Rejoice and rejoice

DEVOTION

PSALMS

REJOICE AND REJOICE

Ps 16

Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." 3 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.   4 The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips. 5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

NIV

What a glorious song from the heart of David. The truths within these words are the truths of life for any believer. Consider the fact that apart of God we have no good thing. This implies that anything God has not given us is not a good thing. That might also indicate the material things we struggle so hard to obtain mean nothing, they are not something good, unless of course God simply gave them to us. That is to say, we obtained them without any effort of our own. They were given through a miracle of sorts. It also appears David is making that same point in that material things mean little, of course he was rich, but nevertheless he was seeing relationships with other believers as something to delight in. Perhaps we should delight in being in the presence of other believers. The idea here is that we would share Jesus, share the blessings of the Lord with each other. That would imply speaking about the things of the Lord, giving God praise, telling each other encouraging words about faith, hope and love, about the word of God and the truths within. Talking about sports, entertainers, movies, other people, the weather, money matters, or a host of world focused ideas might be less then desirable for what is referred to as fellowship, which is what this delighting in the saints is about. These are things the people of the world speak about, they are the ones of sorrow that increases because they run after other gods. They run after the god of sports, the god of entertainers, the god of money, the god of success, the god of being a good person will be enough to get to heaven. We will not pour out libations of blood or take up they names on our lips. That is we will not live let them, doing what they do, thinking like they think. The idea here we will not live like everyone else, by trying to incorporate God into our way of living. We live differently, God has assigned our portion, our way of life, it is the same as others. God has assigned our cup, and made our lot secure. Jesus spoke about if his cup could be passed from him, nevertheless God’s will be done, not his. Jesus’s cup was assigned to him. Our cup is assigned to us. We need to learn to be content with our cup because God has made it secure. The boundary lines we live in are pleasant, he has given us a great inheritance, eternal life. God gives us counsel, he instructs our heart, and he guides us and brings us to the places he wants us to be. Where we live, work, worship and yes, even play, are all for the purpose of his divine will for our lives, our cup. This is where we have to be, in the cup he assigned us. If we are not in the cup he assigned us, perhaps we could say, we are out of his will for our lives which would mean we are living to serve our own will. But we have set the Lord before us, we will rejoice and be glad for God is our God and we are his people. He is at our right hand. The right hand means the place of honor. He is our honored guest in our lives and therefore we will not be shaken, because we also sit at his right hand, a place of honor. Our voice will speak rejoicing about our God. We will be glad and rejoice because we are secure in him. He will not abandon us to the grave, because we live in Christ and he was resurrected from the dead, defeating death, we too have defeated death and will be resurrected into eternal life with Jesus. Our body may give out, but our spirit will not. We will be given a new resurrected body to live and breathe and ascend into heaven as Jesus did. Our cup in not a secret, he has made known our path to us. He does not hide his will for our lives. We have both his word and the Spirit who speaks into our heart and mind that which we are meant to do. God fills our heart with joy, which also means as believers sorrow is out, joy is in. Our cup includes this truth:

Rom 8:28-39

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things ? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."  

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NIV

Rejoice and again we say rejoice?