Today's cross referenced hymn is BPW 315 "Joy to the World" an Isaac Watts classic, but with words that can bewilder a 21st century reader.  Even though some updating has been done, we still have, at the end of verse 2:

while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

repeat the sounding joy

That should give any thoughtful singer pause... floods repeating joy...?  Floods, surely are destructive, sweeping away joy... what does this hymn mean?

Etymology, reveals that 'flood' can mean 'flow', so I guess Watts really means rivers, but that would be two syllables and mess up the metre of his hymn.

I recall singing the Kendrick hymn "Shine, Jesus, shine" when I stood with 200 other "women vicars"+ two women rabbis at the end of Downing Street for the Make Poverty History thing... it was still in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami... how could we sing "flow, river, flow, flood the nations..." - even with grace and mercy?  Floods destroy hope, not bring it. 

Etymologically, Kendrick could have actually said "flood, flood, flood, flood the nations..."

Of course we understand the meataphor, of course we are expressing a desire for the goodness of God to fill the whole of creation... but the language is risky, and unthinking singing can be dangerous.

Perhaps then, we recognise the power of joy, grace, mercy within the flood, within the overwhelming horror, and the transformative potential it brings.

Perhaps, too, we might reword the hymn thus:

Rivers and fields, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy...

It's hard to beat a good flashmob - and this was one of the first I saw, back in the day...