Morning By Morning #266

Let Israel rejoice in their Maker.

Psalm 149:2

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Rejoice in your heart, dear believer, but remember that the source of your gladness is the Lord Himself. You have great reason for gladness in your God, so you can sing with the psalmist, “God, my joy and my delight” (Ps. 43:4). Be glad that the Lord reigns—that Jehovah is King! Rejoice that He sits upon the throne and rules all things! Every attribute of God should be like a bright ray in the sunlight of our gladness, and the fact that He is wise should make us glad, especially since we know our own foolishness so well.

That He is mighty should cause us, who tremble at our own weakness, to rejoice. That the Lord is everlasting should always be a theme of joy because we know “people are grass” and “the grass withers” (Isa. 40:7 – 8). That He is unchanging should forever cause us to sing, since we change every hour. That He is full of grace—in fact, overflowing with grace—and that His grace has been given to us through His covenant, that it is ours for cleansing, ours to preserve us, ours to sanctify us, ours to perfect us, and ours to ultimately take us to glory should make us rejoice in Him.

Our gladness in God is like a deep river, yet thus far we have only touched the river’s edge. We know a little of its clear, fresh heavenly streams, but further ahead its depth is greater and its current more swift and powerful in its joy. What a joyful thing that Christians may rejoice not only in who God is, but also in all God has done in the past. The Psalms reveal that God’s people of old were accustomed to meditate on God’s actions and to have a song preserving the memory of each of them.

May God’s people today remember the works of the Lord! May we tell of His mighty acts and “sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted” (Ex. 15:1). May we “[sing] to the LORD every day” (2 Chron. 30:21), for as new mercies flow to us day by day, so should our gladness for the Lord’s loving, sovereign acts of grace manifest itself in continual thanksgiving to Him.

“Be glad, 0 people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God” (Joel 2:23).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Paul began his “Epistle of Joy” to the church at Philippi with: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy” (Phil. 1:3 – 4). Later he says, “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord!” (Phil. 3:1), but he was not yet finished exhorting us to rejoice, for in the last chapter he reiterates the thought with these other important instructions to us as believers:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.

Philippians 4:4 – 9