When I opened my eyes this morning, I became conscious of the phrase “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. The first thing I noticed was my wrinkles. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” It was dark all around me, and though the window behind me I could see darkness in the mirror. “Joy.”
The last thing I felt was joy; I was worried about lots of little things, and some bigger things. I was tired. But the phrase kept circulating in my mind while I got ready. It began to work like a tonic on my mind. As I went through the homey rituals of getting everyone fed, that thought stayed with me. The idea of joy lifted me out of the routine, and made me think higher thoughts.
I found myself humming a little worship song from long ago that was written to those words, and I wondered if they might be in a Psalm of David. (Doesn’t that sound like something King David might say?) So when I got the chance, I looked it up. While the same ideas are all over the Psalms, I found the exact phrase in Nehemiah 8:10.
The setting of this story is Jerusalem somewhere around 445 B.C. Nehemiah was the governor in charge of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. When the walls were rebuilt, and the gates had been hung, guards were appointed to stand watch and to establish schedules and procedures for the opening and closing of the gates. Once all that was settled, the people called for a reading of the law. They wanted to understand how to please God.
When they heard the law, and spent some time listening to the explanations of it, there was mourning. The people began to weep when they realized how far away they were from following it.
But Nehemiah called out to them not to weep, but instead to rejoice! He told them to hold a feast, to “eat the fat, and drink the sweet,” and share food with those who hadn’t prepared anything so that everyone could celebrate together. Why? Because “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Wait, what?
Crying is a sign of repentance. It is the natural response any human will have when he or she realizes how far short they fall from what is expected.
For instance, if you prepare to go to a wedding that you think is a casual, outdoor affair, you might wear casual clothes and flip-flops. But when you arrive, and you realize it is actually a “black tie” occasion, you’ll feel terrible. You can’t go in. Your clothes are not fit for the occasion, so you’ll be shut out and miss the whole thing.
The people were mourning because they saw how they had fallen short of what God asked of them. They could not possibly please God. But it was because they had never heard. They had been born in captivity, and had lost touch with the culture and teaching of their fathers. And when they realized the truth, they were naturally sad to be at odds with their heritage, and with the God who loved and chose them. Their tears were a sign of their regret and acknowledgment of their loss.
But Nehemiah told them to celebrate! The important part wasn’t that they were lost, but that they had heard and understood the law. And when they realized how far short they fell, they wept.
The first step (knowing the truth and repenting) had been completed. Nehemiah declared the day holy to the Lord, and commanded that the people celebrate with a feast! (to be continued)
The Fullers Four 