Nehemiah 8:9-10 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said to all the people… 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 God's 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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