Joy Part 4

Psalms 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

In this case "hear" means to listen and obey. What's up with that? How do you listen and obey joy and gladness? I think you could go a lot of directions with this. In light of the historical context of David confessing his sin of adultery and murder, I will consider Deuteronomy 28 as a springboard for this verse. In this chapter, God is telling the Israelites the potential results of their response to His commandments. He says if they will listen and obey his commands, they will receive great blessings. However, "if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee". That is some serious stuff! As He is explaining the curses, He says in verses 45-48, "Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee."

I think when we lose our joy, when serving God becomes a task rather than a pleasure, we find ourselves in that state because we have forgotten "the abundance of all things". It is very easy to get weighed down by life. Our human nature is to live in the present circumstances, short-sighted, focused on that thing that is demanding our physical attention. In doing so, we quite naturally lose sight of the abundance of all things. However, when we begin to allow God to remind us of all he has blessed us with, and when we allow him to put truth and wisdom in our inward and hidden parts, we can Supernaturally begin to focus on the reality of the abundance of all things. Our journey in this life is a vapor. Our circumstances at this moment are for just this moment. Our standing in Christ, our daily fellowship with the Creator of the universe is unchanging. In that abundance, we find joy. In that amazing gift, we can hear joy and gladness and serve the Giver in accordance. However, as with every aspect of our journey with God, we cannot make this happen by desire alone. We must pray daily to have God's perspective. We must diligently continue to ask him to unplug our stopped up places and to make us hear joy and gladness. It doesn't mean we won't experience the other emotions of life. Jesus certainly did. David certainly did. It simply means our focus will be on that thing that speaks most loudly in our heart. It that thing in your life your current circumstance or is that thing consistently joy and gladness at the abundance of all things? Oh, that God would constantly cause me to remember these truths! Coming up: broken bones that rejoice!