Psalm 35

This Psalm presents a different aspect of Joy.
It is credited to David and written at a time when he is being slandered and is in distress.
I encourage you to read the entire Psalm. The first three verses are David’s acknowledgement of God as His defending warrior. I love that. It is God who rushes to our aid. I can relate to that. I have a strong sense of the need for social justice and there have been many occasions in my life when I have rushed to defend others. It is so beautiful to consider that my defender is God. I love the quiet sentence at the end of these verses “Say to my soul, “I am your salvation”.” When I read that I hear God’s quiet voice reassuring me with those words. It fills me with Joy and I am sure it also filled David with Joy.
As you read through the Psalm the verses are filled with David’s plea to God for vindication and justice. Every so often David stops his plea and acknowledges how great God is. Verse 10 contains the lovely worlds directed at God: “You rescue the poor from those too strong for them …”. The power of those words moves me with Joy. The knowledge that when we are weak and those more powerful than us seek to disempower us, then were are strong in God’s rescue and His strength.
As we read towards the end of the Psalm, we can see David’s words of Joy. But this time, it is not about his joy. It is about the Joy of those who support him, the servant of the Lord. It is a great reminder of community. We relate to God individually, but we also belong to the community of believers and we can experience Joy at God’s provision and deliverance of a fellow believer.
We can experience Joy because of the community to which we belong. This is a challenge to us to ensure we honour that community. I am not talking about church membership here. I am talking about delighting in fellow believers. Praying for them, supporting them, rejoicing with them and weeping with them. Most importantly, we must not set conditions on the believers we will support. We must not say they have to belong to a particular church or denomination or support a particular doctrine. We must love them because they love Jesus. Their relationship with God is between them and God. All God asks us to do is to be a community of those who love Him.
That is cause for great Joy.
 

Psalm 33

This psalm appears to have been written to honour a notable occasion for praise in Israel. When is not known, but this psalm is pure praise. It starts and ends with three verses of call to worship and conclusion. A few blogs ago, I spoke of the experience of dancing for joy in praise to God and this is a wonderful psalm to do that. In this psalm are many reasons for joy.

There is God’s word that is right and true.

There is God’s faithfulness in all He does.

There is God’s love of righteousness and justice and filling of the earth with His love.

There is the creation of all things by God, made out of His love.

There is God’s control over all He has created.

So we have reason to fear and revere God for His majesty, love and faithfulness.

We have reason to fear and revere God for His command over all events on earth. He even foils the plans of the nations. History is full of examples of Him doing this.
We have reason to fear and revere God because His plans stand firm forever and the purposes of His heart are for all, and through all, generations.

We have reason to fear and revere God when we are a people of God and are part of a nation that truly worships God.

God watches over all of us, no matter how insignificant. He particularly watches over those who love Him. What more reason for joy than that!

So we wait in hope for God and remember He is our help and shield. We trust in Him and ask that His unfailing love may rest upon us as we put our hope in Him.

There is a reason for joy.

Remember, that joy is new every morning. Claim just enough for today, and claim enough for tomorrow when tomorrow comes.
 

Psalm 30

So often in life we encounter tough times. Times when the bullies rage on unchecked. When there is no way to stop them. When others seem to believe the lies they spread. When it seems no one is on your side and God is silent too. You cling to faith. Telling yourself that God is there, believing His promises, even when you can’t feel Him there. You tell yourself that His will must involve things getting better. But it seems that everyone else is given a wonderful, blessed life, and you are stuck in the pit with rubbish thrown on your head along with the insults and lies of the bullies.
David had his fair share of this. He was a quiet shepherd boy. The youngest son who was not taken very seriously by his older brothers. He cared for the sheep and enjoyed his peaceful existence. He enjoyed living as one with God’s creation and no doubt spending time in the solitude meditating on God’s promises. Then he was taken from caring for the sheep and anointed as the next King of Israel! Except it didn’t happen immediately. Instead he found himself put down by his brothers, then living in the King’s court. This living in the King’s court was quite dangerous. The King would go into rages and try to kill him. Not a lovely existence for the one anointed to be the King. Then he had to flee for his life, leaving his wife behind. He had to go into hiding, exiled from Israel and his family. Quite a leap from the quiet life of the shepherd. He had to live on the run when he was anointed King. His enemies gloated over him, people told lies about him, the King tried to kill him. He had to live like a fugitive, relying on the goodness of strangers to eat. Unable to enjoy a normal existence.
It must have seemed to David that God had turned His back on him. That God did not want good things for David. So many years elapsed, and he was still on the run. Then God delivered Him. Out of the depths of despair God lifted him up and placed him on the throne he had been anointed to occupy. It took a long time, but God rescued him. He was so overcome with the greatness of God’s rescue.
David acknowledges in this psalm that when things were going well, he claimed he would never be shaken. But then God hid His face and David felt despair. He cried to God time and again and begged God to turn his despair into Joy.
It took a long time for that despair to become the Joy of salvation, but God did rescue David in His time and that is what this psalm is about.
I suspect David had moments of joy at the anticipated salvation. But for the most part, I think he clung to the promises in great despair. He waited and wondered if the day would every come. Maybe he thought this was some great joke. Being anointed as King then finding himself in exile.
Sometimes life is so hard. We find ourselves in the pit of despair. Nothing seems to go right. We are estranged from family, friends, community. People tell lies about us and they are listened to and we struggle with injustice, persecution and aloneness. We cry out to God and wonder if His plan is for our lives to be horrible. That He never comes to our help. We forget those times when He has helped. They are drowned in the enormity of the present struggle.
If you are in that place I understand. I have been there so many times in my life. I can only say that you are not alone. And God does understand and care. Even though it doesn’t seem to be happening, I believe God is there watching over us. For whatever reason we don’t feel Him there. Maybe that is from us, or maybe he veils our senses so we cannot feel Him. I presume He does that because He has something for us to learn. I guess we will never know this side of heaven. But the day will come when we, like David, will find God turning our wailing into dancing of Joy. When God will remove our sackcloth and clothe us with Joy.
May we thank God for His promises and may He sustain us until those promises come to pass.