From a Facebook friend:

"I visited a local Uniting Church close to my parents home this morning and we sang Joy to the World - also by Isaac Watts. You probably know - but I didn't - that he was only about 18-19 when he started to write hymns. The UC minister explained that Isaac had come home from church complaining about the music and his father responded by challenging him to stop complaining and write something better so he did. Every week for well over a year he took a new hymn along to church for the local congregation to learn. Amongst them were Joy to the World and When I Survey. "Not bad" as an act of teenage rebellion (against the status quo) I thought!"