“Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications. 7. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him; and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”
In Psalm 28, David was in distress because of His enemies, and he reached out to God. Verses 6-7 give a summary of what David concluded, and he told us some things that we need to know about God in the midst of our own struggles. In verse 6, he reminds us that God hears our prayers. Indeed, He hears the cries of our hearts as we cry out to Him each day. We can absolutely be assured that God will hear “the voice of (our) supplications.” What is your need right now? He will hear your prayer. I can’t imagine not reaching out to Jesus in prayer. In verse 7a, David reminds us that the Lord is our strength and shield. Sometimes we forget that the greatest strength that we can have is spiritual strength, which will come to our rescue much more effectively than physical strength. We need to practice leaning on God’s strength. The shield that we have from God is the shield of faith. In describing the armor of God in Ephesians 6, Paul wrote: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Why would we not take our fears, needs and struggles to the Lord in prayer? Why would we not lean on His strength and take the shield of faith? All that the Lord has to offer is at our disposal. Why not take advantage of all that He offers for our lives? In the latter part of verse 7, David tells us what the result of God’s hearing our prayers and giving us His being our strength and shield should be. First, it should result in our hearts trusting in Him. We should trust Jesus from within the deepest part of ourselves. What strength this will bring into your life if you will just put your trust in Him. No one needs to teach you how to do this – just do it. Like David, you will find that you will be helped. Second, we will have cause to “greatly rejoice.” I do not know why we aren’t as joyful as we should be. I am amazed at myself sometimes, because I find not myself not rejoicing in all that the Lord has done, is doing and will do in my life. Let this be a reminder for both of us!!! Third, it should result in praise to His wonderful name. Because David was a musician, one of hiss greatest means of rejoicing was in song. The Lord should put a song in our hearts as well. Just cut loose today and praise Him in whatever way you can. Don’t you agree that these we are things that we need to know about God? Bro. Joe
0 Comments
“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say: Rejoice!"
This is virtually a command to rejoice, but not to just rejoice but to “rejoice in the Lord.” This doesn’t mean to just be happy when everything is going in our favor. We are reminded to “always” rejoice – “in the Lord.” I want to share with you what I think that it means to “rejoice in the Lord.” We should rejoice in the salvation that God offers us through His grace. Being saved, being made right with God through faith in Jesus, is ample reason to rejoice, even in the difficult times.Hebrews 7:24-25 reminds us of a good reason to rejoice: “But this man (Jesus), because He continues ever, has an unchangeable priest hood. 25. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost those that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Do you see what this means? It means that, through Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, God is personally involved in our lives. That Jesus intercedes for us, means that He is praying for us, and leading us to a better life. We should rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ. Romans 12:12 reminds us of this hope that we have in Christ: “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation (trouble); continuing instant in prayer.” The hope that we have in Christ is not the “hope so” kind of hope that we think of today. According to Vine’s Dictionary of New Tesatment Words it means, “favourable and confident expectation.” We are secure in our relationship with Jesus Christ, for He “is our hope.” (1 Timothy 1:1b) According to Colossians 1:27, Jesus is our “hope of glory.” This doesn’t mean that we will have self glory, but that we have the eternal glory that He alone can give, that is, eternal life beginning in this life and continuing through all eternity. Rejoice in the hope that Jesus gives, and is, in our lives. We should rejoice in the peace that we have in Christ. Look at the promise given in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” We are reminded in Philippians 4:27 that through prayer we can have “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.” We should not just seek peace of mind, but we should seek the “peace of God” that we have by faith in Jesus Christ, and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is much, much more that could be written on this subject, but I think that the three that I have given here can give you a good start in “rejoicing in the Lord always.” Bro. Joe “I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”
"Glad" is a good word. It means "to express pleasure, to cause pleasure or to be pleased." (American Century Dictionary) This should describe the life of a Christian. I will relate something from my life to share my own gladness. I am glad that my mama made me go to church - literally. I was not always glad about that. I didn’t realize that while I was wishing that I could be at home instead of at church, it was making an impact on my life and impressing me in ways that I could never explain. At a young age, I was not aware of the value of Christian fellowship. I just called it “going to church.” As I reflect on those days, I see how being in church on Sunday influenced me and served as a reminder that real life is found in Jesus. (I guess I should tell you that one of my nick names at church in my early years was "worry wart." Hey, nobody's perfect.) In fact those early years in church helped me to know when I got older that God was calling me into the ministry, and I’m glad for that too. My life has been enriched because of Christian ministry in so many different ways, I don’t think that I could fully explain it? Enough about me, let’s turn to you. What makes you glad? Are you glad that you are a Christian? If you are not a Christian, you are missing out on the abundant life. Sometimes we see people who live only for the world seeming to really enjoy themselves and we feel a little envious. This business of being a Christian does not allow us to have “fun” the way the rest of the world does. This kind of “fun” does not last forever. There are people who go from party to party and just live it up. But all of this will end. There will be a last party, a last shot at fun, and life will become empty and void. This does not mean that we spend every moment of our lives doing “church work.” It means that we have a lasting relationship with Christ, and serving him adds depth and strength to our lives. If I’m not careful here, I will leave the impression that I do not believe that life should contain humor and fun. I do not mean that at all. I believe that we should laugh a lot, and that we should not be “holy kill joys.” Having Christ in our lives makes our days glad. Do you remember this old song: “He has made me glad, He has made glad, I’m so glad that He has made me glad.” I hope that you can sing this song and really mean it. I haven’t even scratched the surface of Christian gladness, but I think that I have written enough to make you examine your own life. If you are not a glad person, you need to ask yourself why, particularly if you are a Christian. I don’t mean that a glad person is happy all of the time. I do mean that a glad Christian has every reason to have a glad heart and to live a glad life. This glad heart will make life better in spite of the unhappy and trying moments. A glad heart will sustain you through all of life – the good and the bad. If you don’t have this gladness in your heart and life, I challenge you to find it in Jesus. Bro. Joe “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 6. I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me.”
When I read this text this morning I looked it up in my CouchPotatoRedux file, or archive, and to my surprise, I have never written an article about it. I am about to correct that mistake. The text gives us three thing that we need to remember that will make our relationship with Jesus and, consequently, with each other. Here it is: “But I have trusted in thy mercy…” Do we really believe that God is merciful toward us, loves us and wants the best for us? You believe this if you trust in His mercy, His “steadfast love.” Do you trust that this is true whether things are going good or bad in your life? People fall out with God because He doesn’t make everything good for them. He uses the bad and the good that happens to us in life to teach us about His love and care. This is a difficult thing to do, but if we really want to live an effective Christian life, we just have to trust that God is working in our lives for the best. I could give you personal illustration after illustration about this, but there is nothing that I can write that will convince you until you actually believe that God’s love for you is steadfast and that you can trust Him to be merciful. “My heart shall rejoice in your salvation…’ I have heard it said that some people get religion, but they get over it. That would be true if one got “religion” but when he, or she, gets saved, you do not get over that. Notice that David wrote: “My heart shall rejoice…” Real salvation is a matter of the heart and it causes rejoicing. We don’t go around shouting “glory, glory” all of the time, but our hearts are rejoicing because we have a dynamic and eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. This means that in our hearts we have accepted that God is merciful and that we can trust Him to take us through, around or over anything that we meet in life. Is your heart settled on the salvation that Jesus made possible at Calvary? If so, rejoice and be glad. (Why wouldn’t we?) “I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me…” David trusted, rejoiced and sang because He knew that God had been good to him. This is not a “name it and claim it” claim. Just the fact that Jesus invites us into a relationship with Him should put a song on our hearts. A lot of the world’s Christians are poor, but they rejoice and sing because Jesus is enough. In our “land of plenty” this is sometimes difficult to understand, but even here it is true that Jesus is enough. Thankfully, God does not require that have a good singing voice because He hears the song on our hearts. Do you trust in God’s mercy? Do you rejoice in His salvation? Do you sing because of His goodness to you? Bro, Joe “Sing unto the Lord, sing psalms unto Him, talk you of all His wondrous works. 10. Glory in His holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.”
This text is an example of a call to rejoice in the Lord. Throughout the Bible we are called to rejoice. The question for you is that do you rejoice in the Lord, and does your life reflect that rejoicing? I want to share some reasons we should rejoice in the Lord, and that our lives should reflect that rejoicing. First, we have a God who loves us. There is nothing any plainer in the Bible than that God loves us. The apostle John had personally experienced God’s love through His daily contact with Jesus. He wrote about that love in 1 John 4:16: “And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in Him." We do not have to question whether or not God loves us. We can accept the fact that He loves us, and that will make a difference in our lives. Do you know that God loves you? That’s right; God really and truly loves you. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you and save you from your sins. I want to encourage you to accept God’s love and rejoice in it. Second, we have a God who wants to bless us. Do we really want His blessings, or do we see that we can have His blessings in our lives? We have an example in the Bible of how people shun the blessings of God in Israel. He had delivered the Israelites from Egypt. He had divided the Red Sea for them. It wasn’t long before they were griping and complaining about their lot in life. Time and again God blessed the Israelites and they soon forgot about it and continued to gripe and complain. In the same way, God wants to bless us, but do we know that He wants to bless us? We should rejoice in the blessings that He has given us. If you have received the salvation that God offers through His Son, you should rejoice and your life should reflect your rejoicing. Claim God’s blessings today and rejoice in Him. Third, we have a God who wants to give us a purpose in life. We realize the love and blessings of God when we accept his will and purpose for our lives. God wants you be His farmer. God wants you to be His pharmacist. God wants you to be His school teacher. God wants you to be his cashier. God wants you to be His Sunday School teacher. God wants you to be His deacon. God wants you to be His preacher. We should rejoice in the fact that God wants to use us in whatever our vocations are. Think of it: The God of the universe loves you, wants to bless you and He wants to use you in His purposes. He doesn’t just want to use you in the church. He wants to use you in your daily life. These are three reasons for us to rejoice. They are reasons for you to rejoice! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|