There is a peculiar quality to a child’s joy: it is unrestrained, it is consuming, it is controlling even, sometimes, to the point of paralyzing them with a shivering inability to give expression to it. For sophisticated adults, the unrestrained, consuming joy of a child can be downright embarrassing. …

… but, it is THIS quality of joy which possessed David as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem; it is THIS joy which is produced in the Psalmist as he envisions the marvelous grace of the Lord; it is to THIS joy that the Psalmist calls us to share, without embarrassment, as we gaze together with him on the marvelous faithfulness of our redeemer Lord:

O 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.
The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
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. (Psalm 98:1-3)

Reflecting on the birth of Jesus and the sure beginning of God’s final act of salvation through the revelation of his righteousness to Joseph and Mary, the Shepherds and the Wise Men, Anna and Simeon, Isaac Watts saw the fullness of God’s glory and grace to which the Psalmist referred and he wrote his own rendition of Psalm 98:

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King;
let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing!

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love!

Since the living and holy God of righteousness has done marvelous things, making known his salvation, and the mercy and grace of his righteousness in the birth and life of Jesus Christ, come, let us sing to the Lord a new song, singing with a child-like joy – bearing testimony without embarrassment to one another and to the watching world, that the Lord has come to establish his truth and grace upon the world as it is in heaven, for the joy of his world and the display of his glory.

Order of Worship for 12.14.08 – 3rd Sunday of Advent