Psalm devotion
March 25, 2020
Good evening, Everyone!
Tonight we continue our meditations on hymns that are paraphrases of psalms.
But first, I invite us all to gather our selves as we read this email. I’ll confess to concerns about all that is happening in our world and also to a sense of denial about the coming of this virus to our own nation.
I am thinking of the anxieties that we must all be feeling. And I offer my prayer that those who have power to make a difference might be moved to cooperate well so as to save lives.
I am pausing for a few moments of silence now and I invite you to do the same.
Amen.
Our meditation this evening focuses on another extremely familiar psalm paraphrase: “Joy to the World!” by Isaac Watts.
You might like to read over the portion of the psalm the carol is based on to notice the similar themes.
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together. Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.” Psalm 98:4-9
As is typical of Watts, the psalm text is presented as finding its fulfillment in the coming of Jesus.
Musically, the tune to which we sing this text is an amalgam of motifs from Handel’s Messiah put together by Lowell Mason. Mason was an important figure in 19th century Boston who contributed a great deal both to church music and music education. He advocated for the music of the European masters, and in this carol, it seems that he is referencing both the chorus “Lift Up Your Heads” and the tenor solo “Comfort Ye.”
A final devotional thought inspired by this carol - Watts envisions not just the coming of the baby Jesus in the past but also the Jesus who will come in the future to set the world aright. Perhaps we can hear in this psalm paraphrase a plea for a fresh presence of Jesus at every level throughout our world in the days and months ahead.
Yours truly,
March 25, 2020
Good evening, Everyone!
Tonight we continue our meditations on hymns that are paraphrases of psalms.
But first, I invite us all to gather our selves as we read this email. I’ll confess to concerns about all that is happening in our world and also to a sense of denial about the coming of this virus to our own nation.
I am thinking of the anxieties that we must all be feeling. And I offer my prayer that those who have power to make a difference might be moved to cooperate well so as to save lives.
I am pausing for a few moments of silence now and I invite you to do the same.
Amen.
Our meditation this evening focuses on another extremely familiar psalm paraphrase: “Joy to the World!” by Isaac Watts.
You might like to read over the portion of the psalm the carol is based on to notice the similar themes.
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together. Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.” Psalm 98:4-9
As is typical of Watts, the psalm text is presented as finding its fulfillment in the coming of Jesus.
Musically, the tune to which we sing this text is an amalgam of motifs from Handel’s Messiah put together by Lowell Mason. Mason was an important figure in 19th century Boston who contributed a great deal both to church music and music education. He advocated for the music of the European masters, and in this carol, it seems that he is referencing both the chorus “Lift Up Your Heads” and the tenor solo “Comfort Ye.”
A final devotional thought inspired by this carol - Watts envisions not just the coming of the baby Jesus in the past but also the Jesus who will come in the future to set the world aright. Perhaps we can hear in this psalm paraphrase a plea for a fresh presence of Jesus at every level throughout our world in the days and months ahead.
Yours truly,
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