Shout for Joy
Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright! – Psalm 33v1
To kick off my first post on this site, i thought it would be fitting to begin with the first line of this Psalm. Not only is this my favourite Psalm, but what this verse speaks about is the desire of my own heart. I hope that after reading this post that you will see and understand the passion i have for this verse.
What’s he saying?
Do you feel the urgency of the writer of this Psalm? Do you grasp the tone of this sentence? I can imagine him running crazily among a crowd screaming out “Shout for joy in the LORD!!!” and when he has their attention, he stands above them and shouts out this Psalm. There is a deep sense of urgency, but not because of fear, but because of excitement. This author has found something so amazingly wonderful that he is driven to share it with everyone. He is so excited about this that he wants to, no, has to share it. But that’s how we are, when we’ve found something we really enjoy we want to share it, we want those we like to have the same joy, and we get frustrated when they don’t get it. That is the picture this Psalm shows us, the author here has found joy in God, and he desperately wants to share it.
Have you got it?
Joy in God, this is the beginning and end of the Christian life. Joy is so essential to the Christian life, that if you remove it, you die spiritually. Joy is to the Christian, what sunlight is to a plant. If you took a plant and put it in a cupboard, it would slowly start to die, first it would droop, then it would begin to change colour, until finally it died. That is what happens to us when we don’t have joy, we begin to droop; worship becomes a challenge, ministry becomes difficult, and your passion for the lost wanes. Then after a while, your desire to read the Bible decreases, your prayer life stops, and your daily thoughts turn away from God. Without joy we cannot survive, and with joy we thrive. Our joy in God is the fuel that drives us in our walk with God, some Christians think that our joy is not something that we should think about, that it is in some way less important than the rest of our faith. But when this becomes the case, we become like that plant, dried out and dead, sure you could spray that dead plant green, even stick some nice plastic flowers onto it, but underneath all of that it is only good for compost!
How’d you get it?
The greatest question then becomes; ‘How do I get joy in God?’ However, before we look at that, we need to first look at this from God’s side. Why is God so interested in our joy? The answer is simple; our joy in God brings Him the upmost glory. God’s priority is His glory, since He is the single most amazing thing that exists, it is right that He is the most glorified being in existence. Therefore, God’s glory and our joy in Him is the same thing. There is a circle, when we have a greater joy in God, He is more glorified through us, and when He is more glorified, we have more joy, etc, etc. Now how do we get this circle going, or ‘How do I get joy in God?’ This is a huge question to answer, so we will only be able to skim some of the surface here. Firstly salvation; only once God has saved you will you see this joy.
How do I keep it?
However, what if you are a Christian and you have lost your joy? I’m sure that this is a situation we all find ourselves in at some stage in our Christian life. The question is then how do we get out of it. Look again at the verse; the author refers to those who have joy in God as the righteous, and as the upright. This is the first thing that will steal your joy as a Christian, sin. Sin in your life, especially a sin that you keep on falling into will rob you of your joy. You need to remove that sin from your life through God’s strength. Remember what you are doing each time you fall into that sin, you are looking to God and saying, “Thanks for your offer of fulfilling joy, but I’d rather have this temporary pleasure instead.” When we do that we are like a child who has their back to an amazing fireworks display memorized by a cheap sparkler. Then the way to seek your joy is to dig deep into God through the Bible, and through prayer. There is much to say on this, but just remember that without reading your Bible, talking to, and hearing from God, you will loose your joy fast!
What happens when I have it?
Joy to the Christian is like money to the greedy , neither ever has enough! There is no amount of joy in the Christian life that is sufficient; those who have found joy will seek harder after it. You can see a Christian who has found joy in their walk with God, there is something about them that shines, worship is natural to them, and their joy is contagious. These people are not exceptional; this is what your Heavenly Father desires for you! When you have found joy you will not be able to help but tell people about it, you will find yourself overflowing with praise to God, you will have a great desire to know God, and longing expectation to be with Him.
There was once a young boy, whose parents had passed away when he was very young. All his parents had left him was a small bag that had a few small oddly shaped stones in it. One day the young boy took that small bag of stones, and was playing with them in the park, a ruthless old man saw the boy playing. The ruthless old man offered to swap this naive young boy a large bag of colourful marbles for his small bag of oddly shaped stones. The young boy was blown away at the generosity of the old mans offer, and gladly swapped without a second thought. The old man walked away snickering, he could not believe his luck; the young boy had just swapped a bag of priceless diamonds for a worthless bag of glass. When Satan tempts, do not swap the priceless diamonds of your joy, for the hollow offer of sin. It breaks God’s heart.
See John Pipers book “The Dangerous Duty of Delight
” to read more on the essential nature of our joy.
