Gladness In My Heart – Psalm 4:7

“You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.”

While we are not given the specific circumstances under which David penned this Psalm, we know that it was a time of distress.  It was a time when those around him were opposed to God and opposed to David’s government (and therefore God’s government).  They loved worthlessness and sought falsehood over truth.  Basically, it is a state of civilization which we can relate to today.  We are living in times which we can cry out to God and ask Him, as David did, to “have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.” (Psalm 4:1)  “All the notice God is pleased to take of our prayers, and all the returns he is pleased to make to them, must be ascribed, not to our merit, but purely to his mercy.  “Hear me for thy mercy-sake’’ is our best plea.”  (Matthew Henry)

At the beginning of David’s prayer, he recalls that God has relieved him in his distress before.  It is a good habit to recall how God has comforted us in the past.  It reminds us of how He will comfort us in our current situation.  Throughout the Psalms, we see King David cry out to God in his distress, remind himself and God of His former mercies, provision and protection, and rest in the peace of knowing he is set apart for God.  The apostle Paul is consistent with King David’s methods when he instructs us to bring everything to God.  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7)

Both King David and the apostle Paul describe one of the mysterious gifts from God to His children.  It is the mystery of the joy and gladness in the heart of a person at peace with God that can exist regardless of circumstances.  The gladness we can have in our heart is so powerful and so complete, that even in a time of distress, it is more fulfilling than the all the happiness that a bountiful harvest can provide to an enemy of God.  In others words, the gladness in our heart on our worst day is more than the gladness in the heart of an unsaved person on their best day.  I often thought this concept is something only a child of God who has traversed difficult times is able to comprehend.  Yet, if we consider the rate of drug use and self-medication among those who appear to “have it all,” the facts prove out this scriptural truth. 

But it is on us, the children of God, that this mysterious joy rests.  “Thou hast hereby often put gladness into my heart; not only supported and refreshed me, but filled me with joy unspeakable; and therefore this is what I will still pursue, what I will seek after all the days of my life. When God puts grace in the heart he puts gladness in the heart; nor is any joy comparable to that which gracious souls have in the communications of the divine favour, no, not the joy of harvest, of a plentiful harvest, when the corn and wine increase. This is gladness in the heart, inward, solid, substantial joy.  The saints have no reason to envy carnal worldlings their mirth and joy, but should pity them rather, for they may know better and will not.  The mirth of worldly people is but a flash, a shadow.”  (Matthew Henry)  “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.  Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief.”  (Proverbs 14:12-13)

True peace, true joy, is a gift from God to His children.  Do you long for this joy the world cannot give?  Surrender to Jesus and trust Him for eternal life and peace in your life on this earth.  Jesus said “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Contentment and the Tenth Commandment – 1 Kings 21:4

 “So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, ‘I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.’ And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food.”

Have you ever considered the tenth commandment?  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”  (Exodus 10:17)  I have heard it said that this is the only commandment that cannot be proven in a court of law.  This is true because it is a condition of our heart.  God knows our hearts and He knows how our hearts can control us.  He includes this in His Holy Law to protect us from ourselves.  Covetousness is a dangerous sin that drives us to other sins. 

Ahab wanted Naboth’s garden.  It was conveniently next to the palace.  Seeking to buy a property is not a sin.  The woman in Proverbs 31 is praised for such diligence, “She considers a field and buys it; from her profits she plants a vineyard.” (Proverbs 31:16)  The difference here, though, is according to Numbers 36:7 and Ezekiel 46:18, God did not want his people to sell their property, except in dire situations, even then it would be leased or returned in the year of Jubilee.  The point being that God gave them the land and they were to keep it within the tribe, generation after generation.  Ahab knew the law, or should have known it, yet he tempts Naboth to sin in the sale of his land, “But Naboth said to Ahab, ‘The LORD forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!’” (1 Kings 21:3) 

Naboth was presented with a choice we often see in our own lives:  will you obey God or obey man?  Naboth obeys God.  Why Ahab becomes so distraught over Naboth’s response can only be explained by obsessive covetousness.  Good grief!  Ahab has the palace and all the perks of a king, what is this little piece of land?  Yet Ahab spirals downward and becomes useless, he ceases to carry out his duties as a king. 

“Discontent is a sin that is its own punishment and makes men torment themselves; it makes the spirit sad, the body sick, and all the enjoyments sour; it is the heaviness of the heart and the rottenness of the bones. It is a sin that is its own parent. It arises not from the condition, but from the mind. As we find Paul contented in a prison, so Ahab discontent in a palace. He had all the delights of Canaan, that pleasant land, at command the wealth of a kingdom, the pleasures of a court, and the honours and powers of a throne; and yet all this avails him nothing without Naboth’s vineyard. Inordinate desires expose men to continual vexations, and those that are disposed to fret, be they ever so happy, will always find something or other to fret at.”  (Matthew Henry)

Oh that the story would have ended here.  But what follows ranks near the top in the saddest stories in Scripture.  Jezebel, that cursed woman, as Jehu calls her in 2 Kings 9:34, sets out to solve Ahab’s problem.  Not by getting Ahab to snap out of it over such a small matter, but to engage elders and nobles to call for a fast under the pretense of a pending judgment from God, seating Naboth at high honor, and then to bear false witness against Naboth that he blasphemed God and the king.  Both actions Naboth is falsely accused of are punishable by death.  These men must have been perfectly lost to all that is honest and honorable.  Jezebel’s letter “to oblige them to find the witnesses, sons of Belial, to suborn them themselves, and then to give judgment upon a testimony which they knew to be false, was such an impudent defiance to every thing that is just and sacred as we hope cannot be paralleled in any story.” (Matthew Henry)  It is awful to see the power of the law used to murder the innocent who should be protected by the law.  Apparently it was not just Naboth that was killed, but 2 Kings 9:26 indicates that Naboth’s sons were also killed.

It is astounding, the wickedness of the wicked.  Ahab’s coveting – breaking the tenth commandment – of Naboth’s garden brought about such villany:  bearing false testimony against Naboth (breaking the ninth commandment), murdering Naboth and his sons (breaking the sixth commandment), and stealing his land (breaking the eighth commandment).   When Ahab hears that Naboth is dead, he goes to take possession of the garden.  It is at the very time when Ahab takes possession that God sent Elijah to try and condemn Ahab.  The judgment is pronounced which puts Ahab into mourning.  Ahab never gets to take possession of that which he gained by fraud.

Beware of breaking the tenth commandment.   Are you inordinately obsessed with obtaining some material item?  Do you feel bodily sick that you do not have it?  Keep in mind, every form of advertising (television, internet, billboard, magazines) are all constructed to bring discontent with our present situation.  It is designed to tell us we are what we have and what we have is not good enough, not easy enough, not connected enough, not networked enough, or it is just plain obsolete.

Does some other type of discontent have a grip on you?  Are you jealous over a co-worker’s promotion instead of celebrating with them?  Are you jealous over someone else’s ministry?  Are you depressed and unable to function in your responsibilities?  Can you always find something to fret at? 

Maybe you cannot see the abundance of blessing God has bestowed upon you.  Pray that God’s desires be your desires.  Pray that God help you see how wonderful He is and how wonderfully He has blessed you.  Flee from the people who say you just need to follow your heart to be happy.  Scripture says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome and be obedient to the tenth commandment, and therefore the other commandments.  God’s law is perfect and holy, and He gave it to us for our own protection.

 “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)  We have Jesus and His gift of salvation.  Praise God!  Is that enough for you?  It was enough for Paul in prison.  

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

The Plague of the Heart – 1 Kings 8:38-39

 “whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men)”

It does not say “because” each one knows the plague of his own heart, it says “when” each one knows.  There is such a difference.  It is not the lack of a plague in each person’s heart, it is a lack of recognition, of acknowledgement. 

How many people have you shared the Gospel with that are convinced they are a good person and therefore have no need for a savior?  Indeed these people may be relatively more kind than those who claim to know Jesus.  But their heart deceives them.  Jesus told us that “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:17-18)  Everyone is already condemned, and without Jesus, there is no hope of salvation.  In speaking of the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11)  For these folks, the plague of their heart is that they have rejected Christ, they have rejected conviction by the Holy Spirit.  Bible.org notes “The unpardonable sin is the sin of rejection. The unpardonable sin is defined as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, because when Christ was on earth, the religious leaders were attributing his miracles to demonic powers when in fact they were the product of the Holy Spirit working in the life of Christ (Matt. 12:12-32). This demonstrated a heart that had become so hard that it precluded repentance because Christ’s words and works were a clear evidence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Him as the Anointed One, the Messiah of the Old Testament. To reject Christ and claim His works were from Satan was a clear evidence of both unbelief and an unrepentant heart. That’s why it was considered unpardonable.”  Rejection of Jesus Christ is a plague of the heart.

Yet there are times when born-again Christians can be awakened to a plague of their heart, of sins other than the rejection of Christ.  Look at how the priests in 1 Kings 8:10-12 could not continue their ministry and had to leave the house of the LORD when His presence entered.  David Guzik stated “We know that God is good and that God is love; why should an intense presence of goodness and love make the priests feel they could not continue? Because God is not only goodness and love, He is also holy - and the holiness of God made the priests feel that they could no longer stand in His presence.  The intense sense of the presence of our holy God is not a "warm and fuzzy" feeling. Men like Peter, Isaiah, and John felt stricken in the presence of God. This was not because God forced an uncomfortable feeling upon them, but because they simply could not be comfortable sensing the difference between their sinfulness and the holiness of God.”

Isaiah, a prophet that spoke the words of God, upon seeing the Lord sitting upon a throne, said “Woe is me, for I am undone!  Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)

Peter, upon meeting Jesus for the first time when Jesus miraculously filled their boats with fish, said “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8)

The Apostle John, as Jesus revealed Himself with hair and head white as wool, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like fine brass, voice as the sound of many waters, a sharp two-edged sword out of His mouth and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength, when John saw Him, “fell at His feet as dead.” (Revelation 1:17)

Brothers and sisters, even those of us who have surrendered to Christ, seek to serve Him, and love Him for His endless grace, we still have yet to truly comprehend His holiness.  It is humbling.

If you have shared the complete Gospel with your friends and they continue to reject Christ, then pray for them.  Pray that Christ will reveal Himself to them.  Pray that they will see His holiness which in turn will reveal their sinfulness.  Pray that such a time will be “when” they know the plague of their own heart.  God is so good.  When they know and ask, God will hear in heaven, and forgive them, and act.  Because He knows their heart, and then they will as well.

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.