrical psalms that had been arranged for singing were very good. He didn’t think they’d been set to very good tunes; and so he set about the task of trying to do a better job of rendering those psalms, and he produced a book of songs to sing in worship. “Joy to the World” is his rendering of Psalm 98.

Psalm 98 is a psalm about the coming of the Lord. We think of the two advents of the Lord: the First coming and the Second coming. But the Old Testament prophets did not really differentiate between the two. They saw the coming of Christ as one event with multiple consequences. Psalm 98 is about the coming of Christ: both His first and second.

When Watts arranged this new covenant rendering of Psalm 98, had in mind primarily Jesus’ second coming. But it has become associated over the last hundred years or so with Christmas (the 1st Advent) as well as the second coming, and so we sing it almost every Christmas.

I want you to see three exhortations in this Psalm.

1. Vv. 1-3 = A call for Christians to worship; six reasons to praise God
2. Vv. 4-6 = A call for nations to worship God. Why would the nations be rejoicing about the judgment of God? Just stick that question in the back of your mind. Why would the nations rejoice about the judgment of God?
3. Vv. 7-9 = A call for universal worship of God. the call to worship is extended even to all creation in anticipation of the coming judgment of the Lord.

Psalm 98:1-9
1 Oh 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 known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
8 Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
9 before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,and the peoples with equity.

I. A Call for Christians to worship.

Why should we be full of praise to the Lord. Six reasons are given:

1. Verse one says, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!” The phrase “marvelous (wonderful) things” is used in the Old Testament as a term that the prophets used to describe the miraculous saving acts of God; so when Isaiah is talking about what God did in bringing Israel out of Egypt and bringing them across the Red Sea on dry land, what does he call it? He calls it “a marvelous thing.” We should praise God because of the all the things He has done for us that are full of wonder. We should praise God for His saving acts, merciful acts, and gracious miracles. It is marvelous; it is supernatural; it is a miraculous intervention of God on our behalf.

2. Verse one contines, “His right hand and holy arm have gained the victory for Him.” We should praise God because He delivered us – single handedly!He’s done it on His own. No help. Ultimate Omnipotence. Monergisticly rather than synergisticly. Do you remember what Moses then tells the people of God? “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” What did Israel contribute to the parting of the Red Sea? Nothing.
3. Verse two says, “the Lord has made known His salvation.” God has shown Himself; He has shown what He is like in His work of salvation. When God delivered His people from Egypt, did He do so because Egypt was bad and Israel was good? No. The Israelites tried to worship other gods, even as God was saving them. No, God in saving the Israelites didn’t show that if you are good you get saved, and if you’re bad you get condemned. He showed that if you’re going to get saved, it’s not because you’re good, it’s because I’m good; it’s because I’m gracious; it’s because I’m merciful. God revealed His own character, His own graciousness in saving these sinful Israelites from their plight.
4. Verse two continues, “He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.” He hasn’t just made Himself known to Christians… but to the whole world. Jesus was hung on a Cross on a hill outside of a Roman controlled Israel so that all the world would hear about Jesus’ cross. What God does even in our individual lives is about something global.
5. Verse three declares that the Lord “has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.” In other words, God keeps His promises. I prayed for one individual for 20 years. (My dad) Though you may wait long, you will not wait in vain.
6. Verse three continues, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” The Gentiles, the nations, have seen God’s marvelous deeds. Word of the Lord’s victory has spread.

So… Why the joy? Because of who God is, and because of what He has done for us. And the world has seen it! And there’s a point in this for us. As new covenant believers, it is important for us to rehearse God’s past mercies to us, or we will become unthankful, ungrateful people; and we will not be able to endure the times where God’s mercies are not so obvious; and those times always come in life.

And if we do not celebrate God’s obvious mercies and recognize that those are not just the happenstance of fate and chance, but they are the deliberate gifts of God to us, then we will begin to doubt God’s goodness when the trials of life come.

And so it is important for us to look back in our own experience and remember God’s mercies to us, and praise Him for it! Thank Him for it!

So that when the trials come, we will not be able to say, ‘Lord, You haven’t ever heard our prayers. You haven’t ever come to our rescue. You haven’t ever been there in our time of need.’

II. A Call for Nations to Worship God.

Believers ought to expect, want, desire and work for the nations to praise the Lord.
Consider verses 4-6: the first three verses gave us six reasons why we Christians should lead out in praising God, but then v. 4 begins with, Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;

All the earth. Every nation. Expectation of GLOBAL praise!!

4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!

Shout joyfully, or make a joyful noise means to spontaneously shout in greeting to the King in His moment of victory. Cheer; Applaud; Give an ovation. Its like when you cheer for a Champion ball team. It’s like when a crowd standing outside a burning apartment cheers for a brave fireman who emerges with a child in his arms. This is exactly what’s being encouraged here: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.”

Look at that next phrase in verse 4: “break forth into joyous song and sing praises!” That phrase “break forth” indicates a delight too great to be restrained; and the instruments that are mentioned here were used on festive occasions. There is a global celebration coming!

You may ask, “When will this happen?” In reality, it is happening already…. Its like a slow-clap… but a huge global cheer is going to happen. But when will the full cheer consummate? A clue to revealing this mystery is found in the last 3 verses:

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
8 Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
9 before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Here we see that all of creation (nature itself, seas, rivers, hills, the world and all who live in it) join in this praise.

III. A Call for Universal Worship of God.

The coming of the Lord is the hope of the Christian.

You see what the Psalmist is speaking about. The Psalmist is talking about all nations of the world coming to a saving knowledge of the living God; all the ends of the earth coming to embrace the grace of the God. The Psalmist is assuming the peoples of the world coming to saving faith in the God of Israel.

Notice the progression:
1. A Call for Christians to Worship
2. A Call for Nations to worship God.
3. A Call for Universal worship of God.

It’s not universalism, of course. But it’s a desire based on what we would call the Great Commission, to see men and women and boys and girls from every tribe and tongue and people and nation resting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, as He is offered in the gospel; and thus, to sing to the Lord a new song.

I didn’t mention that, did I? “A new song.” Why sing to the Lord a new song, in verse 1? What is that new song? It’s not just a command to learn a new hymn, or learn a new anthem, or learn a new song. The “new song” must be sung because the Lord has done something new on your behalf. This is Salvation, the New Covenant,

Revelation 5:9, 9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” And that is why Isaac Watts rendered this song “Joy to The World, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King.”

He is already King; but more and more people are receiving him as King. And one day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Christ has come to give new life, eternal life.

It will be fully realized in a new earth! Christ will return bodily to remove all the rebellious from the face of the earth, will cast Satan in the Lake of Fire, and will remove the curse from all the earth.

In the 4th stanza of Joy to the World, Watts writes:
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.

Christ has come to redeem all things. That redemption has begun and is being manifested in the church. As the church spreads, the final consummation, the final day, the final completion of redemption gets closer and closer. The King has come; He sits on His throne; He is defeating all His enemies; and death shall be the last enemy defeated. God wins; and therefore… you will win.

Praise Him with your life. Spread the good news of Him. God will not waste a moment of pain that you have endured. And one glorious day, neither sins nor sorrows will grow. Thorns will be forever removed. And His blessings will be manifested fully in the earth forever!