“I have set the LORD always before me… therefore my heart is and glad, and my whole being rejoices…” – a song penned by King David of Israel
For the last 10 weeks, I have been gathering with 70 other women from our precious church family every Monday evening to ponder this very idea. What does it mean for me to set the LORD always before me? For starters, who IS He, anyway? What’s He like? Can I know Him? And, furthermore, can that – just setting Him before me – really make my whole being rejoice? Really?
I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I experience that on a day-in, day-out basis. Oh, I have moments of joy. When I’m laughing with my family. Or when I’m having a great conversation with a like-minded friend. Or when I’m on vacation, walking along the dunes in quiet. Or when I’m singing hymns of praise and I sense the weight of my words back to God. Or when I’m reading an epic story like Lord of the Rings.
But, I’m not sure my whole being rejoices. And, if it does, it’s not for more than a minute or two. When the song stops or the laughter turns to bickering or the book ends or the coffee shop closes or it’s time to come back from nature into the grind of life. The moment passes and with it, sadly, so does my joy. It gets crowded out by all the rest of it.King David goes on in that same song to say that “in {God’s} presence there is fullness of joy.” Fullness. Not just a little crumble of joy that passes with a momentary pleasure. But fullness of joy. Like a cup that is brimming over with abundance.
The dictionary says that joy is the pleasurable feeling caused by the acquisition or expectation of something good. Can you think for a sec about the times over the last year when you experienced joy? What are those good things in your life that make you feel that way?
That’s a for real question. Not a trick question. And don’t say “Jesus” just because you think it’s the most spiritual thing to say. Think about it and jot some things down.
I don’t think those things are bad. It’s not wrong that laughing with my family brings me joy. But, I do think they are just a taste. Because, as Mary Kassian points out in her book Knowing God By Name
Did you catch that? The greater the goodness, the greater the joy. So, if a walk along Lake Michigan dunes brings me a little bit of joy, wouldn’t it follow that focusing on the God of Splendor who thought of and created those dunes out of nothingness, would bring me A LOT of joy?
I think it might.
Joy = long, squeezing hugs from my nieces and nephews. Homemade Chai tea lattes, time with friends who “get” me; victories, even if small!