Does God want us
to be joyful and happy? In my last post, I confided to you that I think He
does, and I promised to support my beliefs in this post. So let’s get right to
it with some passages from the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is full of “joy”
passages. The Book of Psalms is loaded with them. In Psalm 5:11 we read:
But let all
those rejoice who put their
trust in You;
Let them ever
shout for joy, because
You defend them;
Let those also
who love Your name
Be joyful in
You.
In this passage, the psalmist sings
that those who trust in God should be always and forever shouting for joy. Shouting for joy. Not just smiling, but SHOUTING! The word joy in this passage
is glee or exceeding gladness, mirth, pleasure, rejoicing. And the “joyful” can
be translated as “jumping for joy.”
This is an ecstatic kind of joy. And
what is the reason for it?
God.
We are giddy and celebratory, because God is our defender.
Can you imagine what the world would
think if all believers in God walked around celebrating, shouting and rejoicing
about Him!? I think they’d be stunned, because right now the world sees us as
judgmental, argumentative, narrow-minded, and definitely not much more joyful
than the rest of the world. In some instances, many of us maybe even act more
severe and morose than the general population. We really need to seriously ask
ourselves: If God is for us, why are we not ecstatic?
In Psalm 16:11
we read:
You will show me
the path of life;
In Your presence
is fullness of joy;
At your right
hand are pleasures
forevermore.
Again we see that when we are
“practicing the presence of God,” as Brother Lawrence so beautifully worded it,
our communing with God makes it impossible not to be joyful! Fully joyful. If that is true, then I
think all we have to do is enter into His presence to experience that kind of
joy. And if we’re not experiencing it, maybe we need to ask ourselves if we
lack joy because we have not asked and we have not been spending critical time
that we need with Him to be filled up with that joy. And why wouldn’t we be
driven to spend that kind of time with Him if His right hand extends eternal
pleasures to us?
In Psalm 21:1,
King David says:
The king shall have joy in Your
strength, O LORD:
And in Your salvation how greatly
shall he rejoice!
Joy in this passage means to
“brighten up, cheer up, be made glad, making merry.” And why does David make
merry? He’s reveling in God’s strength (not his own); and he rejoices in God’s
salvation. Knowing that we have salvation, and being secure in that knowledge,
should be a cause for celebrating! And how do you rejoice? The definition of
rejoice in this passage evokes quite a word picture. It stems from the root
word that means to spin around, the way you would when you are “under the
influence of any violent emotion.” I’ve seen thousands of sports fans do that
when their beloved athletic team wins big, but I don’t see too many believers
spinning around, shouting and carrying on about God and His salvation. People
would probably think we were not quite right.
For me, it brings back memories of
the Jesus movement in the late sixties and early seventies, when young
Christians in the United States gathered together as a hippie countercultural
movement, in an effort to draw believers back to the early church model. The
movement started on the West Coast. Those passionate, rejoicing, giddy,
exuberant and vocal followers of Jesus were dubbed “Jesus freaks.” They stood
out for their passion, love, purpose and focus. They carted their Bibles around
with them and weren’t afraid to identify with their Savior. They were “sold
out” for Jesus, and they let everyone know about it. As a high school junior, I
attended one of those revival meetings in a tent in California, where Pastor
Chuck Smith—the founder of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California—drew
thousands of California teens. (My Chemistry class lab partner, Georgia,
invited me to attend with her.) While I didn’t have enough guts to venture down
front so everyone could see me, it changed my life. After that, I couldn’t get
enough of Jesus and His word, and I was HAPPY!! JOYFUL! Changed. In a heartbeat. I’ve berated myself a thousand times for
letting others “steal” that joy from me. For giving it away so easily. How
could I forfeit something so precious?
Moving on to Psalm 26:7, we find David
once again talking about joy. And this time he’s offering sacrifices of it.
And now my head
shall be lifted
up above my enemies all
around me.
Therefore I will
offer sacrifices of joy
in His tabernacle;
I will sing,
yes, I will sing praises to
the LORD.
Joy.
A "battle cry, an alarm, a clamor of trumpets, a shout." Nothing silent here.
It’s another jubilee moment for David, when he wants everyone to hear his
happiness and understand why he’s so joyful. While it’s true that the
sacrifices in this passage involved the Old Testament animal sacrifices, we
don’t need to offer those anymore. Jesus took care of that on the cross. He was
the eternal and final sacrifice for which we now offer to Him our joy. So now we
can offer different sacrifices of joy. Have you ever considered your joyful
worship and celebration something that God considers a sacrifice? Something
that He finds immensely pleasing?
When I read this passage, I imagine
David offering sacrifices of joy for two reasons: First, because of what He
knows God is going to do for him in the future; and then after what God ends up
doing for him. There is joy both before and after the event. Joy. Always joy!
We’ll end it right there today. We’ll
cover more passages in the next several weeks, leading right up to the United
States’ holiday of Thanksgiving. When this entire nation responds with joy and
thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving in America was initiated by my ancestors, who
were members of the sect of Pilgrims who left England due to religious
persecution. And they organized this Thanksgiving celebration for one purpose:
To thank God for His blessings and harvest, for the new Native American friends
they had met, learned to live with, and with whom they had established a
covenant.
Did they overflow with joy because
life was easy, and because after sailing to the New World everything went
perfectly and all of the immigrants had made it safely through the first year?
No. They celebrated in spite of heavy losses. (Many, including my great, great,
great, great….grandparents and uncle died in that first winter due to bitter
cold, lack of food, and disease.) They celebrated in spite of their struggles and
frustrations because they knew that the only reason any of them survived, and
were able to become established in this new land and reap any kind of edible
harvest, was due to God’s goodness, mercy, blessings, and His defense.
Yes, God does want us to be happy.
And we have so much for which to be joyful and celebrate!
So as we go through this week, take
heart, and be joyful, because you know:
1) God is your defense.
2) He is strong and provides you
with salvation.
3) He does lift up your head when
life seems as dark as it can possibly get.
Joy! It’s our battle cry! Join the celebration parade. Be happy,
be giddy, rejoice, for that demeanor and emotion is a pleasing sacrifice to
God!
Until next week,
Thanks for
joining me!
With great joy,
Andrea
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