“O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the life of the saints; and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 12. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to His name!”
The psalmist gave a promise of preservation for the life of the saints, and a promise of deliverance from the wicked. These are promises for those who are righteous – the saints. Who are those righteous people and who are the saints? From the perspective of the New Testament, they are the people who have given their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ by faith and are in a faith relationship with Him. In verse 11, a further promise is given: “Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.” There is the promise of light. The Bible deals a lot with light and darkness. Those who have put their trust in Christ are living in the light, those who have not are living in darkness. The gospel of John deals a lot with light and darkness. An example of this theme is found in John 1:4-5: “In (Christ) was life; and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shines in darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it.” (This is also translated, “the darkness cannot put it out.”) However it is translated, the meaning is clear: In Christ there is light and out of Christ there is darkness. The promise to believers is that they live in the light of Christ. This means that believers have “seen the light,” as the saying goes. Which means that they saw that they were sinners and turned from that to Christ. This does not make them perfect, nor does it make them self-righteous, but it does make them right with God. We are made right with God through our faith in Jesus Christ. This promise is found in Romans 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Suffice it to say that it is better to live in the light than in the darkness. “Living in the light” means that we are in a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible always calls people to the light of God’s love and grace. There is the promise of “joy for the upright in heart.” Again, the Bible, particularly the New Testament, constantly reminds us that in God there is joy. This is one of the great promises of Jesus in John 15:11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” The Old Testament promise of joy, given in Psalm 97:11, is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus – as seen in John 15:11. Jesus calls us to His joy that our joy “might be full.” It is outside of my intellectual ability to describe what the joy of the Lord is. We have to experience it to have any idea of what it is. Fullness of joy is lived out in this life, but I suspect that the real fullness will be realized in eternity. The joy that Christ gives us is joy that is maintained, even in the difficult times in life. In fact, I found joy in difficult times because I knew that Jesus was there with me through the difficult time. You might not understand what I meant by that last sentence, but in Christ you can know it. Receive the promise of “joy for the upright in heart,” i.e. those who have put their faith in Christ and have given their lives to Him. Because of the light and joy that we have in the Lord the call comes to rejoice and to be thankful: “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to His holy name.” We rejoice because we realize that light and joy come from our relationship with Jesus. Out of the thankfulness of our hearts, we are to rejoice in the light and joy that we have in Christ. Are you rejoicing? Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Margaret M Jones
1/19/2016 11:47:15 am
Every day - because He loves me
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