We are called to rejoice in the Lord for who He is in our lives. Rejoicing in Him brings life, hope, and vitality.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.
2 Praise the Lord with the harp;
Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses. Psalm 33:1-7
The entire Psalm chapter 33 is full of encouragement and hope, and it begins with rejoicing in God. When things are uncertain, it causes us to spin our wheels endlessly and feel stuck with a lack of solution. Singing praises to God, causes us to use our energy and our breath of life to give Him glory. Our adoration of God allows us to exhale all negativity and pressure. We focus our attention on Him and we begin to experience calmness and joy in our spirit, soul, and body.
When we Rejoice and worship God, it allows us to move to a higher place spiritually and helps us to begin to see things from God’s point of view. Rejoicing disperses the fog and allow us to begin to see clearly.
Remembering the goodness and the kindness of God is crucial! He is our hope and our help at all times. The Lord has many titles in the scriptures, but one of the ones that describes our relationship to Him is that of being a shepherd to a sheep. Just as sheep without a shepherd are helpless and in danger of predators, we also are very vulnerable without our Shepherd. Jesus told us that His sheep hear His voice. That’s a reassuring word to every believer. When we look to our Shepherd, He will lead and guide us and will not leave us as orphans to figure things out on our own. Praise God that we have a good Shepherd who desires to lead us in green pastures and beside still waters!
As the above passage states, the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord (verse 5b). Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord. The Lord’s grace is over the world holding it together. He has graciously provided abundant resources for our existence and for our enjoyment.
The past threes years of dealing with a pandemic are a reminder that there are many dangerous and invisible elements out there that could potentially destroy humanity in various ways, but the Lord has kept them in check by His mercy and grace. True wisdom recognizes that if it wasn’t for God, man’s skills and ingenuity would have not been sufficient to make life and advancement on this earth possible.
No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
Psalm 33 continues with the above passage tells us that it is vain hope when we look to man for strength and protection. People and systems will fail us, but God is our hope and our refuge in uncertain times. In reality, things will continue to change at a fast rate and most of us will not be able to keep up with the speed of change. We need God in our midst. We need to pray for our nation to return to the Lord and look to Him for all the answers. People need to wean themselves from relying on experts or politicians for all the answers.