“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.” — Psalm 5:11
The subject for this morning is joy, the joy of faith, the joy which is the fruit of the Spirit from the root of trust in God. May we not only talk about it at this hour, but enjoy it now and evermore! It is pleasant to read, and hear, and think about joy; but to be filled with joy and peace through believing is a far more satisfying thing. I want you to see not only the sparkling fountain of joy, but to drink deep draughts of it; yes, and drink all the week, and all the month, and all the year, and all the rest of your lives, both in time and in eternity. “Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.”
I. First, let us speak a little upon THE KIND OF JOY WHICH IS ALLOTTED TO BELIEVERS: “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.”
Note, first, concerning this joy, that it is to be universal to all who trust: “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.” This is not only for the healthy, but for the sickly; not only for the successful, but for the disappointed; not only for those who have the bird in the hand, but for those who only see it in the bush. Let all rejoice! If you have but a little faith, yet if you are trusting in the Lord, you have a right to joy. It may be, your joy will not rise so high as it might do if your faith were greater; but still, where faith is true, it gives sure ground for joy. O ye babes in grace, ye little children, you that have been newly converted, and sadly feel your feebleness, yet rejoice; for the Lord will bless them that fear him, “both small and great!” “Fear not, thou worm Jacob.” “Fear not, little flock.” There is a joy which is as milk to nourish babes — a joy which is not as meat with bones in it; for the Lord addeth no sorrow therewith. The little ones of the flock need not vex themselves concerning the deep things of God; for there is joy in those shallows of simple truth where lambs may safely wade. The joy of the Lord is softened down to feeble constitutions, lest it overpower them. The same great sea which floods the vast bays also flows into the tiny creeks. “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.”
You, Miss Much-afraid, over yonder, you are to rejoice! You, Mr. Despondency, hardly daring to look up, you must yet learn to sing. As for Mr. Ready-to-halt, he must dance on his crutches, and Feeble-mind must play the music for him. It is the mind of the Holy Ghost that those who trust in the Lord should rejoice before him.
This joy, in the next place, is to be as constant as to time as it is universal as to persons. “Let them ever shout for joy.” Do not be content that a good time in the morning should be followed by dreariness in the afternoon. Do not cultivate an occasional delight, but aim at perpetual joy. To be happy at a revival meeting, and then go home to groan, is a poor business. We should “feel like singing all the time.” The believer has abiding arguments for abiding consolation. There is never a time when the saint of God has not great cause for gladness; and if he never doubts and worries till he has a justifiable reason for distrust, he will never doubt nor worry. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again” — what? “always,” and yet does the apostle say, “and again?” Yes, he would have us rejoice, and keep on rejoicing, and then rejoice more and more. Brethren go on piling up your delights. You are the blessed of the Lord, and his blessing reaches “unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.”
Next, let your joy be manifested. “Let them ever shout for joy.” Shouting is an enthusiastic utterance, a method which men use when they have won a victory, when they divide the spoil, when they bear home the harvest, when they tread the vintage, when they drain the goblet. Believers, you may shout for joy with unreserved delight. Some religionists shout, and we would not wish to stop them; but we wish certain of them knew better what they are shouting for. Brethren, since you know whom you have believed, and what you have believed, and what are the deep sources of your joy, do not be so sobered by your knowledge as to become dumb; but the rather imitate the children in the temple, who, if they knew little, loved much, and so shouted in praise of him they loved. “Let them shout for joy.” A touch of enthusiasm would be the salvation of many a man’s religion.
Some Christians are good enough people: they are like wax candles, but they are not lighted. Oh, for a touch of flame! Then would they scatter light, and thus become of service to their families. “Let them shout for joy.” Why not? Let not orderly folks object. One said to me the other day, “When I hear you preach I feel as if I must have a shout!” My friend, shout if you feel forced to do so. (Here a hearer cried, “Glory!”) Our brother cries, “Glory!” and I say so too, “Glory!” The shouting need not always be done in a public service, or it might hinder devout hearing; but there are times and places where a glorious outburst of enthusiastic joy would quicken life in all around.
The ungodly are not half so restrained in their blasphemy as we are in our praise. How is this? They go home making night hideous with their yells: are we never to have an outbreak of consecrated delight? Yes, we will have our high days and holidays, and we will sing and shout for joy till even the heathen say, “The Lord hath done great things for them.”
This joy is to be repeated with variations. One likes, in music, to hear the same tune played in different ways. So here you have it. “Let them rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy. Let them be joyful in thee.” There is no monotony in real joy. In the presence of mirth, one grows dull; but in living joy there is exhilaration. Commend me to the springing well of heavenly joy: its waters are always fresh, clear, sparkling, springing up unto everlasting life. Joy blends many colors in its one ray of light. At times, it is quiet and sits still beneath a weight of glory. I have known it weep, not salt drops, but sweet showers. Have you never cried because of your joy in the Lord? Sometimes joy labors for expression till it is ready to faint; and anon it sings till it rivals the angels. Singing is the natural language of joy; but oftentimes silence suits it even better. Our joy abides in Christ, whether we are quiet or shouting, whether we fall at our Lord’s feet as dead, or lean on his bosom in calm delight.
This joy is logical. When I was a child, and went to school, I remember learning out of a book called “Why and Because.” Things one learns as a child stick in the memory; and therefore I like a text which has a “because” in it. Here it is: “Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them.” Emotions are not fired by logic; and yet reasons furnish fuel for the flame. A man may be sad, though he cannot explain his sadness, or he may be greatly glad, though he cannot set forth the reasons for his joy. The joy of a believer in God has a firm foundation: it is not the baseless fabric of a vision. The joy of faith burns like coals of juniper, and yet it can be calmly explained and justified. The joyful believer is no lunatic, carried away by a delusion: he has a “because” with which to account for all his joy — a reason which he can consider on his bed in the night-watches, or defend against a scoffing world. We have a satisfactory reason for our most exuberant joy: “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” Philosophers can be happy without music, and saints can be happy despite circumstances. With joy we draw water out of deeper and fuller wells than such as father Jacob digged. Our mirth is as soberly reasonable as the worldling’s fears.
Once more, the happiness is a thing of the heart; for the text runs thus — “Let them that love thy name be joyful in thee.” We love God. I trust I am speaking to many who could say, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Is it not a very happy emotion? What is sweeter than to say, with the tears in one’s eyes — “My God, I love thee!” To sit down and have nothing to ask for, no words to utter, but only for the soul to love — is not this heavenly? Measureless depths of unutterable love are in the soul and, in those depths, we find the pearl of joy. When the heart is taken up with so delightful an object as the ever-blessed God, it feels an intensity of joy which cannot be rivaled. When our whole being is steeped in adoring love, then heaven comes streaming down, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. I feel I am talking in a poor way about the richest things which are enjoyed by saintly men. Many of you know as much about these matters as I do, perhaps more. But my soul doth even now magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior. Although I feel unworthy and unfit to speak to this vast throng, yet I have a great sympathy with my text, for I am “glad in the Lord.”
“Oh, what immortal joys I feel,
And raptures all divine
For Jesus tells me I am his,
And my Beloved mine!”
If you sit before the Lord at this time, and indulge your souls with an outflow of love to God and his Son Jesus Christ, and at the same time perceive an inflowing of heavenly joy, it will not much matter how the poor preacher speaks to your ear, for the Lord himself will be heard in your soul, and heaven will flood your being.
II. Now I come to the second head, wherein we will consider THE GROUND AND REASON OF HOLY JOY. I am bound to speak upon this matter; for I have told you that the joy of the believer is logical, and can be defended by facts; and so indeed it is.
For, first, the believer’s joy arises from the God in whom he trusts. “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.” When, after many a weary wandering, the dove of your soul has at last come back to the ark, and Noah has put out his hand and “pulled her in unto him,” the poor, weary creature is happy. Taken into Noah’s hand and made to nestle in his bosom, she feels so safe, so peaceful! The weary leagues of the wild waste of waters are all forgotten, or only remembered to give zest to the repose.
So, when you trust in God, your soul has found a quiet resting-place, a pavilion of repose! The little chick runs to and fro in fear. The mother hen calls it home. She spreads her soft wings over the brood. Have you never seen the little chicks when they are housed under the hen, how they put out their little heads through the feathers and peep and twitter so prettily? It is a chick’s heaven to hide under its mother’s bosom. It is perfectly happy; it could not be more content; its little chick nature is brimful of delight. Be this thy joy also, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” My nature gets all its wants supplied, all its desires gratified, when it rests in God. Oh, you that have never trusted God in Christ Jesus, you do not know what real happiness means! You may search all the theatres in London, and ransack all the music-halls, and clubs, and public-houses, but you will find no happiness in any of their mirth, or show, or wine. True joy dwells where dwells the living God dwells and nowhere else. In your own home with God, even though that home be only a single room, and your meal be very scanty, you will see more of heaven than in the palaces of kings! Have God for your sole trust, and you shall never lack for joy.
Our joy arises next from what the Lord does for us. “Let them shout for joy, because thou defended them.” God always guards his people, whoever may attack them. “The Lord is thy keeper.” Angels are our guardians, providence is our protector; but God himself is the preserver of his chosen. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that dieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” No fortress guards the soldier so well as God guards his redeemed. The God of our salvation will defend us from all evil, he will defend our souls. “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”
Further, our joy arises out of the love we have towards our God. “Let them that love thy name be joyful in thee.” The more you love God, the more you will delight in him. It is the profusion of a mother’s love to her child which makes her take such delight in it. Her boy is her joy because of her love. If we loved Jesus better, we should be happier in him. You do not, perhaps, see the connection between the two things; but there is a connection so intimate, that little love to Christ brings little joy in Christ, and great love to Christ brings great joy in Christ. God grant that in a full Christ we may have a full joy! Do you see what I mean? When a man comes to God in Christ and says, “This Savior is my Savior, this Father is my Father, this God is my God forever and ever;” then he has everything, and he must be joyful. He has no fear about the past — God has forgiven him; he has no distress about the present — the Lord is with him; he is not afraid about the future — for the Lord hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” If you understand my text and put it in practice, you possess the quintessence of happiness, the essential oil of joy. He that hath joy in his barn floor may see it bare; he that hath joy in his wine vats may see them dry; he that hath joy in his children may bury that joy in the grave; he that hath joy in himself will find his beauty consume away; but he that hath joy in God drinketh from “the deep which lieth under;” his springs shall ever flow, “in summer and in winter shall it be.”
I have pointed to the deep sources from which the joy of the believer wells up; but I must also add, it is by faith that this joy comes to us. Faith makes joyful discoveries. I speak to those of you who have faith. When you first believed in Christ you found that you were saved, and knew that you were forgiven. Some little while after, you discovered that you were chosen of God from before the foundation of the world. Oh, the rapture of your soul, when the Lord appeared of old unto you, saying, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee!”
The glorious doctrine of election is as wines on the lees well refined to those who by faith receive it; and it brings with it a new, intense, and refined joy, such as the world knows nothing of. Having discovered your election of God, you looked further into your justification; “for whom he called, them he also justified.” What a pearl is justification! In Christ, the believer is as just in the sight of God as if he had never sinned: he is covered with a perfect righteousness, and is accepted in the Beloved. What a joy is justification by faith, when it is well understood! What bliss also to learn our union to Christ! Believers are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Because he lives, we shall live also. One with Jesus! Wonderful discovery this! Equally full of joy is our adoption! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God;” “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Faith thus heaps fuel on the fire of our joy; for it keeps on making discoveries out of the Word of the Lord. The more you search the Scriptures, and the nearer you live to God, the more you will enjoy of that great goodness which the Lord has laid up in store for them that fear him. Though “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him;” yet “he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit;” and thereby he puts gladness into our hearts more than increasing corn and wine could bring.
Furthermore, faith gives cheering interpretations. Faith is a prophet who can charmingly interpret a fearsome dream. Faith sees a gain in every loss a joy in every grief. Read aright, and you will see that a child of God in trouble is on the way to greater blessing. Faith views affliction hopefully. Sorrow may come to us, as it did to David, as a chastisement for sin. Faith reads — “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Better to be chastened with God’s children here than to be condemned with the world hereafter. Faith also sees that affliction may be sent by way of discovery, to make the man know himself, his God and the promises better. Faith perceives that affliction may be most precious as a test, acting, as doth the fire, when it shows what is pure gold and what is base metal. Faith joys in a test so valuable. Faith spies out the truth, that affliction is sent to develop and mature the Christian life. “Ah, well!” saith Faith, “then, thank God for it. No trial for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterwards it worketh out the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those that are exercised thereby.”
Faith sees sweet love in every bitter cup. Faith knows that whenever she gets a black envelope from the heavenly post-office, there is treasure in it. When the Lord’s black horses call at our door, they bring us double loads of blessing. Up to this moment, I, God’s servant, beg to bear my unreserved testimony to the fact that it is good for me to have been afflicted. In spiritual life and knowledge and power, I have grown but little except when under the hand of trouble. I set my door open and am half-inclined to say to pain and sickness and sadness, “Turn in hither; for I know that you will leave a blessing behind. Come, crosses, if you will; for you always turn to crowns.” Thus faith glories in tribulations also, and in the lion of adversity finds the honey of joy. I have said that trial comes to us as chastisement, as we see in the case of David; as a discoverer of grace, as we see in Abraham; or as a test, as we see in Job; or as a preventive, as in the case of Paul, who wrote, “Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.” In every tribulation, God is moved by love to his people and by nothing else. If he cuts the vine with a sharp knife, it is because he would have fruit of it. If he whips his child till he cries like David, “All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning,” it is for his profit, that he may learn obedience by the things which he suffers. All things work together for the believer’s good, and so faith interprets sorrow itself into joy.
Moreover, faith believes great promises. This opens other wells of joy. I cannot stop to quote them to you this morning: the Book of the Lord is full of them. What more can the Lord say than he hath said? The promises of God are full, and as varied as they are full, and as sure as they are varied, and as rich as they are sure. “Exceeding great and precious promises.”
When I wrote “The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith,” I was at no loss to find a promise for every day in the year; the difficulty was which to leave out. The promises are like the bells on the garments of our Great High-priest forever ringing out holy melodies. When a man gets a promise fairly into the hand of faith and goes to God with it, he must rejoice. The children of the promise are all of them worthy to be called Isaac, that is, “Laughter;” for God hath made him to laugh who lives according to promise. To live on the promises of man would be starvation; but to live on the promises of God is to feed on fat things full of marrow.
Above all, faith has an eye to the eternal reward. She rejoices in her prospects. She takes into her hand the birds which to others are in the bush. To be with Christ in the glory-land is the joy of hope, the hope which maketh not ashamed. Our hope is no dream: as sure as we are here today, we who are trusting in Christ will be in heaven before long; for he prays that we may be with him where he is, and may behold his glory. Let us not wish to postpone the happy day. Shall our bridal day be kept back? Nay, let the Bridegroom speedily come, and take us to himself. What a joy to know that this head shall wear a crown of glory, and these hands shall wave the palm branch of victory! I speak not of myself alone, my brethren, but of you also, and of all them that love his appearing. There is a crown of life laid up for you, which the righteous Judge will give you. Wherefore, have patience a little while. Bear still your cross. Put up with the difficulties of the way, for the end is almost within sight.
“The way may be rough, but it cannot be long:
So we’ll smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song.”
May the Lord give us the ears of faith wherewith to hear the bells of heaven ringing out from afar over the waters of time!
Faith has always reason for joy, since God is always the same, his promises are the same, and his power and will to fulfill are the same. In an unchanging God, we find unchanging reasons for joy. If we draw water from the well of God, we may draw one day as well as another, and never find the water abated; but if we make our joy to depend in part upon creatures and circumstances, we may find our joy leak out through the cracks in the cistern. Last Sunday morning, I cried out to you, “Both feet on the rock! Both feet on the rock!” and the words led one poor heart to try the power of undivided faith in God. This is the road to joy, and there is no other. Drink waters from thine own fountain, and do not gad abroad after others. Is not the Lord enough for thee? Is it not sufficient to say, “All my fresh springs are in thee”? Neither life, nor death, nor poverty, nor sickness, nor bereavement, nor slander, nor death itself, shall quench thy joy if it be founded in God alone.
III. I close by mentioning THE ARGUMENTS FOR ABOUNDING IN JOY. You cannot argue a man into gladness, but you may possibly stir him up to see that which will make him happy.
First, you see in my text a permit to be glad: “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.” You have here a ticket to the banquets of joy. You may be as happy as ever you like. You have divine permission to shout for joy. Yonder is the inner sanctuary of happiness. You cry, “May I come in?” Yes, if by faith you can grasp the text, “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.” “But may I be happy?” asks one. “May I be glad? May I? Is there joy for me?” Do you trust in the Lord? Then you have your passport; travel in the land of light.
But the text is not only a permit, it is a precept. When it says, “Let them shout for joy,” it means that they are commanded to do so. Blessed is that religion wherein it is a duty to be happy. Come, ye mournful ones, be glad. Ye discontented grumblers, come out of that dog-hole! Enter the palace of the King! Quit your dunghills; ascend your thrones. The precept commands it: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”
We have here more than a permit and a precept, it is a prayer. David prays it, the Lord Jesus prays it by David. Let them rejoice, let them be joyful in thee! Will he not grant the prayer which he has inspired by causing us to rejoice through lifting upon us the light of his countenance? Pray for joy yourself, saying with David, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”
The text might be read as a promise: “All those that put their trust in thee shall rejoice.” God promises joy and gladness to believers. Light is sown for them: the Lord will turn their night into day. Listen to the following line of argument, which shall be very brief. You only act reasonably when you rejoice. If you are chosen of God, and redeemed by blood, and have been made an heir of heaven, you ought to rejoice. We pray you, act not contrary to nature and reason. Do not fly in the face of great and precious truths. From what you profess, you are bound to be joyful.
You will best baffle your adversaries by being happy. David talks about them in both these psalms; but he does not fret, he simply goes on rejoicing in God. “They say; they say:” let them say! “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” But the attack is cruel. No doubt it is, but the Lord knows all about it. Do not cease to rest in him. If your heart is full of God’s love, you can easily bear all that the enemy may cast upon you. Abound in joy, for then you will behave best to those who are round about you. When a man is unhappy, he usually makes other people so; and a person that is miserable is generally unkind, and frequently unjust. It is often dyspepsia that makes a man find fault with his servants and wife and children. If a man is at peace with himself, he is peaceful with others. Get right within, and you will be right without. One of the best specifics for good temper is communion with God, and consequent joy of heart. You yourself also, if you are happy, will be strong: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” If you lose your joy in your religion, you will be a poor worker: you cannot bear strong testimony, you cannot bear stern trial, you cannot lead a powerful life. In proportion as you maintain your joy, you will be strong in the Lord, and for the Lord.
Do you not know that if you are full of joy you will be turning the charming side of religion where men can see it? I should not like to wear my coat with the seamy side out: some religionists always do that. It was said of one great professor, that he looked as if his religion did not agree with him. Godliness is not a rack or a thumbscrew. Behave not to religion as if you felt that you must take it, like so much physic, but you had rather not. If it tastes like nauseous physic to you, I should fear you have got the wrong sort and are poisoning yourself. Believe not that true godliness is akin to sourness. Cheerfulness is next to godliness. “When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast.” Weed out levity, but cultivate joy. Thus will you win other hearts to follow Jesus.
Remember, that if you are always joyful, you are rehearsing the music of the skies. We are going there very soon, let us not be ignorant of the music of its choirs. I should not like to crowd into my seat, and hear the choirmaster say, “Do you know your part?” and then have to answer, “Oh, no, I have never sung while I was on earth; for I had no joy in the Lord.” I think I shall answer to the choirmaster, and say, “Yes; I have long since sung, ‘Worthy is the Lamb,’”
“I would begin the music here.
And so my soul shall rise:
Oh, for some heavenly notes, to bear
My passions to the skies!”
With joy we rehearse the song of songs. We pay glad homage now before Jehovah’s throne. We sing unto the Lord our gladsome harmonies, and we will do so as long as we have any being. Pass me that score, O chief musician of the skies, for I can take it up and sing my part in bass, or tenor, or treble, or alto, or soprano, as my voice may be. The key is joy in God. Whatever the part assigned us, the music is all for Jesus. May some of you that have never joyed in Jesus Christ learn how to praise him to-day by being washed in his precious blood! You that have praised him long, may you learn your score yet more fully, and sing in better tune henceforth, and forevermore! Amen.
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