A Christian missionary
arrived in a small town in China, a neighboring country to the north of our country. A group of robbers had just destroyed the town and everything in it. Then a local Christian showed his house in ruins.
The roof was destroyed by fire; The timbers of the house were ashes; The whole thing could hardly be found. Showing his Bible and psalm, the Christian said sadly, “They burned my Bible and psalm!”
The local Christian picked up a page from his wreckage in the Chinese language. That was the only sheet that was burned by the fire. The missionary took it in his hand and read, “Rejoice in the world and receive Christ the King.” These are the words of Christian Psalm 38 and are a psalm translated from English into Nepali. The hymn, which has been viewed more than 10 million times in English, can be viewed and listened to on YouTube.
Isn’t this a clear message that the presence of the Lord can be enjoyed even in the midst of total destruction? The burning leaf was sending a message to the robbers that the world should rejoice because the Lord Jesus Christ had come into the world.
This is a popular hymn about carols. Based on the words of the second half of Psalm 98, this psalm was first published in 1719 AD by the famous psalmist and theologian Isaac Watts.
Isaac was only 5 feet tall and his huge head seemed to be unable to support his body. His nose was crooked; His eyes were small and his body was weak. There was nothing physically appealing to him. However, his name is immortal in history. He wrote about 750 psalms, some of which are still sung. His vision was to enable God’s people to sing the words of the Bible in a meaningful way.