What is the “joy” of Joy to the World? Most people familiar with the song today know it as a Christmas carol and might assume the answer to be about the incarnation, but it wasn’t originally that way. It was initially just a poem, and not even a Christmas poem.

Based on Psalm 98, the poem was written by Isaac Watts as a celebration of Jesus’ second coming, not his incarnation. So, the original “joy” of Joy to the World was Jesus’ return, not his birth. Even more interesting though is the reason Psalm 98 gives to rejoice, which is because “he comes to judge the earth.”

The righteous and equitable judgment of God ought to be an occasion for rejoicing. I think it’s only in this context that I can make sense of God, speaking to Israel in Deuteronomy 28 saying “the LORD will take delight in brining ruin upon you and destroying you.” After all, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25) Shouldn’t God’s children and all of creation rejoice at his perfect justice?