George Strait Celebrates the Holiday Cheer with Joy to the World 2

by

Arden Lambert

Updated

December 14, 2018

Updated

December 14, 2018

Updated

December 14, 2018

Christmas is definitely in the air! This time, we have the King of Country George Strait deliver his rendition of “Joy to the World.” He definitely put his trademark country spin on the Christmas carol classic!

Listen to his fabulous rendition right here!

Origins

But, did you know that “Joy to the World” was not at all intended to be a Christmas carol? In its origins, it had absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. It was never even going to be a song in the first place!

The writer of the song was Issac Watts. He is considered one of the greatest hymn writers in the history of the church. Watts published a series of poems during his time, and one of these was an adaptation of Psalm 98. He interpreted this as a celebration of Jesus’ role as King of both the church and the whole world. It puts more emphasis on the second coming of Jesus and it also derives some of its narratives from Luke 2.

And voila, more than a century later, it had become one of the most famous Christmas carols:

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

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! 
Let men their songs employ 
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, 
Repeat the sounding joy! 

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!

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

With Christmas fast approaching, load up your playlists with the different Christmas songs and their origin stories right here! Stay tuned, folks!


Tags

Christmas Gospel, Christmas Song, George Strait, joy to the world


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