The Joy Of The Lord Is Your Strength

My heart is heavy and my soul is saddened to a point that I can barely express this evening. I have choices to make which I never thought I would have to make and the future looks very uncertain for my sweet wife and me. I don't want to go into details about what we are facing because I am not looking for pity nor do I want to burden people with our problems. I would rather spend my time worshiping God and praising His name for His surpassing greatness and share my joy with you so that you can see the infinite joy that can be had in Jesus Christ.

A lot of my posts lately have been in relation to the struggles I have seen coming our way and have really come about as I have fought through the disappointments and discontentment that comes with all human suffering. I have had moments of profound faith and moments of profound perplexity, in this, but one thing has never left me - the joy of the Lord. My hope is in Jesus Christ. Oh, how my heart longs for Him and how I long to behold His glory.

Nehemiah 8:9-10 seems particularly fitting at a time of such uncertainty and sadness.

"And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God;do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Contained in this short verse is the fullness of God's desire for us - joy! Nehemiah has just finished rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem and the people have all showed up for the first worship service. As Ezra reads the law to the people they worship God for the first time in many, many years. They raise their hands to the living God and they worship Him with their faces bowed to the ground, many weeping and turning the sand to mud, I'm sure. They weep out of sadness because they have sinned against God and not honored Him in their hearts. The Lord has not been their treasure or their joy - they had abandoned their husband, the Lord. They weep for joy because they have heard the law and understood it - God loves them and will forgive their sin. He will send a redeemer to them who will pay for their sins as God draws His people back into relationship with Himself. They see in the law the glory of God - His love for them, His kindness and grace toward them, His patience with them as they transgressed, and His infinite goodness. Their sadness is mingled with joy and that joy is their strength.

Oh what sweet words these are to a grief-stricken soul. What greatness the Lord has done among us. What profound sin and rebellion He has forgiven us. What loving kindness He has shown to us all. How glorious and magnificent is He?

As I read the text I am struck by two things: 1. God's desire for us to enjoy our lives 2. The fact that enjoying our lives can only come about when His joy is in us.

First, as Nehemiah tells the people to go home and eat a fat meal and drink the best wine, we get a picture of a God who asks us to trust in Him and to enjoy the gifts He has given. No legalistic, teetotaler, self-righteous religion here. Eat your food because it is a gift from God - not something you are entitled to. Thank Him when you eat the food that is put before you and glorify His name when you drink your wine. Both the food and the wine will taste better when you realize that it has come from a good and gracious God who cares about every aspect and detail of your life - even if your food tastes good and if your wine is sweet! So Nehemiah tells the people to go home and glorify God by having a feast.

Secondly, the promise is that the joy of the Lord is the only thing which can help us enjoy our food and our wine as we ought. Only the joy that is found in the Lord can lead to true enjoyment and true delight in any of God's gifts. Without this joy our food, our drink, our spouses, our cars, our houses - everything becomes an idol that either brings only fleeting joy or ends in despair when it's taken away. This promise will hold us up even when we don't have delightful food to eat or sweet wine to drink. Those who belong to the Lord have a joy that cannot be removed - a joy that is deep, firm, and unshakable. When all of life comes crashing down around us like a deck of cards, there is the joy of the Lord to get us through it. Verse 10 is one of the sweetest words found in the whole Bible. The joy of the Lord is your strength.

We find strength in this joy because it is not rooted in our circumstances and it is not predicated upon comfort, ease of life, or a luxurious lifestyle. The joy of the Lord does not wax and wane with the coming and going of blessings from God because they are not based on the gifts of God but rather on the gift of Himself. Let me explain what I mean. The gifts of God are many: family, friends, cars, houses, food, health, wealth and the like. Everything in our lives is a gift from God coming down from a gracious God who has every right to crush us, kill us and throw us into everlasting darkness for rejecting His all-surpassing beauty and greatness. James 1:17 puts it this way:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Anything good in your life is granted to you from a Heavenly Father who cares about you and gives you the very breath in your lungs. Apart from Him you would not even exist. What most of us struggle to see though, is that the greatest gift we have been given is not at all what we tend to think of when we speak of gifts. When we speak of gifts we speak of good things given us in our lives - possessions, people, money, comfort and luxury. This is one of the reasons why the prosperity gospel is so easily spread - we like gifts. What God has given us is something far greater and something which can bring a steadfast joy even when all other gifts are lost. This gift is that of Himself.

It sounds a little odd at first but let us look at the Bible for clarification.

Psalm 37:4 says it this way:

"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Do you see it? Do you see the profound statement made in this verse? If God is our delight and our treasure, every desire of ours will be granted to us. We will be satisfied, glad, full of joy and we will have peace. That is after all why we pursue anything in this life - to be satisfied, glad, full of joy and to have peace. A new car makes me happy. My 50" plasma TV brings me joy. Our brand new house brings gladness to my heart. And when things are going well financially and relationally I have peace. But there is something odd about this verse because we know that God never promises all of these things. He doesn't promise us cars, TVs, a new house, financial prosperity or relational peace. In fact, many of His promises are opposite of this. "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake," Philippians 1:29 tells us. So Psalm 37:4 is not a promise that we will get every possession or comfort we desire. Rather, it is telling us that our hearts will be satisfied in something else, or rather, someone else.

What it is indeed telling us is that when God is our treasure and our delight is found in Him, then our hearts will already be satisfied and we will find joy, peace and gladness. Everything that I seek in possessions and the like can be found in God. Every joy I seek in my house can ultimately only be filled by Him. All of the gladness and peace I seek in my relationships will ultimately only be found in my delighting in Him. When God is our treasure we will have joy, peace, gladness and happiness.

This is where I find myself this evening. God has already given me the desires of my heart in Himself. His beauty, His glory, His majesty, His absolute sovereignty and His profound goodness are my treasure and He brings me profound and unutterable joy and peace. He is my treasure and I ultimately only want Him. So when life crumbles and darkness covers your life turn to Him and find your joy there - in beholding Him. Delight yourself in Him and you will never be lacking in joy. It may go up and down. Sometimes you will shout for joy at the top of your lungs. At other times you may experience His joy in the midst of weeping and suffering. But Nehemiah promises us that the joy found in Him is strength enough to get us through even the worst calamity. Though my heart is heavy and my soul is sad, I have a profound joy. I have a joy that no one and nothing can take from me. I have the joy of the Lord and it is found in Him and in Him alone.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!