IN Nehemiah’s day this sentence was written: “The joy of the Lord is your strength,” and we read there how full of happiness God’s people were in his time. On eight different occasions we are told that “they rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.” Neh. 12:4343Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off. (Nehemiah 12:43).
Dear young friends, I want to make you think of the “joy” we can have in the Lord Jesus. We are told that at His “right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psa. 16. Not only something which will please for a moment, or an hour, or a day, but a joy which will go on getting brighter and brighter, until we hear our Saviour saying, “Enter thou into the ‘joy’ of thy Lord.”
There was, a little while ago, a great storm at sea. The waves were running mountains high. A little girl, just six years old, was going with her mother on a long voyage, when the ship in which they sailed was caught in this storm, and all hope was abandoned. The mother drew her little girl to her side, and said, “Edie, darling, the captain says the ship is going down; will my little girl be brave and not afraid?”
Looking up into her mother’s face, little Edith answered, “Mamma, God has promised to keep us safe wherever we are. I am not afraid; it is so nice to be safe with Him.”
Dear little girl! “Safe with Him,” and so she could rejoice. Her bright, happy face put hope in the passengers’ hearts, and we are glad to tell you that by God’s grace the ship weathered the storm. “The joy of the Lord” was indeed her “strength,” though she was only a little child. Like the children in Nehemiah’s time, she “rejoiced” because she “understood” the words of the Lord.
Let us see whom we have to rejoice in. “Rejoice in the Lord” (Phil. 4:44Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)). And when? “Always"! This is an abiding joy; not only when everything seems right and happy, but even when all is dark, when unkind words are spoken of you, evil deeds done to you, even then “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” (Matt. 5:1212Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:12).)
Oh! if there were more happy-looking Christians, how much they could do. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” ought to be written on every heart. No long, sad faces, but calm, happy ones, because we understand the words Jesus has said to us.
“When others see your happy face,
And ask what makes you glad;
What makes you love the Saviour, Why you are seldom sad;
Oh! happy, laughing children,
May this your answer be:
‘I love my Saviour and I know
His wondrous love for me!’ "
ML-01/31/1960