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.

No Shepherd – Zechariah 10:2

“For the idols speak delusion; the diviners envision lies, and tell false dreams; they comfort in vain.  Therefore the people wend their way like sheep; they are in trouble because there is no shepherd.’”

Through Zechariah, God was plainly stating the utter uselessness of the idols and their diviners in their attempts to prophecy whether rain would come and when.  “He shows them the folly of making their addresses to idols as their fathers had done (v. 2): The idols have spoken vanity; the teraphim, which they courted and consulted in their distress, were so far from being able to command rain for them that they could not so much as tell them when they should have rain. They pretended to promise them rain at such a time, but it did not come. The diviners, who were the prophets of those idols, have seen a lie (their visions were all a cheat and a sham); and they have told false dreams, such as the event did not answer, which proved that they were not from God. Thus they comforted in vain those that consulted the lying oracles; all the vanities of the heathen put together could not give rain.  “Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain?  Or can the heavens give showers?  Are You not He, O LORD our God?  Therefore we will wait for You, since You have made all these.”  (Jeremiah 14:22).  Yet this was not the worst of it; they not only got nothing by the false gods, but they lost the favour of the true God, for therefore they went their way into captivity as a flock driven into the fold, and they were troubled with one vexation after another, as scattered sheep are, because there was no shepherd, no prince to rule them, no priest to intercede for them, none to take care of them and keep them together. Those that wandered after strange gods were made to wander, into strange nations.”  (Matthew Henry)

God wants us to trust Him, to turn to Him, to talk to Him, and to read His Word.  He wants a personal relationship with us.  He wants our devotion and He is jealous that way.  Many of us will say, ‘but I do love God and I do not worship idols!’  An idol can present itself in forms other than pagan worship.  Anything that comes between you and your personal relationship with God is an idol.  Should we venture to name a few?  How about money, a career, politics, a personal goal, a bucket list, even family members can become more important than your relationship with God.  At the exclusion of God, these very things can give comfort in vain.  Many who seek after money think they will finally be happy when they have it.  Comfort in vain.  Those who put their trust into politicians and say that all will be better when that person is elected.  Comfort in vain.  Those who seek after a goal at all costs think they will have ‘arrived’ once the goal is achieved.  Comfort in vain.  Ones who seek to please family members at the expense of their relationship with God.  Comfort in vain.  Why do we put things between us and God?  We do it because the world deceives us into believing that things like money, career, politics and bucket lists are admirable, and…we do it because we choose to do it.

God is the only One Who can truly comfort us.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  When sheep are left to their own devices scripture describes their movement as ‘wend.’  ‘Wend’ is defined as “go in a specified direction, typically slowly or by an indirect route.”  When the people have no godly leader, God notes that the people wend their way like sheep, and the result is that they get into trouble.  God loves us so much that He wants to shepherd us.  A shepherd’s livelihood is the flock.  The care, leading and protection of the flock is of utmost importance to a good shepherd.  Jesus tells us what lengths a good shepherd would go to in protecting his flock.  “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”  (John 10:11)

Friend, are you in trouble?  Are you wending your way like sheep because you have no shepherd?  Are you in trouble because someone has spoken lies in an attempt to comfort you in vain?  Are you tired of trying to make it on your own?  Jesus wants you to be in His flock.  He will never lie.  He stands at the door of your heart and knocks.  He is polite, He will not insist.  You must ask Him into your heart.  It is up to you to ask Him to be your Good Shepherd.    

Once you have asked Jesus to be your Great Shepherd, you can count on this promise:  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”  (John 10:27-28)

“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.”  (Hebrews 13:20-21)

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

I Lay Down and Slept – Psalm 3:5

“I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.”

Sleep to me is a marvelous mystery.  A body demands sleep.  We are so refreshed when we get it.  Conversely, our body and mind do not function well when we lack sleep.  The older we get, the more we appreciate a good nap!  But sleep does not always come to those who desperately need it.  People find that if there is trouble in their life, when the mind is twisted up in worry, sleep can be illusive.

King David wrote this Psalm at a time when there was great trouble in his life.  His son, Absalom, had run King David off the throne, out of his own city of Jerusalem, and turned many of the people against him, some of whom used to be trusted friends of King David.  The people said God was no longer helping David.  Absalom and his followers sought to kill King David.  This is some pretty serious trouble, physical and emotional.  Yet King David says ‘I lay down and slept.’  Could you?

After restoring his body and mind with sleep, King David tells us ‘I awoke.’  “Every time you lay down and fall asleep, you are enjoying a good gift of God. Every time you wake up, you are enjoying another good gift of God.  He sustains us, both waking and sleeping.”  (Charles Stanley)  Why could King David sleep?  Because he trusted God for whatever happened. 

“It seems here to be meant of the wonderful quietness and calmness of David’s spirit, in the midst of his dangers. Having by prayer committed himself and his cause to God, and being sure of his protection, his heart was fixed, and he was easy. The undutifulness of his son, the disloyalty of his subjects, the treachery of many of his friends, the hazard of his person, the fatigues of his march, and the uncertainty of the event, never deprived him of an hour’s sleep, nor gave any disturbance to his repose; for the Lord, by his grace and the consolations of his Spirit, powerfully sustained him and made him easy. It is a great mercy when we are in trouble to have our minds stayed upon God, so as never either to eat or sleep with trembling and astonishment.”  (Matthew Henry)

Are you not sleeping because of troubles in your life?  Cry out to God.  David was driven out of the place of his prayer closet, driven out of where he worshipped God, but he could still draw near to God as he fled from his enemies.  It is not a matter of if you have troubles in your life.  As a child of God, it is a matter of when.  The world is in such an uproar.  There is great hatred and anger among peoples and nations.  People are killed because they will not deny Christ.  The only way we shall overcome our fears is to petition God and then trust Him with whatever may come.  

God was David’s constant companion.  “I cried to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill.  Selah”  (Psalm 3:4)  Then David slept and awoke because the LORD sustained him.  When he awoke, David no longer had fear.  “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”  (Psalm 3:6)  It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can trust God no matter what the circumstances.  If our circumstances are not due to our own sin – our own doing – then God has His reasons for our circumstances, and we may never understand why.  But we must still trust him like Job: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15a)  When others are out to get us, we must trust God like Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”  (Daniel 3:17-18)  When we trust God, He is glorified.  As a child of God, this should be our goal.

In the next Psalm, David reminds us again of the reason for his comforting rest, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”  (Psalm 4:8)  So cry out to our God, trust Him, and sleep well, brothers and sisters.  For there is no one greater than our God!

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