Today as we continue our week of reflection on Advent of joy, let us briefly look at the life of the author and composer of the carol song (Isaac Watts). The carolling song resonates with us because we live in a time like that of the song’s composer. According to Ray fowler, Isaac Watts lived in a time like ours when there was an outbreak of pandemic that killed several people and separated families; there was enormous pressure to conform to a religious system that was deviating from scriptural bases. Today, we are not only deviating from scriptural bases and holiness. Gordon Giles, Canon Chancellor of Rochester Cathedral reminds us not only ‘the Chocolatisation of Christianity, but also the decaffeination of faith’ today. We are at a time Christianity ‘is sublimated by a sugar-coated, soft-centred delight that challenges no one’ to repentance and scriptural holiness. Indeed, we are in an age of decafinated theology, liturgy and Advent, :as the true reason for the season is weakened or removed …A decaffeinated Advent helps us sleepwalk along the run-up to Christmas, unalert, unresponsive, unaware… removes the watchfulness, the vigilance and the fearful, joyful expectation of the return of Christ.’

Isaac Watts, inspired by the Holy Spirit, used Psalm 98 to compose the song, which was not initially meant for carols songs. He was inspired to composed hymns to encourage people persecuted for their faith and also to stop trivialising, decafinating and chocolating the purpose of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Psalms 98 to Psalms 100 are all referred to as the ‘Royal Psalms’ because they draw attention to the sovereignty of God over all the earth. Albert Barnes mentioned concerning Psalm 98 that ‘one cannot read this Psalm without being a happier man; without lofty views of God; without feeling that He is worthy of universal praise; without recognizing that he is in a world where the mind should be joyful; that he is under the dominion of a God whose reign should fill the mind with gladness.’ Psalm 98: 1-9 can be divided into three, corresponding to three stanzas of the carol singing. Verses 1-3 mentioned that we should rejoice in God as our Saviour, verses 4-6 said to rejoice in God as King over all the earth, while verses 7-9 tell us to rejoice in God as Judge over all the nations (Ray Fowler).

In James 5:17, the Bible said that ‘Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.’ In like manner, we can say that if Isaac Watts, who lived in a time with circumstances similar to our time, could compose a song that blesses people from generation to generation, uses the scripture to compose the song ‘joy to the world’ because of his faith in God, then we can also look beyond our circumstances and embrace the gift of joy through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.