Psalms No.4 Joyful Glory

I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. For His anger endureth but a moment, in His favour is life.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Lord, by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled.

What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth? Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sight-cloth, and girded me with gladness. Now let me read you just a couple more verses from 1 Peter, and the first chapter, and I'm reading from the third verse.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believe, yet believingly ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Now you may care to have your Bibles open at the first epistle of Peter, and the first chapter. Let me read again the eighth verse, which refers as it's subject to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus, whom, having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It's that last phrase that's been going through my mind for quite a long period of time. Joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The legacy of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who have placed their trust in him. Unspeakable joy. Glory which brims over in the soul.

There's a favorite couplet in a hymn that we'll be singing later on in our morning worship, which says this, religion never was designed to make our pleasures less. And it is a favorite couplet of mine because it enshrines all that I believe about Christianity. Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less.

There are those whose attitude to biblical Christianity is completely wrong. They look upon the religious person, if you please, as one who has not known joy. One who is unfortunately saddled with certain convictions that mean he has prohibitions on certain facets of his life and he needs to be liberated from it.

Perhaps it's a legacy from the Puritan age on the part of those who never really understood the Puritans, that one conceives of the follower of Jesus as being a narrow bigot, who if he smiled would crack his face. Well, that's not so. It's certainly not the teaching of the Old Testament nor the teaching of the New Testament.

Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less. There is joy in knowing Jesus Christ. I've always had an argument with the publishers of Bibles in as much as I think they've got the wrong color for the binding.

I've never bought a black Bible. The Bible I use is a red Bible, and I think if I had my choice it would have psychedelic colors on the outside. What's the reason for that? Well, you see, the Bible contains the promises of God, and in those promises there are many references to joy.

Now, Noah had an indication of God's promise. It was all wrapped up in a rainbow, and I've never seen a black rainbow. Rainbows have a kaleidoscope of colors, all the colors of the spectrum.

Speaking of the promises of God, this Bible speaks of God's promises. It speaks of joy. Listen to this, an obscure verse in Zephaniah, but one which really should set your heart aglow.

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy.

He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. That puts to flight these ridiculous assertions that a biblical faith robs a man of happiness and contentment.

Rather, it gives him those very qualities. The Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to his disciples, encourages them to ask specific blessings from him. He says, hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name.

Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. I tell you that the Bible is like veritable strings, or rather, the Bible has veritable streams which flow in and out across its pages, and when you listen to the gurgling of those streams, they speak, they sing of a joy, of a happiness, of the delight of the soul as it knows God. Listen to one commentator speaking on the joyfulness of the Christian faith.

In no other religion and in no other literature is joy so conspicuous as it is in Christianity and in the Bible. Physically and psychologically speaking, it is the criterion of health whereby all the powers and affections are enriched and harmonized. So, in religion, joy denotes the satisfaction of the soul, attaining to its desires, and Christianity stands firm so long as men who have it are invested with joy.

I like that last statement. Christianity stands firm so long as men who have it are invested with joy. Christianity was never designed to make you miserable.

It was designed to bring happiness and satisfaction and fulfillment in your life. So now come back to my text, and you'll find that that accords with my argument thus far. Peter, speaking to Christians in his day, says, Ye rejoice in Jesus Christ with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

I once remembered Dr. Lloyd-Jones making reference to this verse before his huge congregation in London, and he got a little bit excited with his Welsh temperament, which so often was dominant in his ministry, and he challenged his congregation at this point, and he said, Do you really know this? Don't dilute this. Don't water it down. Don't lower Scripture so that it fits with your own experience.

Do you know joy unspeakable and full of glory? Have you ever known this? Did you know it last week? Have you known it through the last 24 hours? An unspeakable glory, an unspeakable joy, the soul delirious as it is brought into the presence of God, overflowing like a receptacle that can't receive all the water that's being poured into it. I ask you, do you know this yourself? The Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as the one who brings this joy and this happiness into the experience of the believer. Let me quote you Philip's paraphrase of the verse.

At present you trust Jesus without being able to see him, and even now he brings you a joy that words cannot express and has in it a hint of the glories of heaven. It is Jesus Christ who brings joy and happiness and contentment to the soul. Have you ever thought of Jesus in terms of a happy man, in terms of a man who was at peace with other men and more particularly with God? I know we often refer to our Lord in terms of the man of sorrows, the man who was acquainted with grief, and this is right.

He was a sorrowful man, but his grief, his remorse came about as he looked on his contemporaries and saw the problems that were besetting their lives as a result of their sinfulness. And when he saw the citizens of Jerusalem in this context, he wept. When he was by Lazarus' tomb, he wept.

But there is another side to the disposition of our Savior, one that speaks of joy and happiness. Yes, I dare even use this word of humor. It is the Savior who brings this happiness, this glory into the experience of those who put their trust in him.

Jesus Christ was no killjoy. He went to parties. We read of him in the early chapters of John's Gospel at the marriage in Cana of Galilee.

Later on, when Zacchaeus asked him home and threw a banquet for him, Jesus went. Indeed, because of this, he was criticized by those who didn't understand him and accused of being a drunkard and a wine-bibber. And when Jesus was speaking of the life beyond, he sometimes used a party or a banquet to illustrate it.

The story that he told of the prodigal son, he concludes by saying that the father there took the son back into the home and killed the fatted calf. And there was a great celebration because his boy had returned home. And we know that our Savior was illustrating the joy that there is in his father when a sinner confesses his need of salvation and is forgiven through the work of Jesus on the cross.

There were times, I suggest, when humor came into the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you not imagine the reaction of the audience when they were listening to the Savior? And he made reference to little puppy dogs who were yapping and snarling at the feet of those who were having a meal. Whenever I mention the man's cat, there's a smile that goes across the faces, not of the children so much as the older folks.

Do you think there wasn't a smile on the face of those who were listening to Jesus when he refers to puppy dogs? And what about that absurd illustration that the Savior uses when he's spelling out teaching on the kingdom of God and entry into that kingdom, that for the rich to get in on their own merits is more difficult than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle? You think of a camel with its great big hump squeezing its way through the eye of the needle. There's more than just a touch of humor in that illustration. And what about the story the Lord Jesus told of the man who was caught in an embarrassing situation when guests pitched up unannounced and he went to his cupboard and, like old Mother Hubbard, found that the larder was bare.

So what did he do? At 12 o'clock at night, if you please, he nipped round next door and hammered on the door there and asked the neighbor if he could have some bread. What do you think the reaction must have been to Jesus' congregation when they heard this homely story? Did they not identify themselves with that same sort of embarrassing situation? You must have had something like it yourself, although perhaps not at 12 o'clock at night, but you've needed the help of someone else who wasn't too happy in attending to your needs, but gave in because you nagged them so much. I say there was humor, there was joy, there was glory, not just in what the Savior had to say, but in his personality.

Obviously so. There was nothing that interfered with his relationship with God, the Heavenly Father. And when there is perfect alignment with the will of God, perfect intercourse with the person of God, then obviously joy is the result.

Now, says Peter, it is Jesus himself who is the bringer of this joy. He gives it in large measure, in generous doses, to those who come to him. You rejoice in Jesus Christ with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

When the wise men saw the star, we're told at the beginning of the book of Matthew, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And at the end of the book of Matthew, you've got two womenfolk going into the resurrection garden, and seeing that Jesus Christ's body was no longer there, and hearing the words of the angels that Jesus indeed was risen, there was joy in their heart. The beginning of the gospel, the end of the gospel, there's joy.

And I tell you, there are scores and scores and scores of references to joy in the Old Testament and in the New Testament as being the experience of the true believer. Remember how Jesus sets down a story in which men have served him, and one served him faithfully, and Jesus said, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Do you know joy in serving Jesus Christ? The Christian should exist in an atmosphere of joy.

He breathes in the glory of God, the blessings of God. Now, this joy of which Peter makes reference here is not a natural joy. It's a supernatural joy.

It's a joy that identifies, that is a characteristic of those who have entered into the kingdom of God. Now, I'm not straining Scripture in suggesting this to you, in saying that an essential quality of a member of the kingdom of God is to know joy. Listen how Peter, or rather how Paul, writing to the Romans, defines the kingdom of God.

He says, now, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And later on, in the 15th chapter of the epistle to the Romans, he says, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Again, you see the point.

An essential characteristic of the kingdom of God is joy on the part of those who are members. And this joy is linked to the Holy Spirit. That's why I say it's not a natural joy.

It's a supernatural joy. Now, I don't know what your theology is of the baptism of the Spirit. There are enough battles being fought needlessly on this particular term at the moment.

But whether you glory in a climactic experience, as do many people, or whether you glory in a gradual entering into the fullness of God, this thing will decide whether or not you have entered into all that God has for you in the realms of glory and joy. Is there a joy that marks out your life? A joy that is observable? You see, one of the proofs of the fact that the Holy Spirit has entered into you, that he has taken up his residence, is that you should know joy. Joy in your service of Jesus Christ.

For as we have stressed from Romans chapter 14 and verse 17, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If you turn to Acts chapter 8 and verse 8, you'll find there a reference to Philip's supernatural ministry in Samaria. Now, when Philip had told the Samaritans about Jesus Christ, and when he had been enabled by God to perform miracles which attested the word that he brought to the Samaritans, what happened? Well, there was great joy in the city, a joy which was promoted by the Holy Spirit.

Go to the 13th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and right at the end there, the 52nd verse, you'll find a very significant comment. Paul and Barnabas have returned and given a report of their work for the Lord Jesus. And what's the response of those who listen to this report? Well, we read, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.

Very interesting how joy is linked with the Holy Ghost in the New Testament. Would you like another illustration of that? Well, turn to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22. What do we find there? We find set down for us the fruits of the Spirit.

What are they? Well, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Joy, one of the fruits of the Spirit. Want another reference? Well, turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 6. Here, Paul is reminding the Thessalonians of their initial experience of salvation.

Now, bound up with this was the infilling of the Holy Spirit. It says, Paul, you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. You see the point? And I've only given you, honestly, I've just given you six references, and I could have multiplied them by, oh, goodness knows how many more.

Joy, part of the legacy that is ours because we belong to Jesus. Joy, one of the evidences that we have entered into the fullness of God's Spirit, the fullness of His blessing. Now, I ask you, do you know yourself this joy unspeakable and full of glory? And again, I say, don't dilute Scripture.

Don't water it down. Do you know this? Has there been an experience or many experiences in your life when you've almost spiritually taken off? You've been delirious in the presence of God. There is the delights of the soul to which the Puritans often make reference.

That is your experience. You know, Paul was a joyful man. You're all aware that now and again I get hot under the collar, the so-called religious programs which the BBC and ITV put out.

And one of the closest incidents that our television ever came to real disaster was when someone on the BBC tried to say that the Apostle Paul was a dour, somber, joyless person. I thought that our television should have been thrown out for good and all, and maybe it should have been in any case. Paul was nothing of the sort, a joyless person.

Listen, he's giving his testimony towards the end of his life. You can read it in the Acts of the Apostles when you get home. He's giving his testimony of his relationship with the Lord Jesus and he's anticipating his final moments on this earth.

Do you know what he's praying? That I may finish my course with joy. The very language structure there indicates that this is an experience he's known all the way down the line, a joyful experience in knowing Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When the Apostle revisits the churches that he's founded, references made in the 15th chapter of the Acts, what you find is a by-product of his ministry.

Well, let me read to you this reference. It's in the third verse of Acts 15. Being brought on their way by the church, they, that is Paul and Barnabas, passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

Paul not only appreciated joy in his life, but his ministry brought joy to others. Here is this, according to the BBC, somber, dour, puritanical, bigoted man writing to the Philippians. How does he write to them? Brethren, he said, you're the ones that I long for.

You're my delight. You're my joy. I rejoice in you because God gave you to me as a result of the ministry that I exercised in Philippi.

You're my joy and my longed for. And he uses exactly the same intimate phraseology that perhaps apart from this context would only be found in the letter that a man might write to his sweetheart when he's addressing the Thessalonians. And he says, ye are my glory and my joy.

Paul was a man who knew joy. When does this joy operate? This joy that is unspeakable and full of glory? Well, let me argue this. It operates in the most unpredictable circumstances.

By that I mean you wouldn't expect to find it there. You wouldn't expect to find a flower in a desert, but sometimes you do. If you go to Palestine at the right time of the year, you'll find what at other times are barren hills ablaze with the colors of wildflowers.

Now this joy, this glory that is supernatural, that is given to the Christian is exhibited on occasions when you wouldn't expect to find it at all. Again, Paul writing to the Corinthians makes reference to this. He speaks of the tribulations that are his, and yet he says, I'm exceedingly joyful.

And again to the Corinthians, I take joy, take pleasure in my infirmities. Now, it has to be supernatural in its origin for someone to experience joy in those circumstances. Remember Paul and Silas when they're in prison, what do they do? Well, they sing the first century version of the Hallelujah Chorus.

They praise God. You say, well, we can't do that today because we don't live in the first century, and you know we lost so many blessings that should be ours because we don't live in the first century. Whoever told you that? I read that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

And if you'd like a modern illustration of what Paul and Silas knew in their smelly dungeon, then how about Corrie ten Boom and her sister and their experiences at what was a concentration camp called Ravenhill, I believe. Do you remember those of you who read the story, that incredible story, how her sister and Corrie were thrust there into that concentration camp, how they had to strip before the eyes of men who were crude and obscene, how they were pushed into a large room with three or four hundred other women and had to spend their night on lice-infested mattresses. Do you remember how Corrie just shrinks from this experience and she commits it to God and marvel of all marvels, in the horror of a concentration camp, a glory breaks out in her soul and that of her sister's, a glory that is infectious that spreads to the other inmates, and they're even praising God for the fleas.

I know it sounds ridiculous, and I wish I could give you an experience that was similar in quality in my own life, but I can't. But at least Corrie Ten Boom is alive today, and here is a woman who illustrates and testifies to that supernatural glory, exhibited in conditions where you wouldn't expect to find happiness in the least measure. It operates, I say, in circumstances which makes the exhibition of joy surprising.

But how do you cultivate it? After all, a fat lot of use it is if we come around the Word of God and we say, oh yes, this is lovely, this is glorious, this is what we believe, this is what Peter knew, this is what Paul and Silas knew and Corrie Ten Boom, but I haven't got it myself. You don't know my circumstances. You're a young man, I'm an older person.

You don't know what the frustrations of old age are like. You don't know what it's like to go through life on your own. You don't know what it's like in my family circle.

If you knew that, if you knew what my pressures were at business, then you wouldn't speak in this fashion because it's hurtful. My friend, I don't wish to be hurtful. I want to bring to you principles from Scripture.

All right, how do we cultivate this joy? I say we cultivate it by entering into the very throne room of God. In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. One of the reasons why we have miserable Christians today is because we don't enter into God's presence as often as we should.

In God's presence is fullness of joy. Where's that bigotry? Where's that narrowness? Where's that stiff upper lip? That's not found in biblical faith. It may be found in the philosophy of Stoicism, but it's not found in the Bible.

Fullness of joy in the presence of God. But do you ever go into His presence? Do you ever, to quote Brother Lawrence, practice the presence of God in your own life? What about contemplating the marvel of your salvation? The prophet Isaiah had discernment, if any man did, on the spiritual front. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

You say, that's so charged with metaphor, I haven't a clue what it's on about. But really, if you think through Scripture, it does become clear. If your heart is sensitive and if your mind will respond to the instruction of the Holy Spirit, the well of salvation.

I have drank of that well when I placed my confidence in Jesus. There are many people who have never drunk. They have a thirst, but the thirst has never been slaked.

They go through this world as paupers. They're not enriched as I am enriched. And so what do I do? Here as a Christian, I'm feeling a little depressed, despondent.

Things have gone badly for me during a particular period. I stop. I talk to myself.

I compel myself to go to that well. I lower my bucket and I draw out water from the well of salvation. And I drink of it and I speak to my soul and I say, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Rejoice thou in God.

God has never let me down. The promises of God are mine. I'm in his kingdom.

I'm a member of his family. There is nothing that can rob me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. We stop and we talk to ourselves.

And we read through the will into which we have been written by Jesus Christ. And we begin to get things in order and our priorities sorted out. We contemplate, I say, the marvel of our salvation.

And what is more, we read. Someone was telling me the other day that I read far too much and I should get rid of a lot of my books. Well, I'll accept the criticism to a degree.

But one of the things that I should never give up reading is this book. Listen to what Jeremiah says. Thy word was the joy of my heart.

There is joy in reading this book because it is a letter from God addressed first of all to me. And then to other people. Joy.

That's the atmosphere in which we should worship our God as we come together in the tabernacle. That's the atmosphere which should pervade my home. It's the atmosphere of heaven.

There is joy in heaven, says Jesus, over one sinner that repents. Therefore, here we are as a community preaching the gospel, rejoicing in the fact that men are finding Jesus as Savior. So there must be, surely, as one of the byproducts, this joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Do you remember the story of Billy Bray, the most unusual Cornish preacher if ever there was an unusual preacher? Do you know what Billy Bray's favorite texts were? Let me quote them to you. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing and praise to thee and not be silent.

That's Psalm 30, verse 11 and 12. His other favorite text. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy.

And that's the reason why Billy Bray, as he tore around the Cornish countryside, would walk so quickly. Remember the comment I made the other day when I referred to him? He said that when he put his left foot down, it seemed to say glory, and when he put his right foot down, it seemed to say amen. And there were folks in his day, as no doubt there would be folks today if Billy Bray was alive, who came along and remonstrated and said, you know, brother, you shouldn't behave like this.

It's not dignified. It's not accepted in evangelical circles. You must be more restrained in praising God.

But Billy Bray was completely irrepressible. He wouldn't apologize. On one occasion, he said, brother, if they put me in a barrel, I would shout out glory through the bunghole.

Well, there's an extreme example, if you like, of someone who was full of the glory of the Lord. Said Billy Bray, it is a poor spectacle when we have nothing but the telling part of the love of Christ. It is the feeling part that makes us happy.

All right, you might want to balance some of Billy Bray's statements, but don't con yourself into believing that he was completely wrong in his extreme approach to the Christian faith and to his experience of joy. He's dead right when he says there's too much telling and too little feeling. And in the New Testament, the doctrine and the experience are always aligned.

They're always fused together. Disassociate the two. Take one away from the other, and you're away from New Testament theology and New Testament Christianity.

Billy Bray praised God, as did many, many Christians, for entering into this experience of joy unspeakable and full of glory. I wonder, do you have it yourself? Are you experiencing it right now in your life, in your particular circumstances? Some, and with this illustration I close, some visitor to the state some years ago was rather impressed by an old Negro slave who was working away on a paddle steamer. They couldn't understand why, doing such a mundane task as this, the Negro was so happy.

And so the person who saw him at his work asked the reason. And the Negro replied, you know something, you've got to get a glory. You've got to get a glory.

And those words rang in the mind of the one who put the question to the Negro so much that he composed a poem. Oh, you've got to get a glory in the work you do. A hallelujah chorus in the heart of you.

Pain to tell a story, sing a shovel coal. Oh, you've got to get a glory, or the job likes soul. Oh, Lord, give me a glory.

Is it much to give? For you've got to get a glory or you just don't live. The great whose shining labors make our pulses throb were men who got a glory in their daily job. The battle might be glory and the odds unfair, but the men who got a glory never knew despair.

Oh, Lord, give me a glory when all else is done. If you've only got a glory, you can still go on. For those who get a glory, it is like the sun, and you can see it glowing through the work they've done.

A fame is transitory, riches fade away, but when you've got a glory, it is there to stay. Oh, Lord, give me a glory in a workman's pride. For you've got to get a glory or you're dead inside.

Jesus Christ, in whom though ye see him not, yet believingly ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. May we know that text outworked in our own lives. Amen.

Father, as we have been speaking of the infinite delights of the soul that knows God, so may this experience be ours more and more. May we know this joy deep down in our very hearts, a joy that is a stabilizing factor as we push our way through a topsy-turvy life. As we pray for ourselves here, we pray for our young people and their weekend at Hildenburg and ask that they too may come back to us full of the joy of the Lord and of the Holy Ghost.

So now, Lord, as some take their leave at this juncture of our worship, we solicit your blessing to be with them. For those who remain behind, may we rejoice together in the goodness of God as we center our attention on the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.