Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, “Today is holy to Yahweh your God. Don’t mourn, nor weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”
So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Hold your peace, for the day is holy. Don’t be grieved.”
All the people went their way to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
On the second day, the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered together to Ezra the scribe, to study the words of the law. They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month; and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and get olive branches, branches of wild olive, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make temporary shelters, as it is written.”
So the people went out, and brought them, and made themselves temporary shelters, everyone on the roof of his house, in their courts, in the courts of God’s house, in the wide place of the water gate, and in the wide place of Ephraim’s gate. All the assembly of those who had come back out of the captivity made temporary shelters, and lived in the temporary shelters; for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the children of Israel had not done so. There was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 15, 16, 17 In considering their offences against the Law. Therefore the…
In considering their offences against the Law. Therefore the Levites do not reprove them for mourning, but assure them of God’s mercies forasmuch as they are repentant.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–18 Neh 8:9 And Nehemiah, which [is] the Tirshatha, and…
Neh 8:9 And Nehemiah, which [is] the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day [is] holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
Ver. 9. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha] Or governor. See Ezr 2:63. He had Jovianus, the emperor’s, wished happiness, which was, that he might govern wise men, and that wise men might govern him.
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And Ezra the priest and scribe] See Neh 8:3.
And the Levites that taught the people] That numerus nominum, id est, hominum, of names that is of men, mentioned Neh 8:7, men most happy in such melting hearers. We in this day do prevail as little as Bede did when he preached to a heap of stones.
This day is holy unto the Lord your God] Your mourning, therefore, now is as much out of season as Samson’s wife’s weeping was at her wedding. All God’s worships were to be celebrated with joy, Deu 12:7, and sacrifices offered in mourning were abomination, Hos 9:4. See Mal 2:13. {See Trapp on "Mal 2:13"}
Mourn not, nor weep] sc. Under sense of sin, and fear of wrath. This they were called to at another time, Isa 22:12 Jas 4:9-10; but everything is beautiful in its season, Ecc 3:11.
For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law] For like cause as Josiah did, 2Ki 22:11; 2Ki 22:19. His tender heart was troubled and terrified by the menaces of God’s mouth uttered against his and the people’s sins. Hence some infer that it was the decalogue, together with the malediction, that was now read and applied; and that made them weep so fast. Get thee God’s law, saith holy Bradford, as a glass to look in, so shall you see your face foul arrayed, and so shameful, mangy, pockey, and scabbed, that you cannot but be sorry at the contemplation thereof, especially if you look to the tag tied to God’s law; which is such as cannot but make us cast our currish tails between our legs if we believe it. But O faithless hard hearts! O Jezebel’s guests, rocked and laid asleep in her bed! &c. (Serm. of Rep.).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–18 This day is holy unto the Lord your God,…
This day is holy unto the Lord your God, to wit, as a day of feasting and thanksgiving to God, and rejoicing in his mercies; for otherwise even fasting days were holy to God in the general, though not in the sense here meant.
All the people wept, out of a deep sense of their great guilt, and of their extreme danger by reason of it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv9, 13 We may here observe,
We may here observe,
I. How the people were wounded with the words of the law that were read to them. The law works death, and speaks terror, shows men their sins, and their misery and danger because of sin, and thunders a curse against every one that continues not in every part of his duty. Therefore when they heard it they all wept (Neh 8:9): it was a good sign that their hearts were tender, like Josiah's when he heard the words of the law. They wept to think how they had offended God, and exposed themselves, by their many violations of the law; when some wept all wept, for they all saw themselves guilty before God.
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II. How they were healed and comforted with the words of peace that were spoken to them. It was well that they were so much affected with the word of God, and received the impressions of it; but they must not yield unduly to their mourning, especially at this time, because the day was holy to the Lord; it was one of the solemn feasts, on which it was their duty to rejoice; and even sorrow for sin must not hinder our joy in God, but rather lead us to it and prepare us for it.
1. The masters of the assembly endeavoured to pacify them and encourage them. Now Nehemiah is brought in, and not before, in this chapter; he took notice of the people's weeping. Ezra was pleased to see them so affected with the word, but Nehemiah observed to him, and Ezra concurred in the thought, that it was now unseasonable. This day was holy (it is called a sabbath, Lev 23:24), and therefore was to be celebrated with joy and praise, not as if it were a day to afflict their souls. (1.) They forbade the people to mourn and weep (Neh 8:9): Be not sorry (Neh 8:10); hold your peace, neither be you grieved, Neh 8:11. Every thing is beautiful in its season; as we must not be merry when God calls to mourning, so we must not frighten and afflict ourselves when God gives us occasion to rejoice. Even sorrow for sin must not grow so excessive as to hinder our joy in God and our cheerfulness in his service. (2.) They commanded them to testify their joy, to put on the garments of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness. They allowed them, in token of their joy, to feast themselves, to eat and drink better than on other days, to eat the fat and drink the sweet; but then it must be, [1.] With charity to the poor: "Send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared that your abundance may supply their want, that they may rejoice with you and their loins may bless you." Christ directs those that make feasts to invite their poor neighbours, Luk 14:13. But it is especially the duty of a religious feast, as well as of a religious fast, to draw out the soul to the hungry, Isa 58:7, Isa 58:10. God's bounty should make us bountiful. Many will eat the fat and drink the sweet themselves, even to excess, that will never allow portions, nor scarcely crumbs, to the poor, who may read their own doom in the parable of the rich man, Luk 16:19, etc. But such know not, or consider not, what God gave them their estates for. Observe, We must not only give to those that offer themselves, but send to those that are out of sight. The liberal devises liberal things, and seeks objects of charity. [2.] It must be with piety and devotion: The joy of the Lord is your strength. Let it not be a carnal sensual joy, but holy and spiritual, the joy of the Lord, joy in the goodness of God, under the direction and government of the grace of God, joy arising from our interest in the love and favour of God and the tokens of his favour. "This joy will be your strength, therefore encourage it; it will be your strength, First, For the performance of the other duties of the feast." The more cheerful we are in our religious exercises the more we shall abound in them. Secondly, "For all that which you have to do in conformity to the law of God which has been read to you." Holy joy will be oil to the wheels of our obedience. Thirdly, "For the resisting of your enemies that are plotting against you." The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies, and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks.
2. The assembly complied with the directions that were given them. Their weeping was stilled (Neh 8:11) and they made great mirth, Neh 8:12. Note, We ought always to have such a command of every passion as that, however it may break out, it may soon be restrained and called in again when we are convinced that it is either unreasonable or unseasonable. He that has such a rule as this over his own spirit is better than the mighty. Observe, (1.) After they had wept they rejoiced. Holy mourning makes way for holy mirth; those that sow in tears shall reap in joy; those that tremble at the convictions of the word may triumph in the consolations of it. (2.) The ground of their joy was very good. They made mirth, not because they had the fat to eat and the sweet to drink, and a great deal of good company, but because they had understood the words that were declared to them. note, [1.] To have the holy scriptures with us, and helps to understand them, is a very great mercy, which we have abundant reason to rejoice in. Bibles and ministers are the joy of God's Israel. [2.] The better we understand the word of God the more comfort we shall find in it; for the darkness of trouble arises from the darkness of ignorance and mistake. When the words were first declared to them they wept; but, when they understood them, they rejoiced, finding at length precious promises made to those who repented and reformed and that therefore there was hope in Israel.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–18 And Nehemiah which is the Tirshatha,.... Or governor, as…
And Nehemiah which is the Tirshatha,.... Or governor, as Zerubbabel had been, and now Nehemiah, see Ezr 2:63
and Ezra the priest and scribe; see Neh 8:1,
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and the Levites that taught the people; see Neh 8:7
said unto all the people, this day is holy unto the Lord your God; being both the new moon and the feast of blowing of trumpets:
mourn not, nor weep; which was unsuitable to a festival, and especially such an one as this, in which trumpets were to be blown, and gladness to be shown, Num 10:10
for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law; perceiving they had not kept it, but had broke it in many instances, and so liable to the wrath and judgment of God in case of disobedience.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 13, 15, 17 Wept - Out of a sense of their guilt…
Wept - Out of a sense of their guilt and danger by reason of it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17 Verse 9. Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha] This puts…
Verse 9. Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha] This puts it out of doubt that, when the Tirshatha is mentioned, Nehemiah himself is intended, Tirshatha being the name of his office.
Mourn not, nor weep.] This is a holy day to God: a day appointed for general rejoicing in Him who has turned our captivity, restored to us his law, and again established among us his ordinances.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 Neh 8:9. This day is holy unto the Lord…
Neh 8:9. This day is holy unto the Lord your God — Namely, as a day of feasting and thanksgiving to God, and rejoicing in his mercies; for otherwise even days of fasting were holy to God in general, though not in the sense here meant. Mourn not, nor weep — Be not sorry, Neh 8:10. Hold your peace: neither be ye grieved, Neh 8:11. Every thing is beautiful in its season. As we must not be merry, when God calls to mourning; so we must not afflict ourselves, and be swallowed up in sorrow, when God gives us occasion to rejoice. Even sorrow for sin must not grow so excessive as to hinder our joy in God, and cheerfulness in his service. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law — Out of a deep sense of their great guilt, and extreme danger by reason of it.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17 Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha - Hereto, Nehemiah has…
Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha - Hereto, Nehemiah has called himself פחה pechâh Neh 5:14-15, Neh 5:18, which is the ordinary word for “governor.” Now for the first time he is called ‘the Tirshatha’” (see Ezr 2:63 note.)
The people wept ... - Because the Law brought vividly before them their sins of omission and commission. In Neh 8:10 the Jews were not forbidden to be sorry for their sins, but they were only prohibited from marring a festive occasion with the expression of their sorrow.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 Interpreted. St. Jerome renders the same term, made silence,…
Interpreted. St. Jerome renders the same term, made silence, (ver. 7.) as it was the office of the Levites to keep the people in awe, ver. 11. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "taught." They had also (Haydock) to instruct, 1 Esdras viii. 16. (Menochius) --- Weep. The Jews had only one feast for mourning, the day of expiation. On all the rest, a holy joy was commended. For the same reason, the Church does not fast on such days. (Calmet) --- Law, reflecting on the threats denounced against transgressors, which they had so lately witnessed. (Tirinus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9, 16, 17, 18 THE PEOPLE COMFORTED. (Neh 8:9-15)
THE PEOPLE COMFORTED. (Neh 8:9-15)
This day is holy unto the Lord . . . mourn not, nor weep--A deep sense of their national sins, impressively brought to their remembrance by the reading of the law and its denunciations, affected the hearts of the people with penitential sorrow. But notwithstanding the painful remembrances of their national sins which the reading of the law awakened, the people were exhorted to cherish the feelings of joy and thankfulness associated with a sacred festival (see on Lev 23:24). By sending portions of it to their poorer brethren (Deu 16:11, Deu 16:14; Est 9:19), they would also enable them to participate in the public rejoicings.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 THE FEAST OF THE NEW MOON, Neh_8:9-12.
THE FEAST OF THE NEW MOON, Neh_8:9-12.
The reading of the law made a profound impression on the minds of the people, and they were moved to weeping. It brought also to their attention the duty of observing the feasts of the seventh month, and having spent the first half of the day in hearing the law. (Neh_8:3,) they were dismissed with words of comfort to observe the feast of the new moon, the feast of trumpets.
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9. The Tirshatha — See on Ezr_2:63. We note that Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites, said unto all the people the words that follow. The direction to observe the feast probably originated with Ezra, and was then proclaimed by the Tirshatha, and communicated to all the people by the Levites.
This day is holy — According to the law the first day of the seventh month was to be observed as “a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation,” during which no servile work should be done. Lev_23:24; Num_29:1. It was a day of gladness and festivity, and the people were exhorted to comfort themselves by appropriately observing it.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–18 9. Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha] R.V. N. which…
9. Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha] R.V. N. which was &c. On the title here used see note on Ezr_2:63. Nehemiah in his own ‘Memoirs’ speaks of himself as ‘Pekhah’ (cf. Neh_5:14-15; Neh_5:18); and in consequence some (e.g. Smend) suggest that the title applied here and in Neh_10:2 to Nehemiah, is a gloss. Others also (see note on Neh_8:1) who refer the events described in this chapter to the year 457, consider Nehemiah’s name to be an interpolation. But the occurrence of the title is only evidence that we are no longer dealing with the writings of Nehemiah, who would have styled himself ‘Pekhah.’ The LXX. omits the title: the Vulg. gives Athersatha. The supposition that Nehemiah purposely eschews the honorific title ‘Tirshatha,’ and prefers a more lowly term ‘pekhah’ is based on an imaginary distinction between the words.
This day is holy] Both as a new-moon day and as the day on which the Law was read. See note on Neh_8:2. It may be doubted whether Ezra could here be referring to ‘the Holy Convocation’ prescribed for the 1st of Tisri in Lev_23:24. There is no mention in this context either of the Feast of Trumpets on the 1st, or of the Day of Atonement on the 9th of Tisri.
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mourn not, nor weep] The people had broken out into demonstrations of grief. As they listened to the words of the Law, they perceived in how many ways they had violated it. Compare the effect of hearing ‘the words of the book of the law’ upon Josiah, 2Ki_22:11. It is clear the people generally were ignorant of the requirements of the Law. May we not infer that the priests had kept to themselves the contents of the collections of laws?
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 (9) Mourn not, nor weep.—The days of high festival…
(9) Mourn not, nor weep.—The days of high festival were unsuitable for public and, as it were, objective sorrow. The Day of Atonement was coming for that; as also the special day of fasting and covenant, which was already in the plan of Nehemiah and Ezra.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–18 Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha. The term "Tirshatha" had…
Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha. The term "Tirshatha" had previously been applied only to Zerubbabel, (Ezr_2:63 Neh_7:65) but it was applicable to any governor. The writer of the section, introducing Nehemiah here for the first time, naturally gives him a title of reverence. Nehemiah"s modesty had made him content to describe himself by the general and comparatively weak term Pechah. said unto the people... Mourn not. A combined remonstrance is made against the open grief of the people by the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, and by the order of Levites. Mourning was unsuitable for a day of high festivity, the opening day of the civil year and of the sabbatical month, itself a sabbath or day of rest, and one to be kept by blowing of trumpets. (Lev_23:24, 25 Num_29:1-6)
Penitential sorrow.
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"All the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
I A NATURAL SORROW. "By the law is the knowledge of sin," and this knowledge cannot but awaken sorrow as to
1. Guilt contracted. The law is seen to be ("holy and just and good;" the Lawgiver righteous and benevolent; and so sin appears "exceeding sinful." It is rebellion against authority the most just; hatred of the infinite Excellence; base ingratitude towards our best Benefactor; disregard of the rights and welfare of our brethren.
2. Good forfeited. Physical, moral, spiritual, eternal; in this ease, national. The thought of what Israel would have been but for disobedience to the law would be most distressing to the Jews. So when we think of all we have lost through sin we may well grieve.
3. Evil incurred. Condemnation, remorse of conscience, degradation of nature, separation from God, shame and sorrow, diseases and death, the miseries of hell. What anguish and tears is the thought of the consequences of sin fitted to produce!
II THE PROPER EFFECTS OF SUCH SORROW.
1. Confession. "I will arise and go to my Father," etc.
2. Repentance. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance," etc.
3. Eager acceptance of the gospel. Revealing as it does the Divine and complete remedy for all that gives the conscious sinner pain a glorious Saviour, a perfect atonement for sin, the Almighty renewing and sanctifying Spirit; and thus a free and full pardon, restoration to the Divine favour, renewal unto holiness, peace, hope, ultimate perfection in body and soul, eternal glory and blessedness.
4. Watchful obedience.
5. Joy. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." But, on the other hand, "Woe unto you that laugh now," careless and impenitent, "for ye shall mourn and weep.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 9-12. Religious emotion.
The scene through which the redeemed and now secured nation was passing was fruitful of excitement. Everything conspired to affect the minds and stir the souls of the people. Large multitudes are soon wrought into intense feeling, and all that the assembled Israelites were then seeing, hearing, and doing, this, taken with all they. recalled of old scenes and past glories, and these experiences and recollections mingled with reviving hopes of future freedom, all together moved and swayed their souls with powerful emotion; and "all the people wept" (ver. 9). It was an interesting instance of religious emotion, and what followed teaches us
I THAT RELIGIOUS EMOTION MUST BE MANFULLY CONTROLLED (ver. 9). Nehemiah and Ezra, and "the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep" (ver. 9). "So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved" (ver. 11). Emotion needs control and correction when
1. It is in danger of being carried to excess. Under some circumstances, such as these of the text, when a very large number of people were all agitated by the same feelings, and each communicated something of his own enthusiasm to his neighbour, it is in serious danger of running into mere physical excitement. Such nervous excitement is perilous, for
(1) It deludes the hearts of men with the idea that they are intensely religious when they are the subjects of a bodily rather than a spiritual affection.
(2) It often carries its subjects to religious and even bodily excesses, which are both guilty and harmful. All religious emotion is, on this ground, to be carefully controlled. It has its place and its use in the Church of Christ, in the spreading of the kingdom; but it is a thing to be watched and guarded in the interests of morality and religion. It needs correction when
2. It takes a wrong direction. Weeping was ill-timed on this occasion. It was a "day holy unto the Lord" (ver. 9); they were "not to mourn nor weep." It was unbecoming the occasion. At such a time the air should not be burdened with sighs and groans; it should be resonant with shouts and songs. Often our religious emotion is misplaced, ill-timed: we lament when God would have us "sing with joy," or we make ourselves merry when we have reason to humble ourselves in the dust.
II THAT JOY SHOULD BE THE PREVAILING NOTE IN OUR RELIGIOUS EMOTION (ver. 10). "This day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (ver. 10). It was not in accordance with the law and the will of God that sorrow should be associated with a holy day. The high priest, with "holiness to the Lord" on his mitre, was not allowed to mourn as others might, or when others did. (Lev_10:6 Lev_21:10) Sin and sorrow, holiness and joy, these are the right companions. "With the voice of joy and praise" we should "keep holyday". (Psa_42:4) With rejoicing hearts, full of the joy of thankfulness and hope, we should sit down to the table of the Lord. "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice". (Php_4:4)
Joy, one of the "fruits of the Spirit," is commended to us with a fulness and frequency in the word of God which may well make us ask ourselves whether we are not negligent in this matter. Joy in Christ Jesus is a grace
(1) which we are repeatedly summoned to show;
(2) which makes us resemble him as he is, crowned with glory and joy;
(3) desirable for its own sake, as obviously, intrinsically better than either sorrow or apathy;
(4) which is a sign and source of spiritual strength.
"The joy of the Lord is our strength" (ver. 10). It is so, for it is both the sign and the source of it.
1. It is the utterance of our spiritual nature; not when it is weak through sin, but when made whole through the power of Christ, and when the "power of Christ" most rests upon us.
2. It is an incentive and encouragement to ourselves to proceed in the path of heavenly wisdom. The Christian man of downcast spirit and dreary views must be under a constant temptation to leave the path; but he who finds not only rest and peace in Christ, but also "joys in God, and delights himself m the service of his Saviour, has the strongest inducement to walk on in the way of life.
3. It is the means of usefulness to others. They who are "in Christ" would be "strong in the Lord," and they would be strong in him that they may be strong for him, extending his kingdom, and winning souls to his side. But how become thus strong for him? By the simple, natural exhibition of a joyous spirit in all spheres and relationships; by constraining the wife, the husband, the children, the servants, the fellow-workmen, etc., to feel that the knowledge of God as a heavenly Father reconciled in Christ Jesus, the trust, the love, the hope which are in him, that this does gladden the spirit and brighten the life as nothing else can. By so doing we shall be strong for Christ. The joy of the Lord will prove to be our strength.
III THAT STRONG RELIGIOUS FEELING FINDS AN ADMIRABLE VENT IN PRACTICAL KINDNESS. "Go your way," etc. (vers. 10, 12).
1. A right channel it finds in "eating and drinking fat and sweet things," so that this be characterised by
(1) moderation, self-restraint, and
(2) thankfulness the recognition of the hand of the great Giver of all good. But,
2. A better channel in "sending portions to them for whom nothing is prepared" (ver. 10). Better far to feel that we are loading another"s table with sweet things where they are seldom found than to be helping ourselves to the most delicious morsels from our own; no source of happiness at once so sure and so pure as in being like the bountiful Father, and opening the hand to satisfy the wants of those who are in need. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9, 15 This day is holy unto the Lord your God;…
Neh_8:9-10
This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep.
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True penitence and spasmodic emotion
Observe the profound wisdom of Nehemiahs injunction. The distress of the people was not unnatural; neither was it excessive. It might, however, through indulgence of 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 you have to do with hysterical persons, it is not along the line of their feeling you restore them, but by definitely settling yourself against it; not by sympathising with their emotion and words of tenderness, but by the quick, sharp rebuke, Enough of this; you must not give way. You recover the widowed mother to Composure by bidding her, not indeed forget her dead husband, but remember her living children. We always draw back stricken mourners to hope and usefulness by reminding them of imperative and healing duty. (A. Mackennal.)
Go your way, eat the fat . . . send portions . . . for whom nothing is prepared.--
Christian sympathy
I. The characters specified in the text. They are said to be those for whom nothing is prepared. The Scriptures, when speaking of mans condition by nature and practice, in the sight of God, very pointedly state the matter. The language of the text speaks of our poverty, destitution, starvation, and ruin.
II. The portions--these blessings. Behold the grace and mercy of God! If God meted out to us mere justice, where should we be? and if God left us in our condemnation and ruin, where should we go? If God neglected us, in what condition should we be? Was God under any obligation to us? And yet we are in mercy spared, and instead of vengeance, behold our text speaks of blessings. And these are not only worthy of God to give, but blessings suitable to us.
III. The command; Send. (H. Allen, M. A.)
For the Joy of the Lord is your strength.
The joy of a Christian
Let us bear in mind three things--
I. A bright and happy walk is one of the greatest ornaments of our Christian profession.
II. Indulgence of sin, carelessness of walk, inconsistency of conversation, will surely bring a cloud over the Christians joy.
III. In Christ alone must we place all our hope and confidence. (J. M. Randall.)
Pure joy an inspiration
It refreshes and exhilarates the whole nature. It helps to fortify the soul against the assaults of the devil. See how the joy of a human affection will often lift a young man right out of the range of low, sensual temptations, and fire his soul with noble and worthy ambitions. Can we wonder then, that it should be true of the joy which springs from the revelation of Gods protection and favour? (T. Campbell Finlayson.)
Spiritual joy
I. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are called upon to rejoice. Would that this were more remembered by us, and experienced by us, and gloried in!
1. None but the believer ought to rejoice. I do not deny that there is such a thing as natural joy in natural objects. There is such a thing as natural joy oftentimes stirred up on spiritual subjects. It is like the arrow that passes through the air; it is like the early frost--the sun arises and it is gone. Oh! no one can rejoice but the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; the worldly man does not know what true joy is. You cannot explain it to him; he cannot receive it; he calls it enthusiasm, fancy, and imagination. A Christless man, a graceless man, a prayerless man, a thoughtless man, a godless man, a hopeless man, how can I expect him to rejoice. In this one thing thou canst rejoice: thou canst rejoice that the door of mercy is not closed. For their own sakes, the Lord will have His people to rejoice. He loves them; and therefore He commands them to be happy. For the sake of others, He would have them to rejoice. He would have them bring the grapes, to show the fruit of the land. And not only so, but for His own great names sake, for His glorys sake, He would have His people rejoice. As He is Himself infinitely happy in Himself, He would have His people reflect Himself.
II. As this joy is not a natural joy in natural objects, so it is not a natural joy in spiritual objects, but it is the joy of the Lord.
1. It is pre-eminently and peculiarly the joy of which the Holy Ghost is the author. Nature gives it not; nature maintains it not. It is the fruit of the Holy Ghost: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.
2. But observe, it is not only the joy of the Lord, but it is joy in the Lord. That which made the eunuchs heart rejoice was Jesus. And if you and I see Him with the eye of faith at this moment, we shall rejoice and be glad too. Oh! there is everything in Jesus to make the soul to rejoice. What is there not in His work, to make the soul to rejoice? The completeness of His atonement. Is there not enough cause in the matchless, majestic, glorious righteousness to make the soul rejoice?
III. That this joy of the Lord is not for our own enjoyment merely, nor for our self-gratification, but to strengthen us. There are two passages of Scripture, to which I would direct your attention here. In the first place, remark in the first of the Epistle to the Philippians, the twenty-fifth verse--And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. See how furtherance stands connected with joy of faith; icy springing from faith, and that joy furthering, advancing, leading onwards and forwards, in the Divine life. Observe too in the third of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the sixth verse, there is that same rejoicing, the rejoicing of hope, and see how it stands Connected with the confidence of hope: if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. We have some precious instances in the Word of God, to show the strengthening power of joy. Observe one in the thirtieth of the first of Samuel. David was, as you and I often are, greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons, and for his daughters; but--ah! that but, it is a volume, it is a folio--but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Observe how that strengthened him. Do you ask, What is that which strengthens for service? It is the joy of the Lord. Take the instance of the prophet Isaiah. Now observe--Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Then said
I. The joy of the Lord was his strength: whithersoever Thou wouldst send me I go. And now there are some few remarks I would make by way of conclusion.
1. In the first place, I would say, that the believer is placed by his covenant God and Father in that position that he requires day by day fresh accession of strength.
2. Then the question now arises, How comes it to pass that there is so much feebleness amongst many of the real children of God if the joy of the Lord is our strength? May we not at once answer, Because they do so little enjoy the joy of the Lord?
3. Remember that this is a joy which the Holy Ghost alone can give; ask it, then, of Him; wait on Him for it; use every means for it. (J. H. Evans.)
Joy of the Lord
There is a joy that enervates ones powers. The joy of the miser, the joy of the worldling, the joy of all carnal gratification. The strength of a good man is the joy of the Lord. Observe--
I. The nature of religious joy.
1. It is pure.
2. It is elevating.
3. It is solid.
4. It is durable.
5. It is heavenly.
6. It is Divine.
II. The conditions of religious joy. (Homiletic Review.)
Religious joy
I. The joy here spoken of is said to be of the Lord, and it is so in a twofold sense.
1. God imparts it--it is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal_5:22; Rom_14:17).
2. God Himself shares in it (Isa_65:19; Jer_13:11; Jer_33:9; Zep_3:17).
II. The joy of the Lord is to be a strength; and it is so.
1. Because it is of God.
2. Because, as such, it enables us to bear up against the ills and disappointments of life (Psa_4:7). Witness what it did for David, Daniel, Paul, and Silas.
3. Because, when earthly joys fail, the joy of the Lord remains (your joy no man taketh from you); and on the very ruins of the former the latter ofttimes finds the soil most fitted to its growth.
III. To whom the joy of the Lord is given. It is imparted to those only--
1. Who are in union and communion with Jesus Christ; this is its true source.
2. Who ask for it by earnest prayer. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full (Joh_16:24).
3. Who love God, and keep His commandments (Psa_19:8).
IV. For what purpose it is given. It is imparted--
1. To be as oil to the wheels of our devotion. Joys are our wings, sorrows are our spurs.
2. To be an inward testimony to ourselves that we have the smile of Gods approval coming down upon our efforts to do what is pleasing and acceptable in His sight; and--
3. To be an outward testimony that our religion is not the joyless service that the world judges it to be; but that all its crosses and calls for penitence and self-denial lead, even in this life, to an inward joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. (C. G. E. Appleyard, B. A.)
Joy our strength
The joy of the Lord is that sensation of gladness and happiness which the Holy Spirit conveys to the soul, and maintains in the soul, through the knowledge of God in His true character towards us.
1. It has nothing to do with worldly joy. It is substantial, eternal, shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day of its consummation in the saints around Gods heavenly throne (Gal_3:22; Rom_14:17).
2. It belongs to the people of God to rejoice in a sense of their reconciliation; to know their salvation is sure through Christs life; to rejoice in the glorious Creator Himself (Rom_5:11).
II. Many a time have these short words delighted the believers ear, and cheered his heart.
1. Mark their excellency. Sound like a sentence uttered in the full knowledge of the gospel rather than under the law. Weak and helpless in yourselves, the Spirit can strengthen you, and supply you with new motives and ability to please the Lord. God has given His only Son to be our joy and our strength. We have a strong city (Isa_26:1; Heb_6:18; Eph_6:10).
2. But how does joy act in rendering us strong--strong to deny ourselves, to suffer, to labour in the cause of Christ? We know our privileges in Christ. This makes us joyful and happy.
3. The Christian rejoices in the past work of Christ, who died; in the present work, intercession; in the future work, returning again in majesty, to endow His servants with eternal bliss (Rom_8:32).
4. Again, joy in the Lord will enable the Christian to accomplish works for the glory of God and the good of others. We know that heart or spirit will enable the competitor for a prize to go through extraordinary exertion. It is the same with the soldier, the labourer, all who have to exert themselves with their bodies or minds. So with the Christian. (F. Trench.)
Christian joy
That few men are profoundly happy is but too true. Nor is it difficult to account for the universal failure on mans part to compass the desires of his soul.
1. The sources on which he draws may be drained dry.
2. The satisfaction which these resources yield is a measurable quantity.
3. Men are not happy, because they seek happiness as an end, and not as a means. Now, if Christianity be Divine, it will accomplish for me what I cannot do for myself. It claims to give men true lasting happiness, because it opens a perennial fountain. In other words, the source of Christian joy is God. This joy is the secret of Christian strength.
I. The source of Christian joy is God. Not without significance that one of Divine attributes is blessedness. God is absolutely happy in Himself, and happy in relation to His creatures.
1. We can tell something of a mans character and disposition by his works. Now Gods works are full of gladness. There is joy in the streams, the woods, the meadows, the cornfields.
2. As in nature, so in grace. The Bible, from cover to cover, warrants the conclusion. The Old Dispensation a much brighter and more beautiful scheme than many superficial students will allow. Law, Prophets, Psalms are full of declarations that Gods people are a happy people. Moses: Happy art thou, O Israel, O people saved of the Lord! David: Blessed are the people that Know the joyful sound! Isaiah: With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation. And when we turn to the New Testament the wittness becomes over whelming. The, Man of Sorrows went to the house of feasting to hallow it with the sunshine of His presence, and to the house of mourning to make it radiant with His everlasting joy. One of His last bequests was this: These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
II. The joy of God is strength.
1. The joy of the Lord is our strength for service. No man can work well unless his heart is in it. The three essential elements of successful service are fitness, enjoyment, enthusiasm. God has a work for all that is in harmony with the best powers of each.
2. The joy of the Lord is our strength against temptation. We are tempted to doubt, but the joy of the Lord will afford a sufficient answer to all anxious questions. We are tempted to fear, but fear is the child of doubt or suspicion. We are tempted by the pleasures of sin, but Gods ways are the ways of pleasantness.
3. The joy of the Lord is our strength for endurance. Christ: In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, etc. (Joh_16:33). Paul: I am filled with comfort, etc. (2Co_7:4).
III. The joy of the Lord, therefore, becomes a Christian law of life. Ingratitude not to accept rich provision God has made for profoundest needs of human spirit. And, further, this provision stands in relation to our duty as means to an end. To neglect our joys is to leave our work undone. But it maybe said that our emotions are the creatures of circumstances. But then we are not the creatures of circumstances. The man who turns his thoughts in upon himself creates for himself an atmosphere in which there can be no joy. Look away from self to God. Walk in the light, as He is in the light. Or if you must look at sell, let it be as accepted in the Beloved; if at the past, as forgiven; if at the present, as full of Divine favour; if at the future, as bright with all the promises of God. (J. W. Burn.)
Strength and joy
The physical strength of a man as a labourer is not unfrequently regarded as the measure of his worth; but mental strength is as much superior to the physical as the soul is to the body. Physical weakness often co-exists with mental might; but both bodily and mental strength may be found in combination with the utterest spiritual weakness.
I. Human joy is identical with Divine joy.
1. The joy of atonement with God. God and man atoned by Christs death, de facto as well as de jure, produces joy in God and man. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the atonement.
2. The joy of reciprocated love. Antecedent to reconciliation with God, His love to us is love of pity and compassion; but atoned in Christ, Gods love to us is that of moral esteem, and our love to Him is the re-percussion of His love to us. We love Him because He first loved us. If any man love Me, etc. (Joh_14:23).
3. Joy of assimilated character. As an element of the kingdom of God joy is a Divine attribute, inherited by those who are one with Christ. That they might have My joy fulfilled (Joh_17:13). That they all may be one, etc. (Joh_17:21). Divine strength and joy are our everlasting inheritance.
II. Human strength is generated by Divine joy.
1. As experienced in freedom from man-fear. Only fear the Lord is one of the first lessons of Christian manliness. God-fear annihilates man-fear, which ever bringeth a snare.
2. As experienced in freedom from death-fear. Really in birth we take up death; but in Christian decease death dies. That through death He might destroy, etc. (Heb_2:14-15.)
3. As developed in all holy action and endurance. The strength of health must be operative. To use is to gain strength. They go from strength to strength (Psa_84:7). (Homilist.)
Strengthening influence of Christian joy
A morose man is generally morally weak. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, and medicates itself. Men weary with sombre thoughts, and are disposed to get rid of them; hence the danger of lapsing from harsh theology into infidelity Christ came with glad tidings. Strengthening influence of Christian joy shown in the elements of it.
1. The joy of faith is strengthening. Faith is enlargement of mind, seeing man in relation to the Creator, a system of providence, redemptive love, immortality, etc. It is intellectual patience--the truss-beam of the soul.
2. The joy of a free conscience is strengthening. No man has courage for high duty who does not know of a forgiven past. The Cross has done more for building up character than did the law.
3. The joy of Divine companionship and help is strengthening. Dependence upon God does not destroy the courage of self-reliance; just the reverse. Bismarck said that without his faith in Gods purpose with him, he would not have courage to keep the German portfolio a single day. Read Froudes Calvinism for the influence of Divine faith upon the enterprise of nations. Gibbon explains the fulfilment of prophecies by assuming that the belief in Gods presence and plan for them gave men the ability to accomplish the predictions.
4. The joy of love to Christ is strengthening. We always serve willingly, patiently, unswervingly, according as we put our hearts into the duty. (Homiletic Review.)
The duty and utility of Christian joy
In all human systems of theology the terrible has preponderated over the lovable, the severe over the kind, in the conceptions of the Divine nature. The outlines of the Eternal face, as imaged by the creature, have been stern; as disclosed by the Creator, they are unspeakably gracious. Hence in the Bible descriptions of heaven, the increase of happiness and of nearness to the Almighty go hand in hand. Hence again, joy, not grief, is the frame of mind in which we are encouraged to come before the Lord. The connection between gladness and God is strikingly brought out by Nehemiah. A reunion with God must not be sullied with weeping, for God is a God of gladness; and the gathering in His presence on earth is to be a forepart of the heavenly meeting. Therefore does he, who in Babylon at the kings table could not repress his own tears--what a strange shadow of a great truth was that heathen tradition that no sign of grief must be shown in a monarchs presence-chamber?--therefore does he allow no wailing in Jerusalem.
I. The joy of the Lord--what is it?
II. How does it constitute the moral strength of a man? It has been well remarked that even cheerfulness of animal spirits is of great aid to virtuousness. There are certain temptations to which a joyous temperament is at once a bar. For example, hardness in judging others, malice, pride, can scarcely coexist with brightness and cheerfulness of heart. Many temptations at once flee away when cheerfulness is enjoyed within. The power of exertion revives after sorrow from the habit of looking at the brighter side. There is one special way in which gladness in God is essentially strength. What, it may be asked, is to be the uneducated mans guard against unbelief? What shall garrison his soul against the infidel tract? I reply, the joy of the Lord, that secret complacency which he consciously gathers from the practice of the commandments of Christianity, and from the resting in the doctrines of Christianity. Teach a man to find a happiness in his Sundays, a gladness in the going up to the house of God, knitting the pleasures of hie life with the mysteries of his faith, and the wave of unbelief will only break itself upon him. It is when you separate pleasure and duty; giving to the things of time all the bright colours, and to the things of eternity all the dark; calling men away from what they like, to pay the debt of a dull, forced uninteresting homage to God, instead of making the rendering such homage in itself a delight--it is then that you create a temptation to withhold the homage, and a temptation to the unbelief which comes in secondly to justify such withholding. When the lamp is gone out in the temple of the Lord, what marvel if the world stands aloof? (Bp. Woodford.)
Sources of happiness
Happiness in the highest sense of the word is not a quality brought into the soul from without, but music that flows from qualities already existing within the soul. Circumstances, environments, possessions, and pursuits may affect the harmony, but it is the attuning of the souls capacities to the key-note of the music of heaven that is the secret source of happiness. There can be no happiness without religion. The most truly religious man ought to be the happiest man. The object of the religion of Christ is sanctified service; the end of that religion is nobility of character, honesty of conduct, purity of heart, veracity, self-sacrifice, high aims, Godlike pursuits. All the happiness of a Christian man will come from the exercise of his faculties, in the attuning of all his capacities and energies to me Divine will and to the eternal laws of truth, rectitude, justice, and righteousness. Thus the music of life is evolved by our own fingers from capacities that we ourselves possess. To ensure the highest happiness--
I. Have high aims and pursue them with avidity. Our faculties are only productive of happiness when they are in motion, just as the string of the harp only makes music when it vibrates. Many lives, therefore, are wretched because they are passed in indolence; many more are tuneless and musicless Because they are frittered away in unworthy pursuits.
II. Cherish the spirit of contentment.
III. Always maintain an abiding faith in God and in the providence which governs the world. (W. J. Hocking.)
Joy
The goodness of God in His providential dealings with us, and in the general economy of the world, is shown not so much by the supply of what is necessary as by the provision of what is in excess of the bare necessaries of life. To call creatures into existence, and then to make no sort of provision for their existence, would argue not so much want of benevolence as despotic inconsistency and capricious ineptitude. In our Zoological Gardens, with their regulation allowances to the animals, there is just enough to meet the claims of necessity; but God makes that wonderful environment in which, when left to themselves, these animals find not only a bare sufficiency that makes life possible, but a profusion of favourable conditions and features that makes life worth living. The lark soaring heavenward; the herd of hippopotami disporting themselves in an African river; the school of whales shooting up their foam-fountains, or placidly basking on the sun-warmed surface of the bay--these and a thousand other objects all seem to bear the same witness that God has made provision, not only for the maintenance, but for the enjoyment, of His creatures. If He shows His goodness towards the lower animals by surrounding them with all that seems necessary for their enjoyment of life, it is only reasonable to suppose that He will make a similar provision for man. Such provision is made in the gospel revelation. Man asks for happiness, and God proposes to give him joy; he asks for security, and God proposes to give him peace; he asks for permanence, and God proposes to give him eternal life; he asks for satisfaction, and God offers him nothing less than Himself. If men could be persuaded that there is more real happiness to be found in serving God than in serving self, in doing right than in doing wrong, Satan would be robbed of his favourite weapon, and we should soon see the whole world transformed. But how is this to be brought about? Happy lives that are happy because they are holy are more likely to speak forcibly to the hearts of the children of this world than any amount of theological theorising. This was one of the mightiest arguments employed by primitive Christianity. Real joy in religion--a joy that followed men into their daily life, and lit up all their experiences; a joy that was unspeakable and full of glory--all this was entirely new in the history of the world, and it must have seemed just what the world wanted. What a weary world wants as much as anything to-day is the testimony of bright faces and bounding hearts as well aa joyful tongues, to the fact that the kingdom of God is not only righteousness, but peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Church of Christ is weak to-day because there is so little joy in it. Joy, then, is designed to play an important part in Christian experience. We shall do well to consider--
I. The source from which it proceeds.
1. Joy is mentioned next to love amongst the fruits of the Spirit, and this order is usually illustrated in spiritual experience. Joy is one of the earliest signs of the new life; if there is joy in heaven over the sinner saved, no wonder that there is joy on earth in the sinners consciousness of salvation.
2. It is also the product of the new and wondrous influence which stirs the soul to its depth when we are restored to our proper relations to the Divine, the mighty impulse of renewed vitality. There is always something essentially joyous in the bursting forth of new life. As in nature, so it is in grace. The new life that is born is indeed an Isaac--a child of laughter. When the Divine Spirit enters and takes possession of our quickened nature He necessarily brings His own joy along with Him.
II. The characteristics that belong to it.
1. As joy flows from a renewal of our proper relations with God, so it is dependent upon the maintenance of those relations. St. Peter tells us that it is in Him whom having not seen we love that we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and Paul, Rejoice in the Lord. Twice he speaks of joy in the Holy Ghost.
2. There is always something in God that we may rejoice in (Hab_3:17-18). It is this characteristic of true spiritual joy that raises those that possess it superior to the circumstances with which they may be surrounded, and which makes it possible for them to realise in their experience what may seem a paradox--sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
3. This joy is enhanced by all that is in accordance with the mind and will of God. What causes joy to Him, causes joy naturally enough to those whose joy is in Him. Thus we have--
(1) The joy of calm acquiescence in the Divine will.
(2) The joy of co-operation in the Divine work.
4. The intensity of this joy will be in proportion to its purity. Conclusion: It may be asked, How are we to get this joy?
I answer--
1. Cease to seek joy for its own sake. Self-abnegation is the condition of the higher joy, and when we are pursuing joy for its own sake, we are not complying with this condition.
2. Remember that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and you cant make fruit grow. It is the life that produces the fruit; but you must see to it that the life has fair play. Beware of loss of communion. Guard against disobedience. Exercise yourself in contemplation, in praise, and in adoring worship. The tree needs to be bathed in sunshine if its fruit is to be ripe and perfect; and nothing must some between us and the light of His face if our joy is to be perfected. In heaven it will be all joy, because in that fair land God has His way. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A. )
On religious joy, as giving strength and support to virtue
I. That in the practice of religious duties there is found an inward joy, here styled the joy of the Lord.
1. Joy is a word of various signification. By men of the world it is often used to express those flashes of mirth which arise from irregular indulgences of social pleasure. It will be easily understood that the joy here mentioned partakes of nothing akin to this; but signifies a tranquil and placid joy, an inward complacency and satisfaction, accompanying the practice of virtue, and the discharge of every part of our duty.
2. In order to ascertain this, let us consider the disposition of a good man with respect to God. When we consider in what manner religion requires that a good man should stand affected towards God, it will presently appear that rational enlightened piety opens such views of Him as must communicate joy. It presents Him, not as an awful unknown Sovereign, but as the Father of the Universe, the lover and protector of righteousness, under whose government all the interests of the virtuous are safe. With delight the good man traces the Creator throughout all His works, and beholds them everywhere reflecting some image of His supreme perfection. Amidst that Divine presence he dwells with reverence, but without terror. Conscious of the uprightness of his own intentions, and of the fidelity of his heart to God, he considers himself, by night and by day, as under the protection of an invisible guardian. He listens to the gracious promises of His Word. With comfort he receives the declarations of His mercy to mankind, through a great Redeemer. All the various devotional exercises of faith and trust in God, all the cordial effusions of love and gratitude to this Supreme Benefactor in the acts of prayer and praise, afford scope to those emotions of the heart which are of the most pleasing kind. But it may here be objected, Are there no mortifications and griefs that particularly belong to piety? What shall we say to the tear of repentance, and to that humiliation of confession and remorse which may, at times, be incumbent on the most pious, in this state of human infirmity? To this I reply, first, that although there may be seasons of grief and dejection in s course of piety, yet this is not inconsistent with the joy of the Lord being, on the whole, the predominant character of a good mans state; as it is impossible that, during this life, perpetual brightness can remain in any quarter, without some dark cloud. But I must observe, next, that even the penitential sorrows and relentings of a pious heart are not without their own satisfactions. A certain degree of pleasure is mingled with the tears which the returning offender sheds.
3. When we consider, next, the disposition of s good man towards his fellow-creatures, we find here the joy of the Lord exerting its influence fully. That mild and benevolent temper to which he is formed by virtue and piety; s temper that is free from envious and malignant passions, and that can look with the eye of candour and humanity on surrounding characters, is a constant spring of cheerfulness and serenity. With respect to that part of religion which consists in the government of a mans own mind, of his passions and desires, it may be thought that much joy is not to be expected, for there religion appears to lay on a severe and restraining hand. Yet here also it will be found that the joy of the Lord takes place, To a person just reclaimed from the excesses of sensual indulgence, the restraints imposed by virtue will, at first, appear uncouth and mortifying. But let him begin to be accustomed to a regular life, and his taste will soon be rectified, end his feelings will change. In purity, temperance, and self-government there is found a satisfaction in the mind similar to what results from the enjoyment of perfect health in the body. A man is then conscious that all is sound within. There is nothing that gnaws his spirit; that makes him ashamed of himself, or discomposes his calm and orderly enjoyment of life. His conscience testifies that he is acting honourably. He enjoys the satisfaction of being master of himself. He feels that no man can accuse him of degrading his character. From this slight sketch it plainly appears that there is an inward satisfaction, justly termed the joy of the Lord, which runs through all the parts of religion. His is a very different view of religion from what is entertained by those who consider it as a state of perpetual penance. But what it concerns us at present to remark is, that some experience of this joy of the Lord which I have described enters as an essential part into the character of every good man. In proportion to the degree of his goodness, to his improvement and progress in virtue, will be the degree of his participation in the pleasure and joy of religion.
II. To show in what respects the joy of the Lord is justly said to be the strength of the righteous.
1. In the first place, it is the animating principle of virtue; it supports its influence, and assists it in becoming both persevering and progressive. Experience may teach us that few undertakings are lasting or successful which are accompanied with no pleasure. H a mans religion be considered merely as a task prescribed to him, which he feels burdensome, it is not likely that he will long constrain himself to act against the bent of inclination. It is not until he feels somewhat within him which attracts him to his duty that he can be expected to be constant and zealous in the performance of it. Was it ever found that a person advanced far in any art or study, whether of the liberal or mechanical kind, in which he had no pleasure? A sense of duty may sometimes exercise its authority, though there be no sensations of pleasure to assist it. Belief of those religious principles in which we were educated, and dread of future punishment, will, in cases where no strong temptation assails us, restrain from the commission of atrocious crimes, and produce some decent regularity of external conduct. But on occasions when inclination or interest prompt to some transgression of virtue, which safety or secrecy encourages, and which the example of the world seems to countenance, is it to be thought that conscience will then stand its ground with one who never was attached to virtue on its own account, and never experienced any joy in following its dictates? But these are the occasions when the joy of the Lord proves the strength of the righteous man. Accustomed to take pleasure in doing his duty; accustomed to look up to God with delight and complacency, and to feel himself happy in all the offices of kindness and humanity to men around him; accustomed to rejoice in a clear conscience, in a pure heart, and the hope of heavenly bliss, he cannot think of parting with such satisfactions for the sake of any worldly bribe. There is something within his heart that pleads for religion and virtue.
2. In the next place, the joy of the Lord is the strength of the righteous, as it is their great support under the discouragements and trials of life. From the view which we have now taken of the subject, it must clearly appear, that to every one who wishes to possess the spirit, and to support the character of genuine goodness and virtue, it is an object most desirable and important, to acquire a prevailing relish for the pleasures of religion. To attain this spirit, of considering the discharge of our duty as our pleasure and happiness, is certainly not incompatible with our present state of infirmity. It is no more than what good men have often attained, and have testified to it, that their delight was in the law of God; that His statutes were sweet to their taste; that they had taken them as an heritage for ever, for they were the rejoicing of their heart: I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart. It is therefore of high importance, that all proper means be employed to form our internal taste to a proper relish for this joy of the Lord. (H. Blair, D. D.)
The gospel of joy
The first work of the Holy Spirit is to convince of sin, but that is by no means His only work. It is only in preparation for another and more blessed work.
I. What is meant by the joy of the Lord.
1. Much is said of the joy of the Lord in sacred Scriptures; sometimes the Lord Himself is said to rejoice over His people; of Christ it is said, For the joy that was set before Him, so also in prospect of His death, He rejoiceth over the truly repentant sinner. When the Lord assures His people of their salvation from every danger and every enemy, He says, The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy. In like manner they also are exhorted to joy in Him: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Indeed, the gospel itself is a gospel of joy. As such it was announced by the angel to the shepherds: Behold I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. And we find that the preaching of that gospel was a matter of joy to the poor sinners to whom it was sent. Philip, we are told in the Acts, went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them, and the consequence was that there was great joy in that city. Now we shall find that their joy arose from a threefold source--
1. What the Lord had done for them. The Lord had brought them back from a miserable and degrading captivity. He had brought them from under the yoke of Babylon; they had been protected and delivered in a more marvellous manner; they were restored to Zion, the city of their solemnities; the kings heart had been softened towards them, and under his authority and protection they were obtaining a secure settlement in their own land. Surely this was a cause for joy. When they looked at the difficulties that stood in their way, and the steps by which the Lord had led them, they could not but rejoice.
2. What the Lord would do for them. Why, even before they took possession of the land of Canaan, while they were under the guidance of Moses, and under the Lords special care in the wilderness, in the foresight of their future dangers and sins, the Lord had declared, even in their greatest straits and most pressing difficulties, though those very straits and difficulties were occasioned by their sins, that He would never forget His covenant, and would still receive them with mercy (Lev_26:40-45).
3. That the people understood all this. When Ezra read in the book of the law of God, he did it distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading (verse 8).
II. Its happy effects. When Nehemiah called upon the people thus to joy in the Lord, he told them at the same time what effect it would produce in them. It would be their strength.
1. It will support the Christian under all difficulties. This world is not one of ease and prosperity to the children of God.
2. It will sustain him in all his temptations.
3. Encourage him for the performance of all duties. It will make duties which without it would be burdensome and irksome, pleasant.
4. It will encourage him in prayer. He who has the joy of the Lord for his strength, does not live upon his joy, nor upon his strength. His life is in the Lord, and in proportion as he lives upon Him, he has joy and strength both in and from the Lord.
5. Incite him to hold on to the end. He who has the joy of the Lord for his strength will not rest in present attainments. The joys that are in store for the people of God are far greater than those already tasted.
(1) How greatly are many people mistaken as to the nature of true religion.
(2) Learn what you should be anxious to obtain. No man can joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ till he has received the atonement.
(3) What a vast difference between the empty joys of the world and the solid joys of the gospel! (G. Maxwell, B. A.)
The joy of the Lord is your strength
I. Our joy in the Lord is the effect of His joy in us. As, for example, the brightness of the stars of night is derived from the unseen sun, so the light of our joy beams from the face of the Sun of Righteousness, which is the God-Man, Christ. Now, Gods joy in His people is most wonderful, as we find in the hundred and forty-seventh Psalm, the eleventh verse. In the moral world all happiness and joy are but reflections of heavens light. Peace and order are but the echoes of His Holy Spirit, amidst the tumultuous tossings and confusions of this world. Again: other and unfallen worlds might cause joy to God; for remember, God must rejoice in His own image, which is reflected more perfectly in unfallen creation; for example, angels are a perfect mirror, in which His image is reflected. They have larger capacities for comprehending Gods perfections. But mark the littleness of mans mind. If we compare our own modes of feeling towards one another, we shall find that the philosopher delights not in the company of the unlearned, but rather despises it, and seeks the companionship of those who move in a more congenial element. Hence it is wonderful that God should delight in us, fallen sinful creatures. But the measure of Gods joy in us is the more wonderful when we come to consider the language of David in the hundred and thirty-fifth Psalm and the fourth verse, wherein it is written of His rebellious children, For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure. Gods people are also called His portion, as we read in Deuteronomy, the thirty-second chapter and ninth verse--For the Lords portion is His people. Gods joy in His people, as we read in Ephesians, the first chapter and the tenth and eleventh verses, is the cause of the rich inheritance which He has provided for them--that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. But we must remember also the other and numberless sources of glory to God, namely, the glory of the kingdom of nature stretching along infinity which is only filled with the beauty and majesty of the Deity itself. But it is not wonderful that God should joy in us, when we reflect upon it, for He is more glorified in us than in any other portion of His creation, considering that the work of redemption stamps a value upon us; for human nature, and none other, was taken up into the Godhead, so that our fallen condition opened up a way for glorifying God. Whether we consider His mercy or His justice, His long suffering or His love, all of which were exercised and glorified by the redemption scheme, God rejoices over the theatre where His own glory is exhibited amongst His redeemed children rather than over angels, just as a parent rejoices more over the sick child restored to health than he does over the naturally robust and strong one. God blesses other worlds through the medium of ours.
II. Let us now consider our joy in the Lord. We have greater cause to rejoice in the Lord than the Jews, for our deliverance is from s worse captivity, namely, from the bondage of sin. Nehemiah could not set before his people anything but a distant hope of things to come. For how indistinct must have been their views of the promised Saviour compared with ours!
III. The joy of the Lord is our strength. A broken spirit disqualifies us for action. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth up the bones; while, on the contrary, a joyous spirit disposes man for action, as may be seen in Psalm fifty-one, and the twelfth and thirteenth verses--Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit: then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. The condition of the animal spirits is admitted to have a powerful influence upon all our faculties. Sorrow and dejection unnerve the body as well as the mind, and take away the power of exertion. The discharge of our several duties depends upon the spirit in which they are conducted; for an earthly servant, brooding over his misfortunes, would be unfit for his position in life. The soldier entering the battlefield must have a spirit and courage to encounter the enemy. So likewise must a Christian feel competent for the encounter with his spiritual duties and enemies. No man can diligently and cheerfully apply himself to any duty unless he has the hope of success in the performance of it. In conclusion, let us consider, how this strength is to be attained. It is not to be procured by any intellectual process of reasoning, nor is it the creature of imagination. We must move into an atmosphere of holiness in order to secure it; for the Christians joy is the fruit of another clime. We must embark for a foreign land. It is the fruit of the tree of life, and must be plucked by the hand of faith. We must yield ourselves up to the guidance of the Holy Ghost; our souls must be tuned and re-tuned to heavens harmonies by Him. Joy is the voice of order, and peace, in the soul; and God the Holy Spirit, who moved over creations dark waters, must breathe over the angry passions of our fallen nature to produce this result. (G. F. Galaher, M. A.)
Gods joy our strength
The truth to which I would call your attention is this: that notwithstanding the misery, the shame, the conflict of human life--a misery and shame and conflict which are keenly felt by Him whose nature is sympathy, and whose name is Father--there is in God a deep, abiding, essential joyousness; and that this joyousness is the strength of His people.
I. The essential joyousness of god. This is seen-1. In nature. All simple things in 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, the sea, the tempest, etc. What are we to think of Him, what must He be like, who has so constituted man that the very aspect of the world in which he lives furnishes him with quenchless impulses of gladness. The maker is known by his work; his thoughts will be in it; as he is so it will be.
2. In the Christian revelation. The Jewish system enters into the history of the Christian revelation. This system was in the main a festal, joyous service. Its restrictions were for the well-being of the people, and added comfort to their life; its festivals were more numerous than its fasts. If anywhere we should find an incident typical of Jewish history, we should find it in our tart, where we see a grave preacher calling on remorseful and broken-hearted penitents to be more glad for Gods sake than they were mournful for their own, because the Lord was still joyous, and the joy of the Lord was their strength. Christ is the Christian revelation; the Son and manifestation of God. Although we call Christ a man of sorrows yet it should be impossible to speak of Him as an unhappy, a wretched, a miserable man. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; but He was not daunted by them, not worn down by them. Sadness oppressed Him, but never gloom; care, but not despondency. He was a welcome guest at feasts. Mothers brought their children to Him; little ones sang around Him, and He was glad to hear their singing. There broke from Him signs of a quenchless joy: At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit. He has no better thing to leave His disciples than His own joy. He was sustained under the tribulation of His mission by the deeper joy of His achievement. The deep, unquenchable joy of Christ is itself a revelation of the essential joyousness of God.
3. In the spiritual life. Speaking doctrinally, joy is the 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 icy of holiness; to the feeble the joy of strength. God intended by His promises to lift our hearts to exultation; and therefore He sent His Son for our acceptance. Christian history and experience confirm the testimony. Witness the writings of Paul to the buoyancy of his spirit. 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 thus give full play and scope to the spirit of their Father who dwelleth in them. The inspirations of the indwelling Spirit declare the essential joyousness of God.
II. The blessedness of apprehending the essential joyousness of God. It is too much forgotten that joy equally with sorrow enters into a true human development. Tis held that sorrow makes us wise; but it needs a strong soul to endure the discipline. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Joy is the tonic of the mind. There are some households into which it does us good to enter; the inmates are so happy, so frank, so loving, that only to be with them refreshes the weary spirit. We thus see how the joy of others may be our strength. It is a refuge for the distressed, a hiding-place from the storm, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the name of the Lord is above all others the strong tower into which the righteous runneth and is safe. To turn from the contemplation of a smiling world, and smiling men and women, to the thought of a joyous God: what inspiration is bevel (A. Mackennal.)
On religious joy
A few years ago a fierce and violent dispute was carried on between the chief physicians of Europe concerning antimony. And while some maintained that this mineral was a most valuable medicine, and extolled it to the skies, others asserted that it was injurious, and ought to be classed among the deadly poisons. The debate at length subsided; and it is now admitted that the article in question may be useful when administered with sound judgment. The opinions of men have always been greatly divided on the subject of religious joy--some extol it in the highest strains; others reprobate and condemn and labour to extinguish it.
I. The nature and source of religious joy. An able writer on the passions says, Joy is the vivid pleasure inspired on our receiving something peculiarly grateful; something evidently productive of advantage, or something which promises to contribute to Our present or future happiness. The worldly man exults in the acquisition of wealth, power, titles, and honours. When religion enters the mind it both informs the understanding and moves the passions. Among the passions joy holds a conspicuous rank.
1. Religious or holy Icy arises from a sense of the free favour of a merciful, covenant God.
2. Religious joy arises from a sense of the special presence of a merciful, covenant God.
(1) While he contemplates the grand and beautiful scenes of visible nature.
(2) In the ordinances of His worship.
II. Holy joy tends to invigorate and sustain those who are the partakers of it. There are certain states of mind which we are accustomed to express in figurative terms and in the form of maxims. Thus we say knowledge is power, and ignorance is imbecility; hope braces, and fear relaxes the soul. If there be any aptness in such contrasts, we may assert, that as melancholy is weakness, joy is strength. Joy has a manifest tendency to invigorate and sustain--
1. The Christians resolutions, in prosecuting all the arduous labours of virtue and piety.
2. The Christians faith under the afflictions and trials he is called to endure (Hab_3:17-18).
Conclusion: We have an express warrant to rejoice: Rejoice in the Lord alway.
1. Our personal interest is wrapt up in this duty.
2. The welfare of our brethren is in a certain degree involved in this duty.
3. The honour of our Master is implicated in the right discharge of this duty. (Congregational Remembrancer.)
The strength of Divine joy
Christianity asserts with great emphasis and illustrates with all its light the old doctrine of Nehemiah and the priests, that Divine gladness is power.
I. Its nature. 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 its life. It wells like a fountain from the inner soul it is con fined to no place. It is bounded by no time. It may grow where earthly gladness would perish. It is a joy springing from the inner communion of the spirit with its God.
1. It is the joy of self-surrender to God. True joy can only begin when the self-life has been surrendered. Until this surrender has been made the consciousness of a guilty past hangs like a burden on the heart. Men know that their gleams of joy are only like flowers growing on the edge of a dark volcano, which when they are alone and outward excitements have passed away will waken in lurid glare and thunder, and distract their repose. They want a joy that shall pierce deeply into the region of self and rise from the consciousness of self-surrender and forgiveness. At the Cross of Christ the burden of the past falls, for at the Cross he yields himself.
2. 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 a 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 realise the presence of s spirit of beauty surrounding us, and inspiring us with an emotion which no words can describe? Or why is it 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, that 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 be true of earthly communion, must it not be supremely so when we realise the fellowship of God as our Father? It is this which makes our joy full.
II. The power of this joy of the Lord. We may trace it in three ways.
1. It is power to resist 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.
2. It is strength for Christian action.
3. It is strength for patient endurance. We are too weak to endure the discipline of life unless we have joy--the present earnest of the future reward. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The joy of the Lord
George Whitfield, it is said, once addressed a great gathering of colliers. As he discoursed to the rude, rough men who stood there in their working garb, and with unwashed faces, the Spirit of God touched their hearts. Tears filled their eyes and ran down their faces, making channels for themselves through the coal-dust there. And so here. As the priest made plain the Word of God, the people wept and could not help it. As Nehemiah saw them weep, he exclaimed, Weep not, etc. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
I. There is joy and happiness in living with and for God. I can well remember the first time I saw an engraving of the picture, The Pursuit of Pleasure. In the picture was the beautiful figure of a woman, with butterfly wings gliding through space. Following hard after her were all ranks and conditions of men, so arranged by the artist as to suggest many forms of enjoyment and excitement, but all eager to get the goddess. In the haste and whirl, and rush, some had fallen and were trampled, but all who could were pressing on, eagerly on, to the abyss. Men pursue that goddess still, forgetting that peace, joy, real happiness, must arise from within, from the state of the mind and heart, from union with God and all that is purest and best men rush blindly off into a thousand outward diversions, all which fail to give rest to the troubled conscience, ease to the sore heart, or anything of the nature of permanent joy and happiness. This is only realised by those who will live with and for God.
II. There is joy in working for God.
1. All work for the good of man is work for God.
2. Those have greatest joy who work in a godly spirit, and put heart into their work.
3. God has a work for us all, and can give us joy in it. I know what it is to have the good word of ones fellow-men, to have the confidence of ones companions and helpers in toil, to have some of the honours which men have to bestow, to enjoy the comforts of home and to share the advantages and blessings of travel, but not all these equal the blessing which God gives me when I am used as the instrument to make one sad heart happy.
III. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
1. In temptation.
2. In suffering and loss.
3. In all your life. (Charles Leach, D. D.)
The joy of the Lord
All deep religion ought to be joyful, and all strong religion assuredly will be.
I. Joy in the Lord is the natural result of Christian faith.
1. Because of what it gives us.
(1) A sense of acceptance with God.
(2) God for the rest of our spirits.
(3) Communion with Him.
2. Because of what it takes away from us.
(1) The fear that lies before us.
(2) The strifes that lie within us, the desperate conflict between conscience and inclination, our will and our passions.
(3) The sense of sin. Faith in Christ naturally works gladness.
It also produces sorrow--solemn, manly, noble, and strong. This is not contradictory. All great thoughts have a solemn quiet in them, which not unfrequently merges, into a still sorrow: As sorrowing, yet always rejoicing. These two states of mind, both of them the natural operation 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 thunder-cloud, all streaked with bars of sunshine, that go into its deepest depths. The joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow springs from the same root as the gladness. They blend into one another; just as, in the Arctic regions, deep down beneath the cold snow, you shall 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 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. The Christian life is all like one of those 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 of Christian faith.
II. Joy is a Christian duty. It is a commandment here and also in the New Testament. It follows from this that the degree to which a Christian life shall be a cheerful life is dependent in a large measure upon our own volitions. By the selection or the rejection of the appropriate subjects which shall make the main portion of our religious contemplations 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. 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. It is only where there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. 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.
III. Rejoicing in the Lord is a source of strength. 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. If we have hearts full of light and souls at rest in Christ, work will be easy, endurance will be easy, sorrows 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 will be exposed to any temptation? If it appeal to fear, the gladness that is there is the answer. If it appeal to passion, desire, wish for pleasure of any sort, there is no need for any more -the heart is full Christian gladness, like the magic shield of the old legends, invisible in its crystalline purity, will repel all the fiery darts of the wicked. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The joy of God the strength of men
I. Ezra felt the unique power of the nations literature. For him it contained all that is best for men to do, and happiest to desire. Therefore, he and his fellow-reformers were the men of the book of the law of the Lord, using it as the man of their counsel a fount of refreshing, a goad to penitence, and a stimulus to faith, generosity, and joy.
II. God is infinite, and no man, nay, not all men, can express him; but every true soul may say something about him, and every nature He trains by His spirit may either add something of freshness of setting and force of applicability to an old truth, or open for some soul new glimpses of His wondrous fulness. High thoughts do not disdain lowly minds. The ascent to the loftiest ranges of light and power is given, not to a prophet like the seraphic Isaiah, nor to a singing poet like David, nor to a great leader like Moses, but to Nehemiah, a courtier and a statesman, a politician and a reformer. Nehemiah is for the moment lifted to the highest grade of teachers, and placed by the side of Christ when He says, These words have I spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. He has fellowship with Paul, when he rejoices that he is counted worthy to preach the glorious gospel of the happy God. He anticipates Christianity in its most vital and essential element; links together in natural sequence the two economies; shows that God is a Being hot coldly impressive, stolidly majestic, without sympathy, but tender-hearted, forgiving, delighting in mercy, and plenteous in redemption; a God whose joy is strength for troubled men.
III. To me it appears like a stroke of true genius as men call it--a breath of inspiration from God, as I would name it--that Nehemiah delivers this higher and richer message concerning God at the moment when the people are profoundly stirred by the recently rediscovered message of the ancient law, and overwhelmed with dejection and sorrow for their newly-revealed sins. The law is not a goal, but a light and a goad; a light on the way to God, and a goad to petition for His pardon. This disclosure of sin and penalty is intended, like the flames out of the mountain, to hurry the approach of the pilgrim to the wicket-gate of repentance.
IV. Gods joy a stronghold (marginal rendering). Who can tell the immense strength infused into a soul to whom God is an ever-present, ever-bright consciousness of infinite joy? Such a consciousness of the presence of the joyful God flings around us an all-protecting shield from the shafts of doubt and care; builds about us a defensive tower from obtrusive fears; delivers us from the world, with its ceaseless din, low ideals, etc.; from the flesh, with its blinding passion, base motive, and thwarting caprice; and from the devil, with his insinuations of the necessity of evil, the selfishness of the good, and the folly of righteousness.
1. This consciousness of Gods presence makes to us this world of nature a new creation, instinct with a new significance, and potent with an evangelical energy. We know we are under law. We accept the teachings of science as the teachings of our Father God, and rejoice in its demonstrations of the Abiding Order and Fixed Law of this world because we know the Lawgiver Himself is not a stern Draco, imaged only in the desolating earthquake, fire-belching volcano, and fierce tornado; but a Father, yea, our Father and Redeemer, and that we belong to Him and not to the house in which He has put us.
2. This consciousness makes us feel that the bitter and painful experiences of life are part of the Divine order and plan of a loving and rejoicing Father. A poor fellow said to me after thrusts and stabs of bewildering pain that almost made him reel, Still, we know its all right, dont we? We know whom we have believed, and are persuaded we are not going to lose anything we have given over to Him. Such testimonies show how the consciousness of God changes the very face of sorrow; that grief is a joy misunderstood; that the burdens of life are its benedictions; that the old gospel is still new, and that though in the world men may have tribulation, in Christ they have peace. Such testimonies interpret to me the rapturous experiences of persecuted and afflicted men that in my earlier years I was tempted to think over-weighted and unreal: Samuel Rutherford, Payson, Doddridge, Erskine, Robertson, F. R. Havergal, Mrs. Prentiss, and many others.
3. This pervading consciousness of the happiness of God invests death itself with a new mission, forces it to take its place amongst the servants of the Father and the friends of His children. Absent from the body, we are at home with the Lord.
V. The joy of God is the source of our active, self-forgetting generosity. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions for whom nothing is prepared. Whatever God is, He is for us. Whatever God is for us and to us, it is that we may be the same for and to others. Joy in the Lord is strength, positive actual power for ministry. It creates around us the most favourable atmosphere for evoking our resources; raises our entire nature to the highest pitch of energy, and gives unwonted elasticity and capacity of tension to all our faculties. As bodies expand under heat, so the soul enlarges under the genial influence of joy. Indeed, men never reach their best before they have mastered the whole gamut of joy, from the lowest note of cheerfulness to the highest of rapture. As some men do business without obtaining s fiftieth part of the profit gained by others, so some Christians never nett the great gains that flow from a cheerful piety. Vast is the difference between working for God from a sense of responsibility and from a delight which springs out of fellowship with Christ. Responsibility is a goad. Joy is a magnet. One pricks and urges forward by a sense of painfulness that reduces all work to the severe limits of obedience to imperative and resistless orders. The other is life; and such is its magic it converts even hard toil into play, and makes it as welcome as song to the merry birds, or sport to romping children. The joy of God is strength for the suppression of all lifes evils, the solace of all sad hearts, and the service of all for whom nothing is prepared. Conclusion:
1. The God of the Hebrews is no mere object of worship seated coldly apart and awaiting the homage of men; He is a radiant presence, inspiring the mandate, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
2. Remember, too, that the joy of our friends is our strength. The bare sight of some men is an instant dismissal of despair. The arrival of another is as the report of a disaster. A light heart dissipates gloom as the sun lifts fog. The joy of friends is a flowing fountain of perennial strength.
3. What an exhaustless fund of gladness is a free, healthy, simple, and natural child; how unspeakably indebted many of us are to the irrepressible joy and strange, heaven-sent wisdom of children for the loss of our moroseness, acerbity, and misery. The joy of children is our strength.
4. It is a common experience, this contagion of joy--this conversion of joy into power. Rejoice, then, in the God of joy, and minister to those for whom nothing is prepared. Pour out your gladness for other hearts. Restrain it, and you destroy it. Cage your lark, and it will not sing. Open the door, give it access to the wide heavens, and away it goes merrily chanting its music up to heavens gate. (J. Clifford, D. D.)
The joy of the Lord the strength of His people
The,, people here bidden to rejoice were even then melted with penitential grief, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. As certain fabrics need to be damped before they will take the glowing colours with which they are to be adorned, so our spirits need the bedewing of repentance before they can receive the radiant colouring of delight. The glad news of the gospel can only be printed on wet paper.
I. There is a joy of Divine origin.
1. It springs from God and has God for its object.
2. It springs from a deep sense of reconciliation to God, of acceptance with God, and yet beyond that, o! adoption and close relationship to God.
3. It springs from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by Divine goodness.
4. There is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God.
5. Another form of the joy of the Lord is the honour of being allowed to serve Him.
II. This joy is a source of great strength.
1. It is so because it arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness. He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat, as they were meant to be used.
2. The joy of the Lord within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. The warmth of the South of France does not spring from soft, balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. A man who walks in the sunlight of Gods countenance for that very reason is warm and strong.
3. It fortifies him against temptation.
4. It makes him strong for service.
5. A joyous man such as I have in my minds eye is to all intents and purposes a strong man. He is strong in a calm, restful manner. Whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed.
III. This strength leads to practical results.
1. Great praise.
2. Great sacrifice.
3. Other expressions of joy. When a man has the oil of joy, then in his business and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously.
4. Family happiness. The wives also and the children rejoiced. I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, If I go to heaven it is all I care for. Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel--a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney.
IV. This joy, this strength, are both within our reach. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Joy in the Lord a source of strength
There is strength in joy, and a sense of adequate security is an element of joy. If man deem himself certain of triumph at last, he will be joyful, whether that triumph be achieved by himself or another. The joyful man is a strong man because he is a confident man, and the dejected man is a weak man because he distrusts his cause, himself, or some one else upon whom he depends. Two armies, with numbers equal, are mustering for battle. They are well matched in war materials, both brave, both earnest, eager for battle. But one side are exhilarated by repeated successes; they have won a terrible name; the general who leads never knew defeat. On the other side is the humiliation of repeated failures; again and again with lowered standards they have retreated. They have lost all confidence in themselves and their commanders. Now, who deems the conflict doubtful? Triumph is written in the joyful confidence of one, and defeat in the deep dejection of the other. The assurance of the army expectant of success is worth ten regiments and a hundred guns; and it may be truly said of them, In the joy of victory is their strength. Let us--
I. Ascertain what is the joy of the lord. The joy of the Lord is that sweet and holy gladness which springs from and originates in a calm, humble faith that we are the recipients of the Divine favour, under the Divine protection. In the followers of the Lord it is holy cheerfulness founded on the belief that they are the children of God by Jesus Christ. That their Substitute has paid the debt and accomplished the work of redemption; that they are saved now. Just in proportion as you make salvation a contingency you undermine the basis of Christian joy. Dr. Doddridge once succeeded in procuring the pardon for one condemned to die. As the cell-door was thrown open the poor man cast himself down, and clasping the feet of his deliverer, exclaimed, Every drop of my blood thanks you, for you have saved them all. This was the joy of salvation realised as a fact.
II. Let us see how this joy of the lord is our strength.
1. It strengthens us negatively in the removal of anxieties.
2. It imparts assurance of final victory.
3. It permits a concentration of the whole life force upon a single point. The Christian who believes himself saved trains all his guns in one direction, the end of which is his Masters glory.
4. It reinforces all other motives by the power of gratitude, and puts us under the sweetest and holiest of obligations. (W. T. Sabine.)
Joy in Christ Jesus our Lord
I. The nature of joy in Christ.
1. It is the joy which springs from the knowledge of the reconciliation of God to His sinful creatures; by which our lives are saved from destruction, and we are brought into a condition to enjoy His presence and favour.
2. It is such a joy as arises from the possession of a perfect revelation of the character and will of the Most High, and consequently of our interest, duty, and destination. Before the coming of Christ idolatry reigned, and with it necessarily prevailed a general depravation of morals, and a total want of those spiritual excellences and comforts which exalt and bless the human character. Some few sages, indeed, shed by their researches a dubious light on the path of life. But they were like the scattered and glimmering stars of a cloudy midnight. They could neither impart the warmth nor give the light which the wretched traveller needed. Their occasional twinklings only rendered the darkness more apparent and oppressive. This darkness was dispersed by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. The gospel makes us acquainted with all that it is necessary for us to know of God and with all that He requires of us.
3. It is the joy which springs from the well-grounded hope of inheriting heaven and immortality.
4. It is the joy which arises from our knowledge of the exalted character of our Redeemer, which furnishes a peaceful assurance of the sufficiency of the atonement and of the greatness of the Almightys love.
II. This joy is our strength.
1. It is the foundation of our encouragement in approaching our Maker.
2. This joy which we have in the character, instructions, and achievements of Christ animates us in the performing of the duties of life.
3. It is our strength in bearing up under lifes troubles and adversities.
4. It gives us comfort in the approach and will give us victory in the conflict with death.
5. It is the principal source of composure and hope when we contemplate the final judgment. (Bp. Dehon.)
The nature and effects of a true believers joy
I. The nature of a true believers joy. It is the joy of the Lord. Why?
1. Because God is its author. This joy is no mere animal sensation. It is not the same thing as what we call good spirits. It is not that flow of lively feelings and sensations which spring up themselves in a mans heart when things are grateful and agreeable. Such feelings are of nature only, and never hold. Religion has no root in them (Mat_13:20-21). The joy of true believers is a spiritual gift (Gal_5:22).
2. Because God is its subject. True believers joy in the God of their salvation.
(1) They joy in the freeness of His great salvation.
(2) They joy in the imputation of His justifying righteousness.
3. They joy in God as the Giver of their present privileges and the Preparer of their future glories (2Co_5:21; 2Co_12:9-10; Isa_61:10; Rom_5:5; Php_4:7; Pro_3:17; Jam_1:2.)
II. The effect of this joy upon the believers heart and life.
1. It strengthens him for duty. How beautifully is this exemplified in the case of the Churches of Macedonia (2Co_8:2-5). What made them so warm, so zealous in their duties? The abundance of their joy. The joy of the Lord was their strength.
2. It strengthens him for suffering. See this exemplified: David (1Sa_30:6); the apostles when they were beaten before the Jewish council (Act_5:41); Paul when he calls his heavy trials light afflictions (2Co_4:17); Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi (Act_16:25); the victories in the dying hours of true believers (Psa_149:5-6; 2Co_4:16). (A. Roberts, M. A.)
Gods tonic of gladness
The man I am thinking of had been born in a Christian home, but had gone away and tramped the world. The story of the prodigal or some other lyric of salvation is read. And, as the old forgotten sanctities sweep over his memory and are sung into his neglected heart, the crust of careless habit is broken, the founts long closed are reopened, and he is bent and swayed with surging recollections of the good and beautiful in the Christian life which has passed out of his existence. Such emotions sweep over the hearts of the Jews as they hear the long-neglected Law while Ezra reads it from his extemporised pulpit of wood. They had returned from the captivity of Babylon. Now is the opportunity for Ezra to introduce the neglected Law. The Levites go about among little groups answering questions and expounding what is read. The effect is that the multitude are swept, as only an Oriental people can be swept, with a wave of feeling and lamentation. Why these outbursts of distress? Because the ancient covenant of God with their race had almost dropped out of memory. When they hear again what God did for their fathers--the story of Egypt and Sinai, of the tabernacle, the temple, the shechinah and the pledges of sheltering mercy--it comes upon them as the revelation of a new discovery. The sins and faithlessness of the past bow them low. Grieve no longer, cry Nehemiah and Ezra to the distraught people; do not waste your hearts with sorrow. Put away tears of distressful memory, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
1. Listen to Gods comfortable words of reassurance to hearts filled with shame and sorrow. Grieve not, grieve not; and it is said over and over again. Such comfortable words can only be spoken to men and women already softened. To most people the trumpet call is rather, Grieve and lament for your sins; abase yourselves for your follies and self-willed lives. But here the peoples hearts have been made soft. Encrusting callousness has been broken through; a wave of tender feeling is passing over them. And God is quick to speak peace to them and offer them the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. When mens hearts are moved and softened, when at last they let all the barricades of feeling give way and the long pent-up sin and the hunger for good and love Divine pour out in the hidden chambers of the soul, then God hastens to them with His generous assurances. Do not lay waste your hearts with grief. Take comfort to yourselves. Rejoice that now at last the (lead and careless years are gone, and that the words of life and love ring in your ears once more. In every company of people there are some whose shame and grief over past folly and misbehaviour is a sore that runs perpetually, they cannot get over it nor escape its anguish, the dark burden on memory paralyses them. Yet, if only they could get the records on the table of the heart wiped clean they would be strong men of God. Let me echo the generous comforts of Divine compassion. Oh, let the Divine heart bear away these curses that lie heavy on you. Yield to the goodness that has come into your life. Let sheer goodness and love swamp all self-accusations. Then will you enjoy the sacrament of forgiving grace. Your life will be given back to you as a new and clean thing. Many, I feel sure, are going cold and comfortless, wearing out their spirit in secret regrets that are never salved and soothed away with love. The one thing they need most is a bit of gladness in their life, suns warmth in enveloping love.
2. The proper Christian note is gladness of heart. What a piece of irony is the laughter and merry-making of the careless, unforgiven maul Underneath the mirth and free play, what a region of unpurged evil deep down within them in their tastes, memories, and habits! How dare men sing and take the delight of life while they are moribund with sins leprosy and going forward to face the last reckoning unprepared? But Christians--they have the heritage of Christ, the peace that makes the singing heart. True, you cannot ignore the inevitable hardships and pains of living, which are no respecters of persons; and the Christian is as open as any one to the cut of unkindness, the depression of dark times, and the heartache over others wrongdoing. Yet so far as the inevitable will allow, you are entitled and required to accept the good and joy of your days, to delight in all beauty, all the cheer of human love, all stimulating influences and glad hopes. The common delights of human life are all the more yours because you have the diviner reasons for happiness. I am certain that numbers of Christians have never accepted the full gladness of their high calling in Christ. What is the reason? Is it that they think it unbecoming to let their hearts swell with natural joy? Has religious seriousness overpowered their natural good spirits, a tradition of sombre piety suppressing their buoyancy? It is a false conception of the Christian mind. Take joy in, and let radiance suffuse your life. Yes, I know there is a heartless element in the unmitigated delight of some people. There is a heartless mirth which is careless of mankind. And it is possible for us to take the pleasure of our days without regard to the sore problems of the world and the sins of men. Christian music must have its minor as well as its major notes. Yet we are not meant to surrender our hearts much or long to the oppressing burden of human sin and distress. We are to feel it so far that we shall send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared, to better the hard lot of such as we can reach and assist Christ to gladden the whole race. That is an essential condition of a joy that is Christian. But, having done this, we are to take the sun. If we took all the worlds misery into our hearts it would crush us, spoiling our personal influence, without doing any good. We must leave the most of it to Almighty God to bear, who alone has the almighty heart. The sun of righteousness is not sinking in the sky, but ascending over the world. In spite of evil we rejoice by faith, by anticipation of what God in Christ is in process of achieving, because of the entrance of Divine power into the world in Christ. Even our sins which sadden us will be overcome if we remain faithful.
3. There is Gods tonic for our hearts in this devout gladness. Happiness is a bracing tonic in its own time and place. I do not forget--it is often enough said--that suffering and sorrow are bracing forces, and they, too, are required to make men sterling and strong in virtue and godliness. Shadow and discipline have their indispensable work to do in forging Christian character. The paler hues of character, the sombre greys of meekness and gentleness, are not the sole Christian colours. Those who suffer prolonged discipline are apt to lose the warmer tints which brighten the Christian faith, and to miss the elasticity of spirit which helps us to rise from our errors and press toward the mark. If we could get some rays of luminous sunshine transmitted into our hearts we should take a new lease of life; new springs would be opened in us for the refreshment of others. (R. E. Welsh, M. A.)
The joy of the Lord the Christians strength
Here observe that the parties to whom these words were originally addressed were in the act of expressing deep sorrow for sin. Nehemiah had no intention to make light of sorrow for sin, nor to represent it as aught else than a necessary ingredient in the composition of genuine repentance. The sin that is not lamented will hardly be forsaken; and though there may be grief which does not issue in amendment, we may doubt whether you will find the amendment which has not been preceded by grief. There is a point beyond which sorrow being carried, will neither constitute nor prove repentance. The grief cannot be such as God demands which hides from man the attributes of God and the arrangements Divinely made for the pardon of sin. A man who sorrows for a sin with a sorrow that seems to say that sin is unpardonable draws for himself and presents to others a picture of God which is altogether unscriptural In the light of the gospel there is a point at which sorrow for sin becomes itself sinful, and that is the point at which we sorrow even as those who have no hope; when we lament as if there were no remedy. Looking at the text with special reference to ourselves, we observe that the joy of the Lord is our strength--
I. In rendering effective our sorrow for sin. Sorrow alone and by itself can produce no genuine repentance; but the joy of the Lord--the assurance of a free and unqualified forgiveness--must be mixed with the sorrow to produce such a result. We understand by repentance, not only the lamenting sin, which is a part, but the forsaking sin, which is a greater part. It is the pleasure of God, the joy of God, that men should forsake their sins and receive salvation at His hands without money and without price. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked shall die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his wicked way and live? God joys in nothing so much as in welcoming transgressors who trust themselves to the suretyship of His Son. It is right to tremble at the wrath of God. It is right to mourn over your sins. But you must do more than tremble and mourn--you must eat the fat and drink the sweet. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin --here is the fat. Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest --there is the sweet.
II. In encouraging us and helping us to wrestle with temptation. The assurance of Divine help is the joy of the Lord, and in this joy does the true Christians strength consist. The encouragements of the gospel are encouragements to strive, encouragements to labour--to resist evil, to mortify passions, and to cultivate holiness. They are encouragements to hold on through a course of temptation in the assurance that the Redeemer will furnish help proportionate to the attack. The slave may be kept in awe by the scourge, but the affectionate son is best ruled by a smile; and as soon as the believer has been admitted into the very family and, household of God, he will derive from the joy of the Lord his best strength for the mastery of evil. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The Christian in his spiritual joys
Let us contemplate the Christian--
I. In the divinity of his joy.
II. In the utility of his joy.
1. In the profession of his religion. Joy is the very strength of this.
2. In his concern to recommend religion to others.
3. In the discharge of his duties.
4. In his perils.
5. In his sufferings.
6. In death. (W. Jay.)
Joy a strength
Go out of your cares, and your fevers and perils, by going nearer to your Saviour. Catch that glance of His gaze, the very rest of God. The sky is blue above the bleak and barren ground; the heavens smile above the storms. All things seem to die; but God is over all, blessed forever. His joy will comfort your sorrows. It will conquer your fears. It will neutralise your bereavements. It will negative your death. You are on a vessel, and it seems to you that the storm is awful; the waves run mountains high; the ship pitches, and shudders, and creaks. Captain, you say, with pale face and staring eyes, this is a terrible peril We shall go down; she never will weather this gale! Gale! says the captain, I call this a good breeze. If we had a little more of it we should soon make land. Then you turn and look with wonder in the captains eyes; they are full of smiling satisfaction, and his heroic face is mild and calm. The captain says, All is well. He is not disturbed. And the captains calm is your strength. He ought to know. So Jesus knows. (Hugh S. Carpenter, D. D.)
The joy of the Lord in the hour of death
When I was about fifteen years of age I sat up one night with one of my class-mates, an aged man, who had suffered from spasmodic asthma for a number of years with great resignation and patience; and about the noon of night he called me to his bedside, and with difficulty articulated a few words, which were these: Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. He then closed his eyes, gathered up his feet, and slept with his fathers. I have blessed God a hundred times, a thousand times, that when I was so young in the way I saw a Christian die. In the joy of the Lord was his strength--the strength of his heart, and his portion for ever. (J. Entwistle.)
Conspicuous Christian joy
Let your face shine with love to God and to men. The expression of ones countenance speaks more eloquently sometimes than words. When Murray McCheyne died there was found on his desk an unopened letter, which proved to be from a man in Broughty Ferry, who wrote that he was converted, not by anything Mr. McCheyne had said, but By your look, sir, as you entered the pulpit. Christ s joy should be m all who love and serve Him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice (Psa_149:2; Php_4:4). (Dr. Fergus Ferguson.)
The joy of the Lord our strength
George Stephenson and a friend were once looking at a train which was rushing along. The trains in those days were not so common as they are now, and George asked his friend what he thought propelled the train along. His friend answered, Probably the arm of some stalwart north country driver. No, said George, it is the heat and light of the sun which shone millions of years ago, which has been bottled up in the coal all this time, and is now driving that train. In the same way the joy of the Lord, the sun of our spiritual lives, is the power that works in us and gives us our strength.
The joy of the Lord continues in sorrow
The joy the Holy Spirit gives lives on in the heart when all earthly sources of gladness have failed. It hides like s rainbow in the bosom of the darkest cloud, and shines out in the gloom. There is a legend of a wondrous golden organ that was in some ancient monastery, which once, when in danger of being stolen, was east by the monks into a deep river, to be hidden from the robbers; and, in the waters, buried out of sight in the floods, it still played on, pouring out its sweet music. This legend illustrates the heart which has in it the secret of Christian joy. Floods of sorrow may roll over it, but in the depths its song is not silenced. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)
Religious happiness
Mr. Haslam told how Happy Peter was in the habit of saying he had been happy for thirty-seven years. One who visited him, and noticed the appearance of his sickly wife and humble home, said, Have you no clouds? Yes, replied Peter, but if there were no clouds there would be no sweet rain. Dwelling on common mistakes about the gloom of a religious life, Mr. Haslam added: I have a friend in Norfolk who was converted seventeen years ago. He is a magistrate and chairman of the Local Board. People said when he was converted, Its all over with him ; and a cousin of his said to me, about the same time, My cousin has become serious. No, I said, he hasnt. Well, well, he has become religions. No, he hasnt. A Hindoo, a Mohammedan, a Jew is religious, and your cousin might be that and be going to hell. Then he must be going to die. No, he isnt, for Ive got hold of the same thing, and am stronger far than I was thirty years ago. There are many people like that; and to one and all of them I give the same answer.
The joy of religion
Christ never means us to stay in shadowland; He desires us to substitute His joy for the less permanent joys of earth; and it should be our wish to please Him by apprehending the deep and solemn joyousness which is the very soul of His religion. It is joy to know Christ, to love Him, to serve Him, to follow Him. It is joy to meditate on the Divine grace in redemption; it is joy to know that we are being sanctified; it is joy to share with others our spiritual heritage. It is joy to look forward to that fair season when conflict and struggle shall be over, and the best we have loved on earth will reunite with us in a joy that shall never be broken or shadowed any more. Compared with this vision, what has the world to offer? No kind of gratification that the world gives over lasts very long. There is a law of diminishing returns in our earthly joys. Our tastes alter, our wishes change, all pleasures and successes pall in time. There is, as Professor Romanes has said, only one joy which, instead of diminishing, continually increases in intensity and power while life remains: it is the joy of religion. A grand, exalted sentiment it is, but never an unreal or fictitious one. (R. J. Campbell.)
Christian joy an inspiration to others
There was a young lad who had a great ambition to learn to play on the bugle, and to that end he practised continually. As the practice went on night after night without intermission, his mother, after hearing it as long as she could, got thoroughly disgusted and finally suggested that he should get out of the house and practise in the open-air. The boy took his bugle and went to the top of a hill and there practised the one tune that he could play. When he had thoroughly mastered it, he went one evening to his favourite spot on the top of the hill and there started a grand solo convert. He could not see any one, but unobserved by him, down towards the valley, seated upon a dyke was an old man, with his face buried in his hands. He was very much downhearted; everything seemed to be going wrong with him. He had lost all his lifes savings; he had not heard for a long time from his only son; and his daughter had just gone and left him. Just when down in the deepest depths of despair the sound of the bugle caught his ear as it poured forth the strains of The march of the Cameron men, the one tune the boy could play. Somehow it seemed to put new life into the old man. His spirits rose, and rising from his seat he started homewards with new vigour. Everything seemed to be brighter. Oh! we should be cheerful Christians. How much good Christian happiness does not only to ourselves, but to others! How it cheers them on in lifes dark and steep places! (J. Robertson.)
Inreasing joy
I remember, when an undergraduate at Oxford, being invited to breakfast by one of the city clergy. The good man showed us three photographs of himself, taken at different times, remarking, Dont I look happier as I grow older? It shall be even so with every one who drinks at the fountain of all joy, and thirsts no more. (F. Harper, M. A.)
Joy in Jewish worship
It is remarkable how largely feelings of joy characterised Jewish worship. The abjectness and terror that were often such marked features of idolatrous worship were altogether absent. Heathen worship was never joyous except when it took the form of a licentious orgie. It is true the Jewish festival was also a sacrificial feast, but the feast was only a form of public entertainment for a multitude who had been brought from their homes and needed some kind of hospitality. These feasts were not occasions for riotous excess. The sternest of the prophets utter no reproach of this kind. Even the social character of the festivals scarcely more than indicated in the psalms that were composed for them. They are gladsome very, but with a religious joy, a joy of faith.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v9 "ALL the people wept when they heard the words…
THE JOY OF THE LORD
Neh_8:9-18
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"ALL the people wept when they heard the words of the law." Was it for this mournful end that Ezra had studied the sacred law and guarded it through the long years of political unrest, until at length he was able to make it known with all the pomp and circumstance of a national festival? Evidently the leaders of the people had expected no such result. But disappointing as it was, it might have been worse. The reading might have been listened to with indifference; or the great, stern law might have been rejected with execration, or scoffed at with incredulity. Nothing of the kind happened. There was no doubt as to the rightness of The Law, no reluctance to submit to its yoke, no disposition to ignore its requirements. This law had come with all the authority of the Persian government to sanction it, and yet it is evidently no fear of the magistrate, but their own convictions, their confirming consciences, that here influence the people and determine their attitude to it. Thus Ezras labours were really honoured by the Jews, though their fruits were received so sorrowfully.
We must not suppose that the Jews of Ezras day anticipated the ideas of St. Paul. It was not a Christian objection to law that troubled them, they did not complain of its externalism, its bondage, its formal requirements and minute details. To imagine that these features of The Law were regarded with disapproval by the first hearers of it is to credit them with an immense advance in thought beyond their leaders-Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites. It is clear that their grief arose simply from their perception of their own miserable imperfections in contrast to the lofty requirements of The Law, and in view of its sombre threats of punishment for disobedience. The discovery of a new ideal of conduct above that with which we have hitherto been satisfied naturally provokes painful stings of conscience, which the old salve, compounded of the comfortable little notions we once cherished, will not neutralise. In the new light of the higher truth we suddenly discover that the "robe of righteousness" in which we have been parading is but as "filthy rags." Then our once vaunted attainments become despicable in our own eyes. The eminence on which we have been standing so proudly is seen to be a wretched mole-hill compared with the awful snow-peak from which the clouds have just dispersed. Can we ever climb that? Goodness now seems to be hopelessly unattainable, yet never before was it so desirable, because never before did it shine with so rare and fascinating a lustre.
But, it may be objected, was not the religious and moral character of the teaching of the great prophets-of Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah-larger and higher and more spiritual than the legalism of the Pentateuch? That may, be granted, but it is not to the point here. The lofty prophetic teaching had never been accepted by the nation. The prophets had been voices crying in the wilderness. Their great spiritual thoughts had never been seriously followed except by a small group of devout souls. It was the Christian Church that first built on the foundation of the prophets. But in Ezras day the Jews as a body frankly accepted The Law. Whether this were higher or lower than the ideal of prophetism does not affect the case. The significant fact is that it was higher than any ideal the people had hitherto adopted in practice. The perception of this fact was most distressing to them.
Nevertheless the Israelite leaders did not share the feeling of grief. In their eyes the sorrow of the Jews was a great mistake. It was even a wrong thing for them thus to distress themselves. Ezra loved The Law, and therefore it was to him a dreadful surprise to discover that the subject of his devoted studies was regarded so differently by his brethren. Nehemiah and the Levites shared his more cheerful view of the situation. Lyrics of this and subsequent ages bear testimony to the passionate devotion with which the sacred Torah was cherished by loyal disciples. The author of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm ransacks his vocabulary for varying phrases on which to ring the changes in praise of the law, the judgments, the statutes, the commandments of God. He cries:-
I will delight in Thy statutes,
I will not forget Thy word.
Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold
Wondrous things out of Thy law.
Unless Thy law had been my delight,
I should have perished in mine affliction.
"Great peace have they that love Thy law,
And they have none occasion of stumbling."
Moreover, the student of The Law today can perceive that its intention was beneficent. It maintained righteousness, and righteousness is the chief good. It regulated the mutual relations of men with regard to justice; it ordained purity; it contained many humane rules for the protection of men and even of animals; it condescended to most wholesome sanitary directions. Then it declared that he who kept its ordinances should live, not merely by reason of an arbitrary arrangement, but because it pointed out the natural and necessary way of life and health. The Divine Spirit that had guided the development of it had presided over something more inviting than the forging of fetters for a host of miserable slaves, something more useful than the creation of a tantalising exemplar that should be the despair of every copyist. Ezra and his fellow-leaders knew the intention of The Law. This was the ground of their joyous confidence in contemplation of it. They were among those who had been led by their personal religion into possession of "the secret of the Lord." They had acquainted themselves with Him, and therefore they were at peace. Their example teaches us that we must penetrate beyond the letter to the spirit of revelation if we would discover its hidden thoughts of love. When we do so even The Law will be found to enshrine an evangel. Not that these men of the olden times perceived the fanciful symbolism which many Christians have delighted to extract from the most mechanical details of the tabernacle ritual. Their eyes were fixed on the gracious Divine purpose of creating a holy nation-separate and pure-and The Law seemed to be the best instrument for accomplishing that purpose. Meanwhile its impracticability did not strike them, because they thought of the thing in itself rather than of the relation of men to it. Religious melancholy springs from habits of subjectivity. The joyous spirit is that which forgets self in the contemplation of the thoughts of God. It is our meditation of Him-not of self-that is sweet.
Of course this would have been unreasonable if it had totally ignored human conditions and their relation to the Divine. In that case Ezra and his companions would have been vain dreamers, and the sorrowing multitude people of common-sense perceptions. But we must remember that the new religious movement was inspired by faith. It is faith that bridges the vast chasm between the real and the ideal. God had given The Law in lovingkindness and tender mercy. Then God would make the attainment of His will revealed in it possible. The part of brave and humble men was to look away from themselves to the revelation of Gods thought concerning them with grateful admiration of its glorious perfection.
While considerations of this sort would make it possible for the leaders to regard The Law in a very different spirit from that manifested by the rest of the Jews, other reflections led them to go further and check the outburst of grief as both unseemly and hurtful.
It was unseemly, because it was marring the beauty of a great festival. The Jews were to stay their grief seeing that the day was holy unto the Lord. {Neh_8:9} This was as much as to say that sorrow was defiling. The world had to wait for the religion of the cross to reveal to it the sanctity of sorrow. Undoubtedly the Jewish festivals were joyous celebrations. It is the greatest mistake to represent the religion of the Old Testament as a gloomy cult overshadowed by the thunder-clouds of Sinai. On the contrary, its greatest offices were celebrated with music, dancing, and feasting. The high day was a holiday, sunny and mirthful. It would be a pity to spoil, such an occasion with unseasonable lamentations. But Nehemiah and Ezra must have had a deeper thought than this in their deprecation of grief at the festival. To allow such behaviour is to entertain unworthy feelings towards God. A day sacred to the Lord is a day in which His presence is especially felt. To draw near to God with no other feelings than emotions of fear and grief is to misapprehend His nature and His disposition towards His people. Worship should be inspired with the gladness of grateful hearts praising God, because otherwise it would discredit His goodness.
This leads to a thought of wider range and still more profound significance, a thought that flashes out of the sacred page like a brilliant gem, a thought so rich and glad and bountiful that it speaks for its own inspiration as one of the great Divine ideas of Scripture-"The joy of the Lord is your strength." Though the unseemliness of mourning on a feast day was the first and most obvious consideration urged by the Jewish leaders in their expostulation with the distressed multitude, the real justification for their rebukes and exhortations is to be found in the magnificent spiritual idea that they here give expression to. In view of such a conviction as they now gladly declare they would regard the lamentation of the Jews as more than unseemly, as positively hurtful and even wrong.
By the expression "the joy of the Lord" it seems clear that Nehemiah and his associates meant a joy which may be experienced by men through their fellowship with God. The phrase could be used for the gladness of God Himself; as we speak of the righteousness of God or the love of God, so we might speak of His joy in reference to His own infinite life and consciousness. But in the case before us the drift of the passage directs our thoughts to the moods and feelings of men. The Jews are giving way to grief, and they are rebuked for so doing and encouraged to rejoice. In this situation some thoughts favourable to joy on their part are naturally suitable. Accordingly they are called to enter into a pure and lofty gladness in which they are assured they will find their strength.
This "joy of the Lord," then, is the joy that springs up in our hearts by means of our relation to God. It is a God-given gladness, and it is found in communion with God. Nevertheless the other "joy of the Lord" is not to be left out of account when we think of the gladness which comes to us from God, for the highest joy is possible to us just because it is first experienced by God. There could be no joy in communion with a morose divinity. The service of Moloch must have been a terror, a perfect agony to his most loyal devotees. The feelings of a worshipper will always be reflections from what he thinks he perceives in the countenance of his god. They will be gloomy if the god is a sombre personage, and cheerful if he is a glad being. Now the revelation of God in the Bible is the unveiling with growing clearness of a countenance of unspeakable love and beauty and gladness. He is made known to us as "the blessed God"-the happy God. Then the joy of His children is the overflow of His own deep gladness streaming down to them. This is the "joy in the presence of the angels" which, springing from the great heart of God, makes the happiness of returning penitents, so that they share in their Fathers delight, as the prodigal shares in the home festivities when the fatted calf is killed. This same communication of gladness is seen in the life of our Lord, not only during those early sunny days in Galilee when His ministry opened under a cloudless sky, but even amid the darkness of the last hours at Jerusalem, for in His final discourse Jesus prayed that His joy might be in His disciples in order that their joy might be full. A more generous perception of this truth would make religion like sunshine and music, like the blooming of spring flowers and the outburst of woodland melody about the path of the Christian pilgrim. It is clear that Jesus Christ expected this to be the case since He commenced His teaching with the word "Blessed." St. Paul, too, saw the same possibility, as his repeated encouragements to "Rejoice" bear witness. Religion may be compared to one of those Italian city churches which are left outwardly bare and gloomy, while within they are replete with treasures of art. We must cross the threshold, push aside the heavy curtain, and tread the sacred pavement, if we would see the beauty of sculptured column and mural fresco and jewelled altarpiece. Just in proportion as we draw near to God shall we behold the joy and love that ever dwell in Him, till the vision of these wonders kindles our love and gladness.
Now the great idea that is here suggested to us connects this Divine joy with strength-the joy is an inspiration of energy. By the nature of things joy is exhilarating, while pain is depressing. Physiologists recognise it as a law of animal organisms that happiness is a nerve tonic. It would seem that the same law obtains in spiritual experience. On the other hand, nothing is more certain than that there are enervating pleasures, and that the free indulgence in pleasure generally weakens the character; with this goes the equally certain truth that men may be braced by suffering, that the east wind of adversity may be a real stimulant. How shall we reconcile these contradictory positions? Clearly there are different kinds and grades of delight, and different ways of taking and using every form of gladness. Pure hedonism cannot but be a weak system of life. It is the Spartan, not the Sybarite, who is capable of heroic deeds. Even Epicurus, whose name has been abused to shelter low pleasure-seeking, perceived, as clearly as "The Preacher," the melancholy truth that the life that is given over to the satisfaction of personal desires is but "vanity of vanities." The joy that exhilarates is not sought as a final goal. It comes in by the way when we are pursuing some objective end. Then this purest joy is as far above the pleasure of the self-indulgent as heaven is above hell. It may even be found side by side with bodily pain, as when martyrs exult in their flames, or when stricken souls in more prosaic circumstances awake to the wonderful perception of a rare Divine gladness. It is this joy that gives strength. There is enthusiasm in it. Such a joy, not being an end in itself, is a means to a great practical end. Gods glad children are strong to do and bear His will, strong in their very gladness.
This was good news to the Jews, outwardly but a feeble flock and a prey to the ravening wolves from neighbouring lands. They had recovered hope after building their walls, but these hastily constructed fortifications did not afford them their most secure stronghold. Their refuge was God. They carried bows and spears and swords, but the strength with which they wielded these weapons consisted in the enthusiasm of a Divine gladness-not the orgiastic fury of the heathen, but the deep, strong joy of men who knew the secret of their Lord, who possessed what Wordsworth calls "inward glee." This joy was essentially a moral strength. It bestowed the power wherewith to keep the law. Here was the answer to the discouragement of the people in their dawning perception of the lofty requirements of Gods holy will. The Christian can best find energy for service, as well as the calm strength of patience, in that still richer Divine gladness which is poured into his heart by the grace of Christ. It is not only unfortunate for anybody to be a mournful Christian, it is dangerous, hurtful, even wrong. Therefore the gloomy servant of God is to be rebuked for missing the Divine gladness. Seeing that the source of it is in God, and not in the Christian himself, it is attainable and possible to the most sorrowful. He who has found this "pearl of great price" can afford to miss much else in life and yet go on his way rejoicing.
It was natural that the Jews should have been encouraged to give expression to the Divine joy at a great festival. The final harvest-home of the year, the merry celebration of the vintage, was then due. No Jewish feast was more cheerful than this, which expressed gratitude for "wine that maketh glad the heart of man." The superiority of Judaism over heathenism is seen in the tremendous contrast between the simple gaiety of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles and the gross debauchery of the Bacchanalian orgies which disgraced a similar occasion in the pagan world. It is to our shame in modern Christendom that we dare not imitate the Jews here, knowing too well that if we tried to do so we should only sink to the heathen level. Our Feast of Tabernacles would certainly become a Feast of Bacchus, bestial and wicked. Happily the Jews did not feel the Teutonic danger of intemperance. Their festival recognised the Divine bounty in nature, in its richest, ripest autumn fruitfulness, which was like the smile of God breaking out through His works to cheer His children. Bivouacking in greenwood bowers, the Jews did their best to return to the life of nature and share its autumn gladness. The chronicler informs us that since the days of Joshua the Jews had never observed the feast as they did now-never with such great gladness and never so truly after the directions of their law. Although the actual words he gives as from The Law {Neh_8:14-15} are not to be found in the Pentateuch, they sum up the regulations of that work. This then is the first application of The Law which the people have received with so much distress. It ordains a glad festival. So much brighter is religion when it is understood and practised than when it is only contemplated from afar! Now the reading of The Law can go on day by day, and be received with joy.
Finally, like the Christians who collected food and money at the Agape for their poorer brethren and for the martyrs in prison, the Jews were to "send portions" to the needy. {Neh_8:12} The rejoicing was not to be selfish, it was to stimulate practical kindness. Here was its safeguard. We shrink from accepting joy too freely lest it should be followed by some terrible Nemesis; but if, instead of gloating over it in secret, selfishly and greedily, we use it as a talent, and endeavour to lessen the sorrows of others by inviting them to share it, the heathenish dread is groundless. He who is doing his utmost to help his brother may dare to be very happy.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv10–11
Nehemiah
READING THE LAW WITH TEARS AND JOY
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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.
There is a natural adaptation or provision in the Gospel, both by what it brings to us and by what it takes away from us, to make a calm, and settled, and deep gladness, the prevalent temper of the Christian spirit. In what it gives us, I say, and in what it takes away from us. It gives us what we call well a sense of acceptance with God, it gives us God for the rest of our spirits, it gives us the communion with Him which in proportion as it is real, will be still, and in proportion as it is still, will be all bright and joyful. It takes away from us the fear that lies before us, the strifes that lie within us, the desperate conflict that is waged between a man’s conscience and his inclinations, between his will and his passions, which tears the heart asunder, and always makes sorrow and tumult wherever it comes. It takes away the sense of sin. It gives us, instead of the torpid conscience, or the angrily-stinging conscience-a conscience all calm from its accusations, with all the sting drawn out of it:-for quiet peace lies in the heart of the man that is trusting in the Lord. The Gospel works joy, because the soul is at rest in God; joy, because every function of the spiritual nature has found now its haven and its object; joy, because health has come, and the healthy working of the body or of the spirit is itself a gladness; joy, because the dim future is painted {where it is painted at all} with shapes of light and beauty, and because the very vagueness of these is an element in the greatness of its revelation. The joy that is in Christ is deep and abiding. Faith in Him naturally works gladness.
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.
It is a commandment here, and it is a command in the New Testament as well. ‘Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ I need not quote to you the frequent repetitions of the same injunction which the Apostle Paul gives us, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice’; ‘Rejoice evermore,’ and the like. The fact that this joy is enjoined us suggests to us a thought or two, worth looking at.
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!
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v17 for since the days of Jeshua
for since the days of Jeshua
It is not meant that there had not been some formal observance of the feast of tabernacles (cf) 2Ch 8:13; Eze 3:4, but that the people had not dwelt in booths since Joshua’s days.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v9 The Feast of Tabernacles
The Feast of Tabernacles
v. 9. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, he being the governor of Judea under appointment from the Persian king, and Ezra, the priest, the scribe, the learned doctor of priestly descent, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord, your God; mourn not nor weep, they were to give no evidence of mourning, deeply as they were affected by the reading, for this would have disturbed the holiness of the day. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law, overcome with the sense of their national sins, as brought out by the reading of the commands and prohibitions of the Lord.
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v. 10. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, the special fine foods of the festival season, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, with the spirit spoken of in Deu 16:11-12; for this day is holy unto our Lord; neither be ye sorry, full of mournfulness,for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Every one who, by reason of God’s promise in His Word, is sure of God’s kindness and love toward him will not only feel a holy joy over this fact, but will also be filled with wonderful strength in walking the ways of God’s will.
v. 11. So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.
v. 12. And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, in the right thankfulness which the occasion demanded, Lev 23:23-25, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
v. 13. And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra, the scribe, even to understand, to consider most carefully, the words of the Law, including such ordinances as had not again been observed since the return from the exile.
v. 14. And they found written in the Law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, namely, in Lev 23:34-42; Deu 16:13, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month, in the so-called Feast of Tabernacles;
v. 15. and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, the range of which the Mount of Olives was the highest, and fetch olive-branches, and pine-branches, those of the oil-tree of Palestine, and myrtle-branches, a small tree with tangled branches and thick foliage, and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees, Cf Lev 23:40, to make booths, as it is written.
v. 16. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, Deu 16:13-17, every one upon the roof of his house, the roofs of Oriental houses being flat, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the Water Gate, the large open square near the Temple, and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim, a large open place in the northwestern part of the city.
v. 17. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths and sat under the booths, they lived in them during the week of the festival; for since the days of Jeshua, the son of Nun, unto that day had not the children of Israel done so, the enthusiasm and joy of the people had never reached such heights as at this time, when they were once more realizing what it meant to be delivered from captivity among the heathen. And there was very great gladness.
v. 18. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he, Ezra, read in the Book of the Law of God, the zeal of the people causing him to do even more than the Law actually required. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner, Lev 23:36; Num 29:35; Deu 16:8. The convocation of the eighth day was characterized by unusual solemnity and impressiveness, and significant rites were later added to the customs of the day, as seen from Joh 7:37. Even as Israel rejoiced at that time, because the Lord lived in its midst, so the Christian Church is full of gladness at all times because God makes His abode in the hearts of all believers.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11, 13, 16, 18 For all the people wept
For all the people wept
This is a generalization that indicates there was great weeping among the people. AT: "For the people wept greatly" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
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eat the fat and have something sweet to drink
The implied information is that the people were told to feast on rich food and sweet drinks. AT: "eat rich food and drink something sweet" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Do not be grieved
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Do not grieve" (See: Active or Passive)
for the joy of Yahweh is your strength
The abstract nouns "joy" and "strength" can be expressed as verbs or adjectives. AT: "rejoicing in Yahweh will protect you" or "being joyful in Yahweh will be your strong refuge" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
Nehemiah
govern
Ezra
priest
scribe
Levi
holy
Yahweh
God
mourn
word
law
lord
joy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18 8:9-10 Ezra the priest and scribe: See study note…
8:9-10 Ezra the priest and scribe: See study note on Ezra 7:6. • Don’t mourn or weep . . . today is a sacred day: God touched the people’s hearts, prompting them to regret their failures to keep God’s laws. While weeping is an appropriate response to sin (see Ezek 9:4; Luke 6:21), Ezra and Nehemiah encouraged the people to rejoice at what God had done. Because this New Year’s festival was to be a time of joy (Num 29:1-6), weeping would have destroyed the spirit of the day.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.