Thursday, December 6, 2007

Joy to the World

(A paraphrase 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.

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.
---Isaac Watts, 1719

Monday, December 3, 2007

Joseph the Faithful Carpenter


Joseph, the Faithful Carpenter 
Ponders the new he keeps concealed:
His bride-to-be in found with child— 
A father’s name is not revealed. 

 As Joseph slumbers fitfully 
An angel enters Joseph’s dream 
To tell him that this comes from God 
And things are not as they may seem: 

 “O, Joseph, banish all your fears 
And take Young Mary as your wife 
And be a father to God’s child 
Who comes to share in human life.” 

Good Joseph, born of David’s line 
(Which matters not in days of Rome) 
Bequeaths a human royalty 
And gives the Boy a godly home. 

A jealous Herod fears this King,
So Joseph takes them speedily 
To Egypt, where again he works, 
To care for his small family. 

 An angel tells that Herod’s dead, 
So Joseph brings them all back home; 
He brings them to quaint Nazareth 
And raises God’s Son as his own.
---C. Marie Byars, 1999 (c)