The joy of the Lord is your strength

Nehemiah 8:10
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

This is one of the most joyous passages in the Bible. A thorough reading of the passage will discover several things which caused this great joy. First, the people had come out of captivity and had completed the wall of Jerusalem. That would be a great cause for rejoicing! But further, the book of the law of God had been taken out, and Ezra read it before the people. After seventy years of being away from home in a foreign land, away from the city where God chose to place His name, away from the sanctuary, away from the hearing of God’s Word, this event would have invoked great joy in the hearts of the people! However, some of the people, after hearing the words of the law, and realizing that they had been in a state of extreme declension spiritually, and were backslidden from the commandments of God, were weeping profusely. This is a wonderful sign of repentance. But Ezra and Nehemiah, and the Levites “stilled the people” from mourning because it was to be a day of great rejoicing. Although they had sinned, there was mercy to pardon. Although they had been away from the sanctuary and the hearing of the law of God, God was ready to speak to them again. Although their spiritual condition had declined, and their obedience to the law of God had been listless and menial, God was ready to fill them with the fire of revival again! This is the God we know! He will pass by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage, and will not retain His anger for ever! Therefore were the people to rejoice!

Now, dear friend, do you not have great cause for rejoicing in your own life in this moment? Has not the Lord given you another chance to seek Him anew? Has He not passed over many a sin and transgression to reinstate you into a stronger communion with Him? Is God not gracious and merciful and of great kindness? This is not a day to be sorry, but a day to rejoice, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!

Let us not look for strength and sustainment in lower things or earthly things. Let us not look for strength in the joy this world offers. Let us not look for joy that will flee away at any small perturbation. Let us not look to that joy which is transient, temporal, and tepid. But let us find our joy in the Lord who is timeless, enduring, and never changing! That joy will last! Let Him be your strength day by day! Lean upon Him! Look to Him! Love Him! Find joy in His Word, in His peace, in His truth, in His forgiveness, and in His everlasting love and kindness! The joy of the Lord is your strength!

“And now, O Father, we know that we have been lacking joy because our sins have taken it away, and because we have looked to lower things rather than higher things to find our joy. We have sought this world rather than the world to come. We have sought our comfort rather than your peace. We have sought temporal joy rather than eternal joy. Please help us by Thy Spirit to look to the Lord only for joy. And we know that Thou wilt provide it for us in great abundance. We need your strength today. May the joy of the Lord be my strength! In Jesus’ name, Amen.