Psalm 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
Here we get to the 5th and final type of prayer in this
Psalm ... praise/rejoicing.
Joy is in short supply in our house this morning. Between us
all we are variously ill, tired, grumpy, missing people who we can't see, frustrated by the ones we can see, bored, busy yet achieving nothing significant, and disappointed - with ourselves, each other and our circumstances. Rejoice David? Really? I don't think so! Not today.
I'm probably being melodramatic, but I'm reminded of the
Israelites in exile: "how can we sing the songs of God in a strange
land?" (Psalm 137). How can we rejoice when people are dying, the country is crumbling, we can't hug our parents, we can't plan ahead ...? How can I rejoice when I'm finding out that I'm so much less godly under pressure than I wanted to believe I would be.
No. We can't rejoice in our situation right now. Or in our
ability to handle it well. Or even in the hope of everything going back to normal any time soon. But David doesn't expect us to. He knows that the ones who 'ever' sing for joy - those who can be joyful no matter what - are those who take refuge in God. Our rejoicing is not in our circumstances or in ourselves but in God himself.
There isn't a whole load of joy in our house this morning. But there is abundant joy to be found in the Lord. Boundless love, to meet our loneliness. Endless grace, sufficient for all our failures. Solid truth, to ground us when we're tempted to despair.
All these, and so much more, are ours in him. I think I can rejoice in that, even today. I WILL rejoice in him, even today. Will you?
