Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

JOY TO THE WORLD While some consider Joy to the World the most powerful and dynamic Christmas carol of all time, it was written by a most unlikely man. Isaac Watts, a short, sickly, strange-looking man, was one of the most innovative Christian musicians in history! Born in 1674 in Southampton, England, Isaac only grew to be five feet tall. As an adult, his large head, small eyes, and oversized wig made him look odd and belied the genius and inspiration that was in him. Even as a boy, Watts displayed a great aptitude for languages, learning Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French by the time he was thirteen. He had the heart and mind of a poet and began writing poetry as a small child. Raised in a strong Christian home, the training he received in the Bible and theology would one day greatly enrich the whole world. In Protestant churches of Watts' day, psalms from the Bible were mostly sung in the church services. Teenaged Isaac was frustrated with the archaic tunes and the mediocre lyrics of religious music. His father, tired of hearing his complaints, challenged his eighteen-year-old son to do better. The following Sunday, Isaac presented his first hymn to the congregation. It was an immediate hit. Every week for the next two years, Watts produced a new hymn. In 1707, Watts published the first hymnal in the English language with such songs as When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Jesus Shall Reign, and O God, Our Help in Ages Past. During the last 30 years of his life, Isaac was an invalid, yet he continued to write over 600 hymns, influential books on theology and philosophy, and even gave us the world's first children's hymnal. A picture of him writing songs while angels whisper to him still hangs in Westminster Abbey in London, England. Watts' friend, George Frederick Handel, is credited with the melody for Joy to the World. However, the music and lyrics to Joy to the World were not put together until the 1830's when musician Lowell Mason took various musical phrases from The Messiah and tied them together into the dynamic song we sing today. The biblical inspiration for Joy to the World comes from Psalm 98.