Surprised by Joy

 

1 Chronicles 1–2; Psalm 145; Amos 2; Hebrews 8

Sometimes after a restless or pain-filled night, I wake up feeling old and useless, self-centered, even at the beginning of a pity-party. I thank God that even on days like this, He offers encouragement and hope. Today, it is these verses from David’s psalm:

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. (Psalm 145:1–7)

God wants me to think about His majesty and wonderous works so that I will commend what He does to others. All of God and the truths of God speak of His might and greatness, pouring fourth His fame and goodness. Can I sing aloud the wonders of who He is? He shows me why I should:

The greatest wonder is outlined in the New Testament announcing that the “better promises” of a new covenant has come because God declared the flaw in the old one:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:8–12)

In the OT, God kept His part of the covenant but the people did not. So He made a new covenant in which His people had a personal relationship with Him, one in which His way of life was put in their hearts and His people would no longer need a to-do list. Instead, they would just “know” Him.

In this way, “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises” that is, Jesus is now the High Priest who intercedes with God for us as no other priest could. His sacrifice of Himself secured our forgiveness for all sin: past, present and future and brought those who believe into a complete and permanent saving relationship with God. The rituals and requirements are gone. They were merely a pattern of that which was to come.

APPLY: The wonder of God’s new covenant — the Gospel of Jesus Christ — takes my focus off my aches and pains and puts it on my Lord and God. He sets me free from the very thing that cripples my existence, not the bodily annoyances of life but the self-centered “I must fix this” attitudes of my heart. I can trust Him; He allows all things and He is able to change them, heal them, or give me grace to bear them, even to thank Him for these small tests of life and of faith.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones . . . . The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. (Proverbs 3:6–8 & 15:30)

As I write this good news, again I feel His joy creeping into my troubled and aching bones!