Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 8:10
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for [this] day [is] holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
10. Then he said ] Who issued the command, we are not told. Clearly either Nehemiah or Ezra. Some think Nehemiah because as governor he would be the person to issue authoritative directions. But more probably Ezra is intended; for (1) Ezra’s name is most conspicuous throughout this whole episode; cf. Neh 8:5-6; (2) the language used is that of the teacher of the Law rather than that of the practical governor.
eat the fat, and drink the sweet ] A proverbial expression, meaning that the occasion was not one of fasting and grief. LXX. . Vulg. ‘comedite pinguia et bibite mulsum.’
send portions &c.] Doubtless with the thought of remembering the poor and needy more especially, as according to the law of Deu 16:14, where the Feast of Tabernacles is described, ‘And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates.’ But the allusion seems primarily to be to the custom of interchanging ‘portions’ on festal occasions, e.g. Est 9:19, ‘a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions to one another,’ Est 9:22, ‘days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.’ Nabal’s churlishness was the violation of an almost sacred rule, 1 Samuel 25, cf. R. Smith, Relig. of Semites. For this custom of open-handed distribution on the occasion of great sacrificial feasts, cf. 1Sa 9:13; 2Sa 6:19; Eze 39:17-20.
neither be ye sorry ] R.V. grieved. LXX. . Vulg. ‘no-lite contristari’. The R.V. gives the same rendering as in Neh 8:11.
for the joy of the Lord is your strength ] R.V. marg. ‘Or, stronghold ’. This joy of the Lord is not the joy of the Lord over Israel; but Israel’s joy in her Lord. Israel’s joy at her great festivals is based on her confidence that the Lord ever protects her. Gladness in Him is in proportion to the faith in the protection which He gives. The English version is that of the Vulgate, ‘gaudium etenim Domini est fortitudo nostra.’ The LXX. omitted to render the somewhat unusual word for ‘joy,’ which elsewhere occurs in 1Ch 16:27, Ezr 6:16. The rendering ‘stronghold’ in the R.V. marg. gives the more common meaning, cf. Psa 37:39, ‘He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.’ He that rejoices in Jehovah has a strong fortress from which he can repel all adversaries.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sending of portions to the poor is not distinctly mentioned in any but the later historical Scriptures (compare the margin reference). The practice naturally grew out of this injunction of the Law Deu 16:11, Deu 16:14.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. Eat the fat, and drink the sweet] Eat and drink the best that you have; and while ye are feeding yourselves in the fear of the Lord, remember those who cannot feast; and send portions to them, that the joy and the thanksgiving may be general. Let the poor have reason to rejoice as well as you.
For the joy of the Lord is your strength.] This is no gluttonous and drunken festival that enervates the body, and enfeebles the mind: from your religious feast your bodies will acquire strength and your minds power and fervour, so that you shall be able to DO HIS will, and to do it cheerfully. Religious joy, properly tempered with continual dependence on the help of God, meekness of mind, and self-diffidence, is a powerful means of strengthening the soul. In such a state every duty is practicable, and every duty delightful. In such a frame of mind no man an ever fell, and in such a state of mind the general health of the body is much improved; a cheerful heart is not only a continual feast, but also a continual medicine.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Eat the fat, and drink the sweet; feast before the Lord, as the duty of the day obligeth you to do.
Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; for the relief of your poor brethren, who else must mourn whilst you rejoice. See of this duty and practice Deu 16:11,14; Es 9:19.
This day is holy unto our Lord; being the feast of trumpets, Lev 23:24, and the beginning of this joyful month, wherein so many days of feasting and thanksgiving were to be observed.
The joy of the Lord is your strength, i.e. rejoicing in God in the manner prescribed in his word, or serving him with cheerfulness and thankfulness, which is your duty always, but now especially, will give you that strength both of mind and body which you greatly need, both to perform all the duties required of you, and to endure and oppose all the crafty counsels and malicious designs of your enemies against you; whereas this dejection of mind, and excessive grief, if you indulge it, will both offend God, and damp your spirits, and weaken your very bodies, and make you unfit for Gods service, or for your own necessary occasions, and so an easy prey to your enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then he said unto them,…. Nehemiah the Tirshatha or governor:
go your way; to their own houses, and refresh themselves; it being noon, and they had stood many hours attentive to the reading and expounding of the law:
eat the fat, and drink the sweet: not a common meal, but a feast, consisting of the richest provisions, the best of food and liquors
and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; for the poor, who had no food at home provided for them; the widow, fatherless, and stranger, who at festivals were to partake of the entertainment,
De 16:11
for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be you sorry; confirming what the Levites had said and exhorted to, Ne 8:9
for the joy of the Lord is your strength; to rejoice, as the Lord commanded them on such days as these, was a means both of increasing their bodily strength and their inward strength, and of fitting them the more to perform their duty to God and men with cheerfulness, which sorrow and heaviness made unfit for; and the joy which has the Lord for its object, and comes from him, is the cause of renewing spiritual strength, so as to run and not be weary, walk and not faint, in the ways of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(10) For the joy of the Lord is your strength This beautiful sentence is, literally, delight in Jehovah is a strong refuge. It is capable of unlimited application in preaching and devotion.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. He said That is, Nehemiah, the governor. He issued the order, being the public executive.
Eat the fat Literally, fatnesses; that is, the fat pieces of flesh; the fat things.
Drink the sweet Hebrew, sweetnesses; the sweet drinks, especially the new wine of that season.
Send portions That the poor and destitute, for whom nothing is prepared, but what is freely given by those who have abundance, may rejoice and feast with the rest of the people. Comp. Est 9:19; Est 9:22; Deu 16:14.
The joy of the Lord is your strength The joy of Jehovah is the delight and comfort which Jehovah imparts to his faithful servants; a consciousness of God’s favour, mercy, and long-suffering. The word rendered strength commonly means a fortress, a fortified citadel, or stronghold. They surely should not be sorry who abide in the joy of Jehovah as in a strong fortress.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 446
THE JOY OF THE LORD IS OUR STRENGTH
Neh 8:10. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
THE preaching of Gods word is a very ancient ordinance. In the context we have a description of the manner in which Nehemiah conducted it. These means of instruction were useful in that day; nor are they less necessary in every place and age. People need, not only reproof for what is wrong, but direction in what is right. The Jews wept bitterly at the hearing of the law; but Nehemiah corrected their sorrow as ill-timed, and exhorted them to rejoice in God, who had done so great things for them.
Let us observe,
I.
What reason we have to rejoice in the Lord
God is often said to rejoice over his people [Note: Zep 3:17.]; but the joy here spoken of must be understood rather of that which we feel in the recollection of Gods goodness towards us.
The Jews at that season had special cause for joy in God
[They had been miraculously delivered from Babylon. This temple had been rebuilt in twenty years, and the worship of God restored; and now, after seventy years more, the wall of the city was finished. They had been enabled to surmount innumerable difficulties [Note: Neh 4:17.]: they had prospered, even to a miracle, in their endeavours [Note: Neh 6:16.]. These were tokens of the divine favour, and pledges of its continuance. They were therefore called upon to rejoice with gratitude and confidence: nor was their sorrow, however just, to exclude this joy.]
Such reason also have all the Lords people to rejoice in the Lord
[They have experienced a redemption from sorer captivity, and been delivered by more stupendous means Every days preservation too from their numerous enemies is, as it were, a miracle; yet the work of their souls is carried on in spite of enemies, yea, is expedited through the means used to defeat it. Surely then they should say, like the Church of old, The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad [Note: Psa 126:3.]. Moreover, these mercies are pledges to them, and earnests of yet richer blessings. They may well confide in so good and gracious a God. They have indeed still great cause for sorrow on account of their past violations of the law; yet is it their duty to rejoice, yea to rejoice always in the Lord [Note: Php 4:4.].]
To promote and encourage this, we proceed to shew,
II.
In what respects this joy is our strength
We are as dependent on the frame of our minds as on the state of our bodies. Joy in God produces very important effects:
1.
It disposes for action
[Fear and sorrow depress and overwhelm the soul [Note: Isa 57:16.]: they enervate and benumb all our faculties; they keep us from attending to any encouraging considerations [Note: Exo 6:9.]; they disable us from extending relief to others [Note: Job 2:13.]; they indispose us for the most necessary duties [Note: Luk 22:45.]. We cannot pray, or speak, or do any thing with pleasure. On the contrary, a joyous frame exhilarates the soul [Note: Pro 17:22.]. David well knew the effect it would produce [Note: Psa 51:12-13.]: and every one may safely adopt his resolution, I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart [Note: Psa 119:32.].]
2.
It qualifies for suffering
[When the spirit is oppressed, the smallest trial is a burthen. In those seasons we are apt to fret and murmur both against God and man. We consider our trials as the effects of divine wrath; or, overlooking God, we vent our indignation against the instruments he uses. But when the soul is joyous, afflictions appear light [Note: Heb 10:34; Heb 12:2.]. How little did Paul and Silas regard their imprisonment [Note: Act 16:25.]! How willing was Paul to lay down his very life for Christ [Note: Act 20:24.]! This accords with the experience of every true Christian [Note: Rom 5:2-3 and 2Co 6:10.].]
Application
1.
Let us not be always brooding over our corruptions
[Seasonable sorrows ought not to be discouraged: but we should never lose sight of all that God has done for us. It is our privilege to walk joyfully before the Lord [Note: Psa 138:5; Psa 149:5; Psa 89:15-16.]. If we abounded more in praise, we should more frequently be crowned with victory [Note: 2Ch 20:21-22.].]
2.
Let us, however, carefully guard against the fresh incursions of sin
[It is sin that hides the Lord from our eyes [Note: Isa 59:2.]. Joy will not consist with indulged sin [Note: Psa 66:18.]. Let us then mortify our earthly members, and our besetting sins. Let us be girt with our armour, whilst we work with our hands [Note: Neh 4:17-18.] Nor ever grieve the Holy Spirit, lest we provoke him to depart from us.]
3.
Let us be daily going to God through Christ
[If ever we rejoice in God at all, it must be through the Lord Jesus Christ [Note: Rom 5:11.]. It is through Christ alone that our past violations of the law can be forgiven [Note: Col 1:20.]. It is through Christ alone that the good work can be perfected in our hearts [Note: Heb 12:2.]. And, since all things are through him, and from him, let them be to him also [Note: Rom 11:36.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(10) Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (11) So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. (12) And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
Reader! do observe how truly beautiful when blended together, is charity with devotion. Thy prayers and thine alms (saith the angel to Cornelius) are come up for a memorial before God. Act 10:4 . Observe the expression; Jehovah is your strength. Who doth this mean but Jesus? Surely He is the strength of his people, and the arm of the Lord. Isa 52:1 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Neh 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for [this] day [is] holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Ver. 10. Then he said unto them, Go your way ] A friendly dismission. We must so reprove or admonish others, as that we ever preserve in them an opinion of our good will unto them; for this is that sugar that sweeteneth all such tartar pills.
Go your way, eat, &c.
And send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared
For this day is holy unto the Lord
Neither be ye sorry
For the joy of the Lord is your strength
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Nehemiah
READING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY
THE JOY OF THE LORD
Neh 8:10
Judaism, in its formal and ceremonial aspect, was a religion of gladness. The feast was the great act of worship. It is not to be wondered at, that Christianity, the perfecting of that ancient system, has been less markedly felt to be a religion of joy; for it brings with it far deeper and more solemn views about man in his nature, condition, responsibilities, destinies, than ever prevailed before, under any system of worship. And yet all deep religion ought to be joyful, and all strong religion assuredly will be so.
Here, in the incident before us, there has come a time in Nehemiah’s great enterprise, when the law, long forgotten, long broken by the captives, is now to be established again as the rule of the newly-founded commonwealth. Naturally enough there comes a remembrance of many sins in the past history of the people; and tears not unnaturally mingle with the thankfulness that again they are a nation, having a divine worship and a divine law in their midst. The leader of them, knowing for one thing that if the spirits of his people once began to flag, they could not face nor conquer the difficulties of their position, said to them, ‘This day is holy unto the Lord: this feast that we are keeping is a day of devout worship; therefore mourn not, nor weep: go your way; eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ You will make nothing of it by indulgence in lamentation and in mourning. You will have no more power for obedience, you will not be fit for your work, if you fall into a desponding state. Be thankful and glad; and remember that the purest worship is the worship of God-fixed joy, ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ And that is as true, brethren! with regard to us, as it ever was in these old times; and we, I think, need the lesson contained in this saying of Nehemiah’ s, because of some prevalent tendencies amongst us, no less than these Jews did. Take some simple thoughts suggested by this text which are both important in themselves and needful to be made emphatic because so often forgotten in the ordinary type of Christian character. They are these. Religious Joy is the natural result of faith. It is a Christian duty. It is an important element in Christian strength.
I. Joy in the Lord is the natural result of Christian Faith.
I do not forget that, on the other side, it is equally true that the Christian faith has as marked and almost as strong an adaptation to produce a solemn sorrow -solemn, manly, noble, and strong. ‘As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,’ is the rule of the Christian life. If we think of what our faith does; of the light that it casts upon our condition, upon our nature, upon our responsibilities, upon our sins, and upon our destinies, we can easily see how, if gladness be one part of its operation, no less really and truly is sadness another. Brethren! all great thoughts have a solemn quiet in them, which not unfrequently merges into a still sorrow. There is nothing more contemptible in itself, and there is no more sure mark of a trivial nature and a trivial round of occupations, than unshaded gladness, that rests on no deep foundations of quiet, patient grief; grief, because I know what I am and what I ought to be; grief, because I have learnt the ‘exceeding sinfulness of sin’; grief, because, looking out upon the world, I see, as other men do not see, hell-fire burning at the back of the mirth and the laughter, and know what it is that men are hurrying to! Do you remember who it was that stood by the side of the one poor dumb man, whose tongue He was going to loose, and looking up to heaven, sighed before He could say, ‘Be opened’? Do you remember that of Him it is said, ‘God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows’; and also, ‘a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’? And do you not think that both these characteristics are to be repeated in the operations of His Gospel upon every heart that receives it? And if, by the hopes it breathes into us, by the fears that it takes away from us, by the union with God that it accomplishes for us, by the fellowship that it implants in us, it indeed anoints us all ‘with the oil of gladness’; yet, on the other hand, by the sense of mine own sin that it teaches me; by the conflict with weakness which it makes to be the law of my life; by the clear vision which it gives me of ‘the law of my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into subjection’; by the intensity which it breathes into all my nature, and by the thoughts that it presents of what sin leads to, and what the world at present is, the Gospel, wheresoever it comes, will infuse a wise, valiant sadness as the very foundation of character. Yes, joy, but sorrow too! the joy of the Lord, but sorrow as we look on our own sin and the world’s woe! the head anointed with the oil of gladness, but also crowned with thorns!
These two are not contradictory. These two states of mind, both of them the natural operations of any deep faith, may co-exist and blend into one another, so as that the gladness is sobered, and chastened, and made manly and noble; and that the sorrow is like some thundercloud, all streaked with bars of sunshine, that pierce into its deepest depths. The joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow springs from the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash against each other, or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference, but they blend into one another; just as, in the Arctic regions, deep down beneath the cold snow, with its white desolation and its barren death, you will find the budding of the early spring flowers and the fresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water; just as, in the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea, there may be welling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a deeper depth than the great ocean around it, and pours its sweet streams along the surface of the salt waste. Gladness, because I love, for love is gladness; gladness, because I trust, for trust is gladness; gladness, because I obey, for obedience is a meat that others know not of, and light comes when we do His will! But sorrow, because still I am wrestling with sin; sorrow, because still I have not perfect fellowship; sorrow, because mine eye, purified by my living with God, sees earth, and sin, and life, and death, and the generations of men, and the darkness beyond, in some measure as God sees them! And yet, the sorrow is surface, and the joy is central; the sorrow springs from circumstance, and the gladness from the essence of the thing;-and therefore the sorrow is transitory, and the gladness is perennial. For the Christian life is all like one of those sweet spring showers in early April, when the rain-drops weave for us a mist that hides the sunshine; and yet the hidden sun is in every sparkling drop, and they are all saturated and steeped in its light. ‘The joy of the Lord’ is the natural result and offspring of all Christian faith.
II. And now, secondly, the ‘joy of the Lord’ or rejoicing in God, is a matter of Christian duty.
You may say with truth, ‘My emotions of joy and sorrow are not under my own control: I cannot help being glad and sad as circumstances dictate.’ But yet here it lies, a commandment. It is a duty, a thing that the Apostle enjoins; in which, of course, is implied, that somehow or other it is to a large extent within one’s own power, and that even the indulgence in this emotion, and the degree to which a Christian life shall be a cheerful life, is dependent in a large measure on our own volitions, and stands on the same footing as our obedience to God’s other commandments.
We can to a very great extent control even our own emotions; but then, besides, we can do more than that. It may be quite true, that you cannot help feeling sorrowful in the presence of sorrowful thoughts, and glad in the presence of thoughts that naturally kindle gladness. But I will tell you what you can do or refrain from doing-you can either go and stand in the light, or you can go and stand in the shadow. You can either fix your attention upon, and make the predominant subject of your religious contemplations, a truth which shall make you glad and strong, or a half-truth, which shall make you sorrowful, and therefore weak. Your meditations may either centre mainly upon your own selves, your faults and failings, and the like; or they may centre mainly upon God and His love, Christ and His grace, the Holy Spirit and His communion. You may either fill your soul with joyful thoughts, or though a true Christian, a real, devout, God-accepted believer, you may be so misapprehending the nature of the Gospel, and your relation to it, its promises and precepts, its duties and predictions, as that the prevalent tinge and cast of your religion shall be solemn and almost gloomy, and not lighted up and irradiated with the felt sense of God’s presence-with the strong, healthy consciousness that you are a forgiven and justified man, and that you are going to be a glorified one.
And thus far and it is a long way by the selection or the rejection of the appropriate and proper subjects which shall make the main portion of our religious contemplation, and shall be the food of our devout thoughts, we can determine the complexion of our religious life. Just as you inject colouring matter into the fibres of some anatomical preparation; so a Christian may, as it were, inject into all the veins of his religious character and life, either the bright tints of gladness or the dark ones of self-despondency; and the result will be according to the thing that he has put into them. If your thoughts are chiefly occupied with God, and what He has done and is for you, then you will have peaceful joy. If, on the other hand, they are bent ever on yourself and your own unbelief, then you will always be sad. You can make your choice.
Christian men, the joy of the Lord is a duty. It is so because, as we have seen, it is the natural effect of faith, because we can do much to regulate our emotions directly, and much more to determine them by determining what set of thoughts shall engage us. A wise and strong faith is our duty. To keep our emotional nature well under control of reason and will is our duty. To lose thoughts of ourselves in God’s truth about Himself is our duty. If we do these things, we cannot fail to have Christ’s joy remaining in us, and making ours full. If we have not that blessed possession abiding with us, which He lived and died to give us, there is something wrong in us somewhere.
It seems to me that this is a truth which we have great need, my friends, to lay to heart. It is of no great consequence that we should practically confute the impotent old sneer about religion as being a gloomy thing. One does not need to mind much what some people say on that matter. The world would call ‘the joy of the Lord’ gloom, just as much as it calls ‘godly sorrow’ gloom. But we are losing for ourselves a power and an energy of which we have no conception, unless we feel that joy is a duty, and unless we believe that not to be joyful in the Lord is, therefore, more than a misfortune, it is a fault.
I do not forget that the comparative absence of this happy, peaceful sense of acceptance, harmony, oneness with God, springs sometimes from temperament, and depends on our natural disposition. Of course the natural character determines to a large extent the perspective of our conceptions of Christian truth, and the colouring of our inner religious life. I do not mean to say, for a moment, that there is one uniform type to which all must be conformed, or they sin. There is indeed one type, the perfect manhood of Jesus, but it is all comprehensive, and each variety of our fragmentary manhood finds its own perfecting, and not its transmutation to another fashion of man, in being conformed to Him. Some of us are naturally fainthearted, timid, sceptical of any success, grave, melancholy, or hard to stir to any emotion. To such there will be an added difficulty in making quiet confident joy any very familiar guest in their home or in their place of prayer. But even such should remember that the ‘powers of the world to come,’ the energies of the Gospel, are given to us for the very express purpose of overcoming, as well as of hallowing, natural dispositions. If it be our duty to rejoice in the Lord, it is no sufficient excuse to urge for not responding to the reiterated call, ‘I myself am disposed to sadness.’
Whilst making all allowances for the diversities of character, which will always operate to diversify the cast of the inner life in each individual, we think that, in the great majority of instances, there are two things, both faults, which have a great deal more to do with the absence of joy from much Christian experience, than any unfortunate natural tendency to the dark side of things. The one is, an actual deficiency in the depth and reality of our faith; and the other is, a misapprehension of the position which we have a right to take and are bound to take.
There is an actual deficiency in our faith. Oh, brethren! it is not to be wondered at that Christians do not find that the Lord with them is the Lord their strength and joy, as well as the Lord ‘their righteousness’; when the amount of their fellowship with Him is so small, and the depth of it so shallow, as we usually find it. The first true vision that a sinful soul has of God, the imperfect beginnings of religion, usually are accompanied with intense self-abhorrence, and sorrowing tears of penitence. A further closer vision of the love of God in Jesus Christ brings with it ‘joy and peace in believing.’ But the prolongation of these throughout life requires the steadfast continuousness of gaze towards Him. It is only where there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. Let us search our own hearts. If there is but little heat around the bulb of the thermometer, no wonder that the mercury marks a low degree. If there is but small faith, there will not be much gladness. The road into Giant Despair’s castle is through doubt, which doubt comes from an absence, a sinful absence, in our own experience, of the felt presence of God, and the felt force of the verities of His Gospel.
But then, besides that, there is another fault: not a fault in the sense of crime or sin, but a fault and a great one in the sense of error and misapprehension. We as Christians do not take the position which we have a right to take and that we are bound to take. Men venture themselves upon God’s word as they do on doubtful ice, timidly putting a light foot out, to feel if it will bear them, and always having the tacit fear, ‘Now, it is going to crack!’ You must cast yourselves on God’s Gospel with all your weight, without any hanging back, without any doubt, without even the shadow of a suspicion that it will give -that the firm, pure floor will give, and let you through into the water! A Christian shrink from saying what the Apostle said, ‘I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that day’! A Christian fancy that salvation is a future thing, and forget that it is a present thing! A Christian tremble to profess ‘assurance of hope,’ forgetting that there is no hope strong enough to bear the stress of a life’s sorrows, which is not a conviction certain as one’s own existence! Brethren! understand that the Gospel is a Gospel which brings a present salvation; and try to feel that it is not presumption, but simply acting out the very fundamental principle of it, when you are not afraid to say, ‘I know that my Redeemer is yonder, and I know that He loves me!’ Try to feel, I say, that by faith you have a right to take that position, ‘Now, we know that we are the sons of God’; that you have a right to claim for yourselves, and that you are falling beneath the loftiness of the gift that is given to you unless you do claim for yourselves, the place of sons, accepted, loved, sure to be glorified at God’s right hand. Am I teaching presumption? am I teaching carelessness, or a dispensing with self-examination? No, but I am saying this: If a man have once felt, and feel, in however small and feeble a degree, and depressed by whatsoever sense of daily transgressions, if he feel, faint like the first movement of an imprisoned bird in its egg, the feeble pulse of an almost imperceptible and fluttering faith beat-then that man has a right to say, ‘God is mine!’
As one of our great teachers, little remembered now said, ‘Let me take my personal salvation for granted’-and what? and ‘be idle?’ No; ‘and work from it.’ Ay, brethren! a Christian is not to be for ever asking himself, ‘Am I a Christian?’ He is not to be for ever looking into himself for marks and signs that he is. He is to look into himself to discover sins, that he may by God’s help cast them out, to discover sins that shall teach him to say with greater thankfulness, ‘What a redemption this is which I possess!’ but he is to base his convictions that he is God’s child upon something other than his own characteristics and the feebleness of his own strength. He is to have ‘joy in the Lord’ whatever may be his sorrow from outward things. And I believe that if Christian people would lay that thought to heart, they would understand better how the natural operation of the Gospel is to make them glad, and how rejoicing in the Lord is a Christian duty.
III. And now with regard to the other thought that still remains to be considered, namely, that rejoicing in the Lord is a source of strength,-I have already anticipated, fragmentarily, nearly all that I could have said here in a more systematic form. All gladness has something to do with our efficiency; for it is the prerogative of man that his force comes from his mind, and not from his body. That old song about a sad heart tiring in a mile, is as true in regard to the Gospel, and the works of Christian people, as in any other case. If we have hearts full of light, and souls at rest in Christ, and the wealth and blessedness of a tranquil gladness lying there, and filling our being; work will be easy, endurance will be easy, sorrow will be bearable, trials will not be so very hard, and above all temptations we shall be lifted, and set upon a rock. If the soul is full, and full of joy, what side of it will be exposed to the assault of any temptation? If the appeal be to fear, the gladness that is there is an answer. If the appeal be to passion, desire, wish for pleasure of any sort, there is no need for any more-the heart is full . And so the gladness which rests in Christ will be a gladness which will fit us for all service and for all endurance, which will be unbroken by any sorrow, and, like the magic shield of the old legends, invisible, impenetrable, in its crystalline purity will stand before the tempted heart, and will repel all the ‘fiery darts of the wicked.’
‘The joy of the Lord is your strength,’ my brother! Nothing else is. No vehement resolutions, no sense of his own sinfulness, nor even contrite remembrance of past failures, ever yet made a man strong. It made him weak that he might become strong, and when it had done that it had done its work. For strength there must be hope, for strength there must be joy. If the arm is to smite with vigour, it must smite at the bidding of a calm and light heart. Christian work is of such a sort as that the most dangerous opponent to it is simple despondency and simple sorrow. ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’
Well, then! there are two questions: How comes it that so much of the world’s joy is weakness? and how comes it that so much of the world’s notion of religion is gloom and sadness? Answer them for yourselves, and remember: you are weak unless you are glad; you are not glad and strong unless your faith and hope are fixed in Christ, and unless you are working from and not towards the sense of pardon, from and not towards the conviction of acceptance with God!
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
is = it [is].
joy. Chaldee. hedvah. Occurs only here, 1Ch 16:27, and Ezr 6:16. is = that [is].
strength = defence, or refuge.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
The Strength of Joy
The joy of the Lord is your strength.Neh 8:10.
In reading the Holy Scriptures, or hearing them read in the services of the Church, we fail to notice one outstanding feature common both to the Old Testament and to the New, and that is the extraordinary frequency with which we meet with short sentences which arrest our attention, and challenge our admiration alike by the simplicity of the words employed, and by the profundity of the thought expressed. Of no other literature of any age or of any country can this be said in equal degree, and even our oft-quoted poets, with Shakespeare immeasurably the foremost of them all, pale into insignificance before the Bible as the greatest mine that the world has ever known of priceless gems of pregnant and beautiful thought. Such a sentence is the text. It stands out as one of perhaps the first five or six most striking sentences in the whole Bible. Had Nehemiah left us no other message than just this one utterance, his name would still stand high among the great names of the human race, who through the wizardry of felicitous phrase have enriched all succeeding ages by the power of an inspiring thought.
1. Some forty thousand of the Jews had returned from the Babylonian captivity. They had built their little temple amid the ruins of Jerusalem, and resumed the worship of the Lords house. But they were few, oppressed, and in great misery. They groaned under the tyranny of the Persian satraps. The neighbouring Samaritans plundered their barns and fields. Their city was as yet undefended by fortified gates, and fell an easy prey to the troops of banditti who scoured the desolate country. The city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded. They complained in their prayer that they were slaves in the land given to their fathers. They said, It yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. In their distress they turned to Jehovah. They hungered to hear the Divine Law, which many of them had never heard, copies being so scarce with them and life so hard. They met in the street before the Water-Gate; and Ezra, the scribe, brought out the Law and read it to them, and gave them the sense, and caused them to understand the meaning. As they listened, they wept. The contrast between what they had been, and what they were, was too much for them. Once a great nation prospering under the Divine care, they were now a few poor slaves dwelling in a desolate undefended city, tilling a few ravaged fields, withering away, as it seemed; under the Divine curse. They fairly broke down. There was a rain of tears. Their very hearts melted within them.
2. Nehemiah, the brave governor, saw that this was no fit mood for men who had so much to do and to bear. Grief would only unman them. And so he bade the scribe shut his book, and said to the people, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto him for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye grieved; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. What he meant was that, if man was against them, God was with them and for them; and that if they were glad and rejoiced in His presence and grace, that would be a much better preparation for the hard work they had to do than vainly regretting a past that could not be recalled.
3. It was well that the Jews should look into the awful teachings of the past, and under the clear, stern condemnation of the eternal words give way to the rush of sorrow. But it was not well that they should sorrow long. They had work to do, demanding the strength of joy. The scattered tribes were to be gathered into a nationthe ancient order was to be restored. They were not to mourn over the irrevocable past, but, learning its lessons, to begin a nobler national life as the people of God. And therefore Nehemiah and the Levites turned the peoples thoughts from the saddening years that were gone, to the heavenly mercy that was shining in the present. Go your way, this day is holy unto our Lord neither be ye grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
The good counsel of Nehemiah was reinforced by a song from one of their poets or psalmists. It is the brightest and merriest in the Psalter, a true Christian psalm.
O be joyful in Jehovah, all ye lands
Serve the Lord with gladness,
And come before His presence with a song!
Be ye sure that Jehovah He is God;
It is He that made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
O go your way into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise
Be ye thankful unto Him and speak good of His name;
For the Lord is gracious; His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endureth from generation to generation.
I
Gods Joy in Us
1. Is it fanciful to see in the text first of all a challenge to human love and loyaltya trumpet-call to live a strong, bright, conquering life because of what that life may mean to God? May we read into the words not only a revelation of the secret of human strength, but also of the source of Divine gladness? In the work of God the Almighty Creator, we hear those words, dear to us from our childhood, which tell us how at the close of the six great ons which formed the successive stages in the stately evolution of the world as a fit habitation for man, God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Again, we listen to that wonderful creation poem in the Book of Job, which tells us how at the first beginning of all things, the morning stars sang out together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Surely with such words before us we can realize in some small degree what the joy of the Lordthe gladness of the Almightymust have been when He contemplated the beauty of His perfect handiwork.
Just as a clever craftsman knows the subtle joy of facing and conquering a difficult task, and rejoices over the finished work that owes its being to the cunning of his brain and of his handsso may we not think of God the Creator as feeling joy over the perfection of His handiwork? And where can that be more fully revealed than in the strength of a strong man or woman, strong in physical energy and endurance, strong in mental equipment, strong in will-power and moral force, inspired by lofty ideals of brotherhood and social service, strong above all in spiritual vision of the unseen but tremendous reality of the higher life of the human soul? An honest man, we are told, is the noblest work of God, and when He sees men and women steadfast and immovablestrong and true in their life of self-conquest and self-sacrificestanding four-square to every wind that blowsthen I am sure that He rejoices, and that the knowledge brings Him happiness.1 [Note: Canon Willink.]
2. We are not to suppose for one moment that the infinite wonders of the eternal Godhead raise Him above the sense of joy. We know that there are times of special joy in heaven, and we have no reason to believe that special joy is not shared by God Himself. On the contrary, we know that our Saviour Himself rejoiced when the Seventy returned, and brought Him the glad tidings of their successful ministry; so we are taught of God Himself that the time is coming when He will rejoice over Jerusalem as a bridegroom rejoiceth over a bride (Isa 62:5).
3. Christ is the Christian revelation; the Son and manifestation of God; the brightness of the Fathers glory and the express image of his person; and in Christ we see emphatically that notwithstanding all the misery and shame and conflict of this lifea misery and shame and conflict felt keenly by Him whose very nature is sympathy and whose name is Fatherthere is in God a deep, abiding, essential joyousness.
4. There cannot be a doubt, therefore, that even in the mind of God there are seasons of peculiar joy; and so, when we are rejoicing in that which rejoices Him, we may be truly said to share the joy of the Lord. When the seducer rejoices in the success of his temptation, his joy is the joy of the devil. When the believer rejoices in the salvation of souls, and the ingathering of Gods elect, his joy is the joy of the Lord Jesus. When a soul is saved, there is a great harmony of joy. Men, angels, and God Himself rejoice together, so that the joy of the Church and the joy of angels may be justly termed the joy of the Lord. On the other hand, when there is no deep interest in the conversion of souls, when men do not care whether souls are brought to Christ or not, when missionary intelligence gives them no pleasure, and the work of conversion at home excites no thanksgiving, they may have much to make them happy, but their joy cannot be said to be the joy of the Lord.
Our blessedness to see
Is even to the Deity
A Beatific Vision! He attains
His Ends while we enjoy. In us He reigns.1 [Note: Thomas Traherne.]
II
Our Joy in God
The main revelation of the text however is this: It is the will of God that we should be happy and strong, inasmuch as it is the joy of the Lord which is our strength.
Let us see (i.) what joy is; (ii.) how we are to gain it; and (iii.) where we are to find occasions for it.
i. What is this joy?
1. There is a broad distinction between mere gladness and spiritual joy. Spiritual joy rises from within the soul, and does not depend on the outward circumstances of life. Men forget this, and fancy that spiritual life is pre-eminently sorrowful, and that joy enervates man. We hear of the cross and the conflict, we are awe-stricken at the sublime demand for the sacrifice of all things, and the noble yet apparently stern picture of the ceaseless struggle of the Christian life. That picture is true, all aspirations begin in sadness, all spiritual aspirations are cradled in tears, all true life is a battle, and the battle of the spiritual man ceases only in heaven. But because this joy springs from the soul and not from circumstances, there is a kind of joy that may deepen into blessedness by the bearing of the cross and the endurance of the conflicts of life. From forgetfulness of this truth, there arises the idea that gladness is opposed to the attainment of spiritual power. We see that when God would make a human soul a harp for Divine song, He often baptizes it, as He did David and Isaiah, with difficulties, and smites it with afflictions. We know that when God would make a strong man, He frequently sends him disappointments, imprisonments, desolate days of loneliness, grim battle with slander and care, until the soul grows mighty with the shock, and is clothed with celestial armour by the struggle, and stands up in its strength to fling temptation aside. Hence men conclude that great or lasting joy does not bring out the strength of the soul. It is true that mere gladnessthe gladness produced by success and friendshipthe buoyant bounding of the heart in lifes sunshineis by no means necessarily strength-giving. It is a blessed and merciful thing. The man into whose life it never comes, and who cannot sometimes give way to its exultation, is to be pitied. Yet if it is perpetual, this does weaken the soul, hides from it the invisible, and withers high purpose in life. But if spiritual joy springs from within the soul, then, so far from loosening the power of the spirit, it girds it for endurance, and it is the joy in difficulty and struggle that makes men strong.
Nehemiah qualifies the statement. He does not say that every joy will make a man strong; his words are, The joy of the Lord is your strength. And he is quite right in this limitation. The joy which strengthens must be unselfish joy. I do not think that joy about personal good fortune is a whit more invigorating to the body than grief for personal loss. They are both weakening. Pope Clement the Seventh died of sorrow for a defeat; but his successor, Leo the Tenth, died of exultation for a victory. Personal excitement, whether through laughter or through tears, paralyses the work of the hour. If in the midst of writing an article you heard that you had come into a great fortune, I do not think you would write a line more that day. But if you heard the same news of one whom you loved, and whose poverty had given you pain, you would be fanned by an inspiration which would make the pen fly. What marks the difference? It is thisthe one is the joy of the flesh; the other is the joy of the Lord.1 [Note: G. Matheson.]
2. This spiritual joy is twofold in its nature.
(1) It is the joy of self-surrender to God.Until a man has surrendered himself joy is impossible. There may be gleams of happiness, or wild outbursts of pleasure, but true joy can begin only when the self-life has been surrendered. For men know that to live only in themselves is misery, and yet they cannot escape from themselves, because the consciousness of a guilty past hangs like a burden on the heart.
Look through life, and do you not find that the great aim of men is to forget and go out of themselves? What means the longing to be a child again? What means the gloom only deepened by the flash of pleasure? Whence so often springs the desire
To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to?
What means the temptation to suicide? Do not men feel in their inmost hearts that to live in themselves and for themselvesto be bound by the self-lifeis misery? For they cannot escape from the guilty self of past years, and dare not face it when it rises from its tomb. Now, emancipation from the tyranny of self, freedom from the memories of the past, is reached by the spiritual man. At the cross of Christ the burden of the past falls, for at the cross he yields himself. There the love of the crucified Lord subdues his nature, and the new Divine life enters, purifying the past, and filling the soul with heavenly energies.
The fact of self-surrender may give rise to a joy that can deepen even in the midst of sorrow, for its secret consists in calm contentedness to be what God wills. Is it not a joy deep and unspeakable to feel we are the willing instruments of the Eternal will; that the Eternal purpose is being wrought out through us? Has not this conviction irradiated the darkness of dungeons, and filled with unspeakable peace the hearts of persecuted and suffering men in all ages? Has it not nerved the martyrs for their last agonies, and strengthened them while the fire of the scaffold did its work? And was it not from this consciousness of fulfilling the will of God that the Great Sufferer gathered strength for His own unspeakable woe, as in the midst of His agony He cried, Not my will, but thine, be done?1 [Note: E. L. Hull.]
He touched her hands and the fever left her;
Oh! we need His touch on our fevered hands;
The cool, still touch of the Man of Sorrows,
Who knows us and loves us, and understands.
It may be the fever of pain and anger,
When the wounded spirit is hard to bear,
And only the Lord can draw forth the arrows
Left carelessly, cruelly, rankling there.
Whatever the fever, His touch can heal it,
Whatever the tempest, His voice can still;
There is only joy as we seek His pleasure,
There is only rest as we chose His will.
(2) It is the joy of fellowship with the Father.All profound gladness springs from sympathy with a spirit, or a truth, higher than ourselves. Why do our hearts bound on spring mornings with the joy of nature? Why does the beauty of the summer evening calm us? Why do we feel a glory and a joy as we tread the mountain-sides? Why do we feel a deepening peace as we walk amid the splendours of the golden autumn? Is it not because we realize the presence of a spirit of beauty surrounding us, and inspiring us with an emotion which no words can describe? Or why is it that when a truth breaks in upon us through clouds of doubt, and a clear vision of its beauty is gained after long and fruitless searching, we feel a thrill of joy deep and unspeakable? Have we not, after communion with some greater soul, felt our own darkness dissipated, and our own isolation broken down? In that hour has not the touch of a greater Spirit made us feel nobler, stronger, wiser? And if this is true of earthly communion, must it not be supremely true when we realize the fellowship of God as our Father?
In all the great sea of ocean, said Serapion, when he had told the story of their wandering, no such Earthly Paradise have we seen as this dear Abbey of our own!
Dear brethren, said the Abbot, the seven years of your seeking have not been wasted if you have truly learned so much. Far from home I have never gone, but many things have come to me. To be ever, and to be tranquilly, and to be joyously, and to be strenuously, and to be thankfully and humbly at one with the blessed will of Godthat is the Heavenly Paradise; and each of us, by Gods grace, may have that within him. And whoso hath within him the Heavenly Paradise hath here and now, and at all times and in every place, the true Earthly Paradise round about him.1 [Note: William Canton.]
ii. How do we obtain this Joy?
1. The joy of the Lord is the personal gift of God the Holy Ghost dwelling within the soul. We cannot force ourselves into joy by the power of the most earnest resolution; nor can we argue ourselves or others into joy by the logical application of sound and Scriptural principles. We may have a perfectly correct system of truth, but along with it a joyless heart. It is not a thing which follows necessarily or mechanically from certain principles or certain acts; it is a Divine gift, like life itself, and is the result of the personal work of the Holy Ghost. It is His office to speak peace unto his people, and to fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So when David had lost his joy, and was pleading with God for its recovery, he prayed, Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice, and, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation: and uphold me with a free spirit.
It is clear from Scripture that a person may lose his joy, though he is not permitted to lose his life. David and Peter both did so; and what was the reason? Was it not that they both grieved the Spirit? They drove the Holy Dove from His resting-place in their hearts; and the true believer may do the same. He may grieve the Spirit by his temper, his evil-speaking, or his want of tenderness; and he may lose all his joy, though God may save him by His marvellous grace.
A little while ago I saw a very sad and sickly-looking plant. It might have been employed as the symbol of melancholy and distress. It was limp and drooping, and had nothing about it suggestive of brightness, buoyancy, and health. I spoke to the gardener about it, and this was the gardeners reply: That plant, sir, needs three things. It wants better soil, cleaner air, and more light. I was impressed with the comprehensiveness of the counsel. I think the gardener was demanding even more than he himself conceived. For what did he ask? He asked that I should give my plant better soil; that is to say, it wanted a new earth. He asked that I should give it more light; that is to say, it wanted a new heaven. He asked that I should give it cleaner air; that is to say, it needed a new climate. If my plant were to be brought out of melancholy disease into bright and vigorous health these three conditions would have to be supplied. I should have to take it away from its poor, lean, scanty rootage; I should have to remove it from the polluting gases and vapours by which it was choked; and I should have to release it from the artificial light, or at the best the natural twilight, by which it was imprisoned. A day or two ago I saw another plant, away up on the Warton Hill. This plant enjoyed all the three conditions prescribed by my gardener. It was rooted in luxurious soil, it was steeped and baptized in the uninterrupted light, and it was swept and washed by the unpolluted air. And the plant was the very symbol of joy and strength and health. Its leaves were bright and radiant, and it erected itself as though in conscious triumph. All of which I say is a parable. There are multitudes of souls which are sick and drooping and sad. They are limp and melancholy. There is nothing about them suggestive of radiant joy and victory. How can they be transformed? By the establishment of new conditions. They require a new soil, more light and pure air; that is to say, they need a new earth, a new heaven, and a new climate. And surely it is the new things that, above all else, are promised to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. In Jesus Christ we are heirs to the new things; the new earth and the new heaven are ours in Him.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
2. But while the joy of the Lord is ours by the gift of the Holy Ghost, there are means used for conveying and for deepening it. God makes use of public worship as a means by which He imparts His joy. How many have come to church burdened and careworn, and gone home from the sanctuary of God refreshed and strengthened. That is what happened to the Psalmist (Psa 73:17); and this is exactly what God promised when He said (Isa 56:7), I will make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called the house of prayer for all people.
3. God makes use of Holy Scripture as a means of imparting joy. There can be no real joy that is not founded on Scripture; no other teaching can be the means of imparting abiding peace. Other things may produce excitement, and very lively emotions for a time; but it is the Word of God alone that can be the basis of solid joy. This appears very plainly in the words of our Lord Himself and His beloved Apostle. In Joh 15:11, He said, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full; and in 1Jn 1:4, St. John appears to echo the words of his Master, and says, These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
4. Finally, if we are to be joyful before the Lord and to serve Him with a pure and constant gladness, we must add to our worship trust. The Psalmist warns us that we can be thankful to God and speak good of His Name only as we are sure that He is a gracious God, whose mercy and truth are everlasting, and that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. It is our distrust of Him and of our security in Him that so often gives us mourning for joy, and heaviness of spirit for the garment of praise.
There must be trust before there is joy. This seems so obvious that at first sight we should scarcely consider it worthy of notice; but yet in practical life it requires to be most carefully observed. I have myself met with numbers of persons who have told me that they cannot trust the Lord Jesus Christ because they have no joy in their hearts. This is utterly opposed to Holy Scripture, and indeed to the reason of things. If I may not trust till I have joy, where is the joy to come from? How can any man be rejoicing in safety before he is safe, and before he has learned to trust the Lord Jesus for his safety? How can there be joy in the heart that is doubting Christ? If, therefore, we are to be joyous believers, we must learn to trust when we have no joy at all.1 [Note: E. Hoare.]
Are you glad, my big brother, my deep-hearted oak?
Are you glad in each open-palm leaf?
Do you joy to be Gods? Does it thrill you with living delight?
Are your sturdy in stalwart belief?
As you stand day and night,
As you stand through the nights and the days,
Do you praise?
O strenuous vine, do you run,
As a man runs a race to a goal,
Your end that Gods will may be done,
Like a strong-sinewed soul?
Are you glad? Do you praise?
Do you run?
And shall I be afraid,
Like a spirit undone;
Like a sprout in deep shade;
Like an infant of days:
When I hear, when I see and interpret aright
The winds in their jubilant flight;
The manifest peace of the sky and the rapture of light;
The pan of waves as they flow;
The stars that reveal
The deep bliss of the night;
The unspeakable joy of the air;
And feel as I feel,
And know as I know
God is there?
Hush!
For I hear him
Enshrined in the heart of the wood:
Tis the priestly and reverent thrush,
Anointed to sing to our God:
And he hymns it full well,
All I stammer to tell,
All I yearn to impart.
Listen!
The strain
Shall sink into the heart,
And soften and swell
Till its meaning is plain,
And love in its manifold harmonies, that shall remain,
Shall remain.1 [Note: Danske Carolina Dandridge.]
iii. What are the occasions for it?
1. Is there not an occasion for joy in the mere fact of living in a world so wonderful as this of ours, where, as the Psalmist expresses it, everything in His temple cries aloud, Glory to God! The study of the open Book of Nature is full of a subtle joy, and no one who reads its pages aright, and understands the joy of bird and beast, and grasps the perfect beauty of every living thing upon the earth, can for one moment doubt that Gods intention is surely that gladness and happiness should be the rule of life, and that sorrow and sadness are contrary to His will.
Let thy day be to thy night
A letter of good tidings. Let thy praise
Go up as birds go up, that when they wake
Shake off the dew and soar. So take Joy home,
And make a place in thy great heart for her,
And give her time to grow and cherish her,
Then will she come and oft will sing to thee
When thou art working in the furrows, ay,
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn.
It is a comely fashion to be glad,
Joy is the grace we say to God.1 [Note: Jean Ingelow, Dominion.]
All the simple things of nature are joyous; flowers and fruits, woods and streams, the meadows and the breezes, the song of birds, the movements of animals, the irrepressible mirth of children. All the strong things of nature are magnificently joyous. The sun goeth forth as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. The sea with its mighty rush and roll, the tempest in its resistless sweep, have the major tone of rejoicing in their roar. The jubilance and triumph of nature are seen in her complex operations. We rejoice in the thunderstorm when we have learnt by how sweet an air, how clear a sky, it will be followed; we rejoice in snow and hail when we know how benignant a mission they fulfil. Pain and death are recorded in the rocks; the soil is eloquent of decay. But in the past ages, when the forgotten creatures lived, there was more pleasure than pain in their living; and their death was as a sacrifice out of which the fuller life of the present has emerged. Decay itself in nature is but the messenger of a nobler vitality; the herald of renewed rejoicing.
2. Think, again, of the deep joy of human comradeship and family affection, and of the countless blessings of our wonderful civilization, which pours out at our very feet the treasures of the whole world. And yet again: did not God intend that the joy of the human intellectthat kingly mind of man of which the Greek philosopher tells usshould be a very real one? The joys of literature, of science, of art, and, perhaps beyond all others, the joy of musicare not these most clearly among the plainest evidences of the joy of the Lord?
I saw him across the dingy street,
A little old cobbler, lame, with a hump,
Yet his whistle came to me clear and sweet
As he stitched away at a dancing-pump.
Well, some of us limp while others dance;
Theres none of lifes pleasures without alloy.
Let us thank Heaven, then, for the chance
To whistle, while mending the shoes of joy.
3. We thank God not only for the joy of our creation and preservation, and of all the blessings of this life, but above all for His inestimable love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. Here in the opening of the Kingdom of heaven to all believers; here in the magnificent certainty of our souls salvation; here in the blessed fact of Christs sympathy and companionship; in the joy of worship; in the rapture of prayer and of the Holy Communion; here in the anticipation of the unrevealed glory of heaven and of the final victory of light over darkness, of good over evilhere we have the highest proof of all that it is indeed Gods will that we should be happy, and as we learn to grasp and realize this great truth, and to build all our hopes for time and for eternity upon His love and faithfulness, we learn, too, to say from the depths of our full hearts, The joy of the Lord is our strength.
The Jewish system enters into the history of the Christian revelation; a system which was abolished, not because it came not at all from God, or was unworthy of Him, but because in the Gospel its truths have been perfectly revealed, its motives purified and exalted, and its imperfections corrected and supplied. One thing that strikes a careful reader of the Bible is that, in itself and in its application to the men who received it, the Jewish system was in the main a festal, joyous service. We, with our Christian sympathies and fuller spiritual sensitiveness, read into the Jewish lawas we read into naturea gloom and heaviness of which its own subjects were scarcely, if at all, conscious. Its restrictions were for the welfare of the people and added comfort to their life; its festivals were more numerous than its fasts; the greater part of its sacrifices were not destroyed as forbidden things, but eaten gratefully and gladly by the worshippers.1 [Note: A. Mackennal.]
Hark! Hark! the joyous lark
Greets the dewy dawn of May;
Hardly has he time to mark
The quivering eyelid of the day,
Ere he springs, with fluttering wings,
In the rapture of the sight;
Ever soaring as he sings,
Till he lose himself in light.
Heart, heart, how slow thou art
With thy morning hymn of praise!
Ah! can love no joy impart,
Though it compass all thy ways?
Why sad amid the glad
Sunshine which is Gods and thine?
O the bliss that may be had,
Lost in thoughts of love divine!
Why, why sit and sigh,
Moping oer thy former sin,
With the gates of glory nigh
Free for thee to enter in?
O rejoice with heart and voice,
Like the bird upon the wing;
They who in the Lord rejoice
Songs of Heaven to earth shall bring.2 [Note: Walter C. Smith, Thoughts and Fancies for Sunday Evenings, 14.]
4. And then, last of all, we find occasions for joy in the spiritual life. Speaking doctrinally, joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and a direct result of the Gospel. Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. God intended to give to the penitent the joy of pardon; to the defiled the joy of holiness; to the feeble the joy of strength. God intended by His promises to lift up our hearts in exultation; and therefore He sent His Son for our acceptance. And Christian history and experience confirm the testimony. It is impossible for any one to study the writings of the Apostle Paul, and not see how buoyant was his spirit. His soul was set in harmony by his faith in Christ, and the joyous impulse fills him. It breaks out in thankful remembrance of his salvation; plays in many a stroke of humour when he makes merry with his infirmities or banters those whom he would wean from follies and prejudices; it lends a glow to his affections, and broadens his heart in world-wide love. And it is ever thus. In proportion as a man has the spirit of Christs sacrifice, he will anticipate Christs triumph, and be filled with Christs joy. Strong Christians are always gladsome men; they find inspiration in their mission, bliss in their work. The voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving is in their tabernacles; they rejoice in the Lord alway; they rejoice with them that do rejoice. And in this they are but manifesting the will of God; giving full play and scope to the spirit of their Father who dwelleth in them.
(1) Joy in the Lord is to be Christlike.And if the joy is Christlike it will move about two thingssublimities and simplicities. Our Lords joy was found among the sublimities; in communion with the Highest. Those withdrawals from the crowd, those quiet seasons spent upon the mountain-side, those retirements into lonely places were seasons of joyful intercourse with the Father. To have His joy is to share the ecstasy of this communion. But the joy is not only among the sublimities, it is also among the simplicities. What joy the Master found amid lowly thingsin home-life, amid congenial friends; in nature-life, amid flowers and birds and streams; in service-life, ministering to the poor and needy. If our joy is to be as the Masters joy, it, too, will shine and flame in spheres of common life.
I met an old man a day or two ago who had spent half a century in the secret place with God. And at the end of fourscore years his joy is as ripe as autumn fruit. Why, you are quite a marvel, said one of his friends. No, no; it is my Lord who is the marvel, replied the saint, who has dwelt so long in the holy place.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
(2) Joy in the Lord is progressive.Your joy shall be fulfilled. Spiritual life is not complete and perfected in a day; it grows from glory unto glory. And joy itself is one of the things which are being ever more richly matured. Each day will fulfil more of its promise and elicit more of its wealth. It is the subject of a ripening ministry which will never be finished.
The law of the universe is Perfectionationthat is to say, progression from bad to good, from good to better, and from better to best. And this progression is effected by activity. We make the Sabbath the first day of the weekvery foolish! It is and was the last day of the week, and is a symbol of enjoyment in work done during the six days that precede, work being the very perfect business and definition of life.1 [Note: John Stuart Blackie, i. 194.]
(3) Joy in the Lord is invulnerable.Your joy no man taketh from you. And this for the simple reason that no man can get at it! It is beyond the reach of human treachery, and is indeed independent of all external circumstances.
I went a little while ago to the old ruined castle at Middleham. I noticed the massive outer walls of extraordinary thickness. I measured the inner walls, which constitute the keep, and in the middle of the keep there was the well. The water supply was quite independent of the invading forces by which the castle in olden days was beset and besieged. The water supply could never be touched. The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. Our joy is a well which is in the keep. The Lord is thy keeper.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
III
Our Strength
We know by practical experience that joy is a strength. We know that, while sorrow depresses and unnerves us, joy gives us new heart and vigour. In a cheerful, confident mood we can do that which is quite impossible to us when our strength is wasted in doubt and vain regrets. If we go to any task in a gay, hopeful spirit, we are likely to do it well; while a dejected and fearful heart is only too likely to ensure the failure it anticipates and dreads. But if all joy is strengthening, how much more the joy of the Lord! For the joy of the Lord is that serene cheerfulness which springs from an unwavering trust in Him, and which is therefore independent of the changes and losses and griefs of time. If God is our chief good, our supreme joy, as He does not change, our joy cannot change. Settled in a perfect trust in Him, we abide in a settled gladness and peace. All tasks are easier to us because we are sure of Him; all losses are endurable because we cannot lose Him; all sorrows may be borne because we are joyful in Him. It is only because Gods presence and help, His friendliness and love, His perfect care of us and His joy in our joy, are not real and supreme facts to us, because they are hidden from us by our sins and fears, that we are so often weak and miserable and perturbed.
1. The joy of the Lord is our strength in the face of temptation.If we look back at the past, do we not find that those periods in which we have given way to doubt and distrust were times in which all spiritual energy was paralysed, times in which we longed for some emotion that would raise us above ourselveslonged for more life and fuller? Then, in the cold dreary midnight which has seemed to be settling over us, has not the voice whispered, It is better to go madly wrong than to be passionless and cold? Then it was that the sleeping evil in the heart started into life, and low impulses and base temptations rose up in power. Now the joy of the Lord disarms temptation; it forms in itself the fulness of emotion, and surrounds us with a heavenly atmosphere in which the assaults of evil fall powerless away. It is the vacant heart that is powerless. It must be filled. It is vain to say to a man, Love not the world, unless you give him something else to love. Thus He who is filled with that calm joy which springs from the surrender of the heart to God, and fellowship with His love, is strong with an irresistible strength.
He swung along the road, happy in heart, singing softly to himself, and thinking about the Saviour. All at once he could feel the fumes coming out of a saloon ahead. He could not see the place yet, but his keen, trained nose felt it. The odours came out strong and gripped him. He said he was frightened, and wondered how he would get by. He had never gone by before, he said, always gone in; but he couldnt go in now. But what to do, that was the rub. Then he smiled and said, I remembered, and I said, Jesus youll have to come along and help me get by, I never can by myself. And then in his simple, illiterate way he said, and He cameand we went by, and weve been going by ever since.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 81.]
2. The joy of the Lord is our strength for service.No man can do his work well unless his heart is in it; and for a man to put heart into it he must enjoy it; and to enjoy it he must feel that it is congenialthat is to say, the three essential elements of successful service are fitness, enjoyment, enthusiasm. Now, God has a work for all that is in harmony with the best powers of each; a work about which we can say, I delight to do thy will, O my God; and a work, therefore, which we can do with all our might. That work is Gods work, the service which engages the energies of the blessed God, which angels rejoice over, and for the joy of completing which the Redeemer endured the cross and despised the shamethe work of rescuing men from sin and making them happy in Gods love.
Observe the profound wisdom of Nehemiahs injunction. The distress of the people was not unnatural, neither was it excessive. It might, however, through indulgence in it, have become excessive and unreal. The surest test by which to distinguish between true penitence and spasmodic emotion is to set a man about the common duties of life. If, amid the distractions of these things, he loses his contrition, it is evident that he never was earnestly contrite; that his was mere excited sensibility and not inward feeling. And even a true emotion requires to be directed into wholesome channels. There was hard work for these Jews to do; the whole task of religious reformation lay before them. Their penitence needed to be husbanded for future motive, not wasted in floods of tears and the ecstasy of a common weeping. It may seem strange to us that a cold external commandment should have been the consideration by which they were bidden to self-restraint. But when people have lost their self-control it is only by an external influence that they can be recovered. If we have to do with hysterical persons, it is not along the line of their feeling that we restore them, but by definitely setting ourselves against it; not by sympathizing with their emotion and by words of tenderness, but by the quick sharp rebuke, Enough of this; you must not give way. We recover the widowed mother to composure by bidding her, not indeed forget her dead husband, but remember her living children. We bring back stricken mourners to hope and usefulness by reminding them of imperative and healing duty.1 [Note: A. Mackennal.]
There is, no doubt, an element of truth in George Eliots words, Many a good piece of work is done with a sad heart, and the lines of Matthew Arnold embody a similar lesson:
Tasks in hours of insight willed
May be in hours of gloom fulfilled.
Still, as a general rule, it will be found that there is nothing more unfavourable to efficient or successful work than despondency or sadness. A joyless workman is seldom a good workman; he does not work vigorously, he has no pleasure in his work, and consequently he is very likely to tire of it. Joy is the source of strength. Gladness is the secret of efficiency. Light-heartedness makes work easy. If our spirits begin to flag, we shall not conquer difficulties. If we lose heart, we shall win no victories. If the arm is to smite with vigour, says Dr. Maclaren, it must smite at the bidding of a calm and light heart.
Now with no care or fear,
Because I feel Thee near,
Because my hands were not reached out in vain,
I may from out my calm
Reach humbly out some balm,
Some peace, some light to others in their pain.
3. The joy of the Lord is our strength for endurance.We are too weak to endure the discipline of life unless we have the present earnest of the future reward. Sorrows make us strong by breaking us away from the enervating influences of the worlds life; but stronger for endurance is this joy which springs out of sorrow. It was this joy that shone out in the martyr ages, and filled the martyrs souls with the peace of God, and it is the earnest and foretaste now of the blessedness of those who, being faithful to the end, shall fully enter into the joy of their Lord.
Learn to live with the contentment of those who have already found their portion, who see their way now through eternity. And at each step of your way, when things are very dark with you and the light has died off from all you took pleasure in, when men are wondering how they can speak a word of comfort to you, you can still say, The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage! You are determined to read all Gods dealings with you in the light of His prime gift; and you know well enough that the want of some things is a part of the all things that God bestows. You can, each one of you, go to God now and say with a confidence no creature can challenge, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.1 [Note: Marcus Dods.]
Waiting on Him who knows us and our need,
Most need have we to dare not, nor desire,
But as He giveth, softly to suspire
Against His gift, with no inglorious greed,
For this is joy, tho still our joys recede;
And, as in octaves of a noble lyre,
To move our minds with His, and clearer, higher,
Sound forth our fate; for this is strength indeed.
Thanks to His love let earth and man dispense
In smoke of worship when the heart is stillest,
A praying more than prayer: Great good have I,
Till it be greater good to lay it by;
Nor can I lose peace, power, permanence,
For these smile on me from the thing Thou willest!2 [Note: Frank Dempster Sherman.]
Literature
Cox (S.), Biblical Expositions, 124.
Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 15.
Dods (M.), Footsteps in the Path of Life, 144.
Grubb (G. C.), Unsearchable Riches, 131.
Hamilton (J.), Faith in God, 303.
Hoare (E.), Great Principles of Divine Truth, 204.
Hull (E. L.), Sermons preached at Kings Lynn, ii. 109.
Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 113.
Kemble (C.), Memorials of a Closed Ministry, ii. 171.
Leach (C.), Old yet Ever New, 242.
Mackay (H. O.), Miniature Sermons, 9.
Mackennal (A.), The Life of Christian Consecration, 146.
Maclaren (A.), Creed and Conduct, 83.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: 2 Kings, etc., 379.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons preached in Manchester, i. 136.
Matheson (G.), Rests by the River, 270.
Moody (D. L.), New Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers, 412.
Smellie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 139.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xvii. (1871), No. 1027.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xviii. No. 1142.
Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 129.
Christian World Pulpit, iv. 248 (Woodford); viii. 314 (Mackennal); xxi. 122 (Burn); xxxix. 6 (Hocking).
Church Family Newspaper, Feb. 24, 1911, 148 (Willink).
Churchmans Pulpit: Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, xii. 181 (Burn), 185 (Hull).
Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., iv. 163 (Burn).
Examiner, July 9, 1903, 36 (Jowett).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Go your way: Ecc 2:24, Ecc 3:13, Ecc 5:18, Ecc 9:7, 1Ti 6:17, 1Ti 6:18
eat: Son 5:1
send: Deu 26:11-13, Est 9:19, Est 9:22, Job 31:16-18, Ecc 11:2, Luk 11:41, Rev 11:10
the joy: Psa 28:7, Psa 28:8, Psa 149:2, Pro 17:22, Isa 6:7, Isa 6:8, Isa 12:1-3, Isa 35:1-4, Isa 61:10, Joe 2:23, 2Co 8:2, 2Co 12:8, 2Co 12:9, Phi 3:4
Reciprocal: Lev 3:17 – eat neither Deu 12:12 – And ye Deu 15:14 – the Lord Deu 27:7 – rejoice 1Sa 25:8 – a good day 2Sa 6:19 – he dealt 1Ki 8:66 – joyful 1Ch 16:3 – to every one 2Ch 7:10 – glad 2Ch 30:21 – great gladness Ezr 6:16 – with joy Neh 8:12 – to send Est 8:17 – a feast Job 29:13 – I caused Job 31:17 – have Psa 30:11 – girded Psa 118:24 – we will Isa 40:1 – comfort Zec 14:21 – every Luk 14:13 – call Joh 6:12 – that nothing Joh 17:13 – that Act 2:46 – did Phi 3:1 – rejoice Phi 4:7 – shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 8:10. Eat the fat, and drink the sweet Feast before the Lord, as the duty of the day requires you to do. Send portions, &c. For the relief of your poor brethren, who otherwise must mourn while you rejoice. Concerning this duty and practice, see Deu 16:11; Deu 16:14; Est 9:10. For this day is holy Being the first new moon in the year, and the feast of trumpets, (Lev 23:24,) and the beginning of this joyful month, in which so many days of thanksgiving are to be observed. For the joy of the Lord is your strength That is, rejoicing in God, in the manner prescribed in his word, or serving him with cheerfulness and thankfulness, (which is always your duty, but now especially,) will give you that strength, both of body and mind, which you greatly need, that you may perform all the duties required of you, and oppose the designs of your enemies against you. But dejection of mind, and excessive grief, if you indulge it, will both offend God and damp your spirits, and will even weaken your very bodies, and make you unfit for Gods service, and an easy prey to your enemies.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is {f} prepared: for [this] day [is] holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the {g} joy of the LORD is your strength.
(f) That is, remember the poor.
(g) Rejoice in the Lord, and he will give you strength.