Monday
Psalm 4.7-8 “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. Therefore I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O Lord make me dwell in safety.”
Only the Psalm-poet would make that connection between joy and a good night’s sleep! But the truth is, joy is the settled assurance that God is there, and God is here, and God is for us. The old hymn already told us this: “Blessed assurance, all is at rest; I in my Saviour am happy and blest.” If the choice is ever between God without the security of lots of stuff, or lots of stuff without the security of God, then the Psalm-poet’s decision is already made – “You have filled my heart with greater joy. . .”
Tuesday
Psalm 19.8 “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”
You can tell a lot about a word by the company it keeps. Joy is closely connected to knowing what God requires, and doing what is right. There is a joy in obedience that comes from knowing we have pleased the God we love, because he first loved us. There is joy in learning what is true and good – God’s precepts are like LED lights that illumine both the path ahead, and our minds and hearts. The commands of the lord are the cat’s eyes on the road, following them we stay safely on the road.
Wednesday
Psalm 28.7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in him and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy, and I will give thanks to him in song.”
“The joy of the Lord shall be your strength.” Here it is again, that empowering connection between assurance that God is faithful and to be trusted, and the sheer exuberance of the heart that draws its strength from God. Joy doesn’t mean life has no rough pot holes and dangerous corners. It means that even on the most difficult parts of the journey the Lord is our strength, we trust in him and we are helped. The heart leaps for joy when God is a very present strength and help in time of trouble.
Thursday
Psalm 42.4 “These things I remember as I pour out my soul; how I used to go with the crowds, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.”
This is a Psalm of sorrow and longing for God. The Psalm-poet is cast down, and depressed, he thirsts for God, and is not in a good place. We’ve all been there, that scary place of not knowing how we’re going to get through all this. This is a man giving himself a good talking to. Twice he tells himself: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.” Or as another Psalm has it, “Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Joy may come and go, and just to be clear, that isn’t always our fault! Just as well then, that God is faithful, and his love endures forever, and his grasp is so much stronger than ours!
Friday
Psalm 51.12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”
Guilt is a corrosive, it eats away at joy. David’s great sins have broken his relationship to God, and like all of us he can’t edit out what he has done. He can only be cleansed and forgiven, and that demands repentance and a return to God. This short verse describes the inner process of joy restored. God’s grace in Christ initiates a new creation in the heart, and resets the whole direction of our life toward God. By grace we are saved through faith, and even that renewal of trust is the gift of God. In place of corrosive guilt we are reconciled to God in Christ; and the result is restored joy!
Saturday
Psalm 95.1,2 “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
There’s a lot of singing and shouting in the Psalms! Joy requires noisy music. Praise is thanksgiving with the volume turned full up! To understand how or why something works, a good question is: “Where is the head of steam coming from?” When it comes to worship the Psalm-poet has no hesitation. The head of steam, the energy and creativity and togetherness of worship comes from gratitude for who God is, and for what God has done because of who God is! God is a Rock, and worship is when we come before Him with thanksgiving - God rocks, and we make “a joyful noise!”
Sunday
Psalm 100.1-3 “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Joy is the bass beat of creation, the response of all that is to the love of God. To know God is God, and to know God, and be known by God, - that is our calling, and our reason for being. The Psalm-poet uses the most familiar image of his day – we are the sheep of the Lord who is Shepherd. Our technologically calibrated world makes it hard for us to grasp the intimacy of dependence, and the faithful investment of care in that ancient sheep-shepherd relationship. God made us, we are his. That’s reason enough for joy. The default setting of the heart at worship is gladness set to music!
Comments