The Savior Reigns – building a biblical worldview – part 2

The second verse of “Joy to the World” builds on the theme of the first verse, where Isaac Watts anticipates the coming king. Now he exults in the reign of Christ. This also allows us to add the next foundation stone in constructing a biblical worldview based on this hymn. This truth is simple, yet profound – Jesus reigns, it is good. Here is the second verse:

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy…

All that is good, noble, and excellent in life stems from the glory and goodness of God, not from any other source. If Jesus reigns, joy is the response that fits. This flies in the face of conventional religion and wisdom, in which various circumstances determine one’s sense of well-being.  Psalm 98 again provides the basis for these thoughts.  You can see this in the first three verses:

1 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.

2 The LORD has made his salvation known

and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

3 He has remembered his love

and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

God has done marvelous things.  It is true that there is much darkness and sadness in our lives and in our culture, but because of the Lordship of Christ, we have hope.  Things are not as they appear to be. Regardless of what the circumstances appear to declare, this one fact remains – the Savior reigns! There is more to life than meets the eye. God is faithful to his covenant promises. Only Christ can turn death into victory, sorrow into joy. He has redeemed our life from the pit.

So, the next basic piece of building a biblical worldview is that the Savior reigns. The cornerstone is that Jesus has come and we can shout for joy. This joy is sustained by the reign of Jesus Christ. Your children need to be rock solid on these two great realities of life. Everything that happens in this life must seen in light of these unchanging truths. 

We can always sing with joy that our Savior reigns—this is an essential building block of living out a biblical worldview. These truths are blessings to give to your children. They are testimonies to give to those whom you encounter. When things are going well we can have joy. But more importantly, when things do not appear to be going well, it is a blessing to sing, even with tears, Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!

 

Shepherd Press