Tomorrow marks the first Sunday of Advent, the season in which we anticipate the coming of Jesus, our promised king. In Luke 1:32-33, the angelic messenger tells Mary that the son she will bear “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

 

The Promised King

The hope for the coming of this promised king goes back to the Old Testament, where it is foretold, among other places, in the Psalms. We’re calling our Advent sermon series The Promised King, and we’ll explore how the Psalms point to King Jesus. 

Additionally, we’ve designed theFormed.life to function as an Advent devotional, in which you will meditate on a particular psalm during the week before the sermon on Sunday morning. As part of this Advent devotional, we’re also encouraging you to meditate on the lyrics of a Christmas hymn each Saturday. 

 

Joy to the World

Today’s Christmas hymn is Joy to the World written in 1719 by the prolific hymn writer Isaac Watts. Some have said that Joy to the World isn’t actually a Christmas hymn because Watts wrote it with Christ’s second coming in mind, not his first. The lyrics Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her king refers to Jesus’ return when he ultimately and finally ushers in his coming kingdom.

When Jesus returns, the curse of Genesis 3 will be no more, which is acknowledged in the third stanza of Joy to the World: 

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. 

While the curse in Genesis 3 brought “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:18), Watts points out that Jesus’ coming has an altogether different effect on creation: 

And heav’n and nature sing
And heav’n and nature sing
And heav’n and heav’n and nature sing
Fields and floods
Rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy

 

Creation Sings!

The idea of creation crying out to God in praise is deeply biblical. It comes from places like Isaiah 55:12  the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands; Luke 19:40. I tell you, if these [disciples] were silent, the very stones would cry out; and Psalm 148, which is an entire song dedicated to the idea of creation voicing praise to its creator. No longer held back by the curse of Genesis 3, all creation bursts into glorious praise. 

But if Joy to the World is about Christ’s second coming, why sing it at Christmas? We sing it because Christmas is as much about Christ’s second coming as it is about his first coming. During the Christmas season, we look back at what God has done through Christ’s first coming, and at the same time look forward in anticipation to his second coming. We remember that what he accomplished at his first coming serves as a guarantee of what is yet to come when he returns.

 

Advent is about Anticipation

The anticipation of Advent isn’t about Christmas parties, delicious Christmas dinners, and piles of Christmas presents. It is the anticipation of the second arrival of our Promised King who, when he comes again, will complete the work that he started two millennia ago as a baby in the little town of Bethlehem. In the meantime, we proclaim now a song that all of creation will sing then:

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.