Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748). From The Psalms of David (1719). It is a paraphrase of Psalm 98, Second Part, verses 4-9, with the title, ‘The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom’. It had four stanzas: stanza 3 is often omitted or rewritten: 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. This is rewritten in RS as ‘No more let thorns infest the ground,/ or sins and sorrows grow;/ wherever pain and death are found/ he makes his blessings flow.’ There have been other minor alterations. Some modern books have preferred ‘has come’ to ‘is come’ in line 1, and ‘all’ to ‘men’ in verse 2...