O righteous ones, rejoice and be glad.
[Psalm 68:1-18]
This morning, I saw on the internet news the image of the father mourning the death of the late brother Shim Sungmin. The photo showed Mr. Shim Jinpyo, the father of the late brother Shim Sungmin, shedding tears while looking at his son’s memorial photo.
“Seongmin, please go to a good place. Go well and help many people who are struggling and poor. Your father, mother, and siblings will live well too.”
Mr. Shim Jinpyo (62), who arrived with family members at the funeral hall of Bundang Seoul National University Hospital for the late Shim Sungmin (29), looked at the memorial photo of his son hanging in the hall. As if he could not believe his son’s death, he repeatedly wiped the photo and wept uncontrollably for more than ten minutes, which moved the eyes of those who saw him (internet).
Truly, this world is full of “sorrowful things,” “hardships,” and “sins.”
This world is truly a place filled with “things that lead to death” (Hymn 474).
What this world can give us is only pain, suffering, sadness, and tears.
However, we Christians, even while living in this world, can praise God saying, “Truly, I am joyful and glad,” because of “the saving grace of the Lord Jesus.”
We who enjoy “the saving grace of the Lord Jesus” forever can have peace even in this world without peace.
Our God is a God who turns our sorrow into joy and makes us dance.
Look at Psalm 30:11:
“You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.”
Today, in Psalm 68:3, the psalmist David says:
“Let the righteous rejoice and be glad before God; let them be joyful and joyful.”
Today, focusing on this verse, I want to meditate on five reasons why the righteous rejoice and are glad, and I hope this becomes an opportunity for us also to rejoice and be glad.
First, the reason the righteous rejoice and are glad is because God destroys the wicked.
Look at Psalm 68:1-2:
“God rises up and scatters his enemies; those who hate God flee before him. Let them be driven away like smoke; like wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before God.”
Our God scatters, drives away, and ultimately destroys our enemies — those who hate the Lord.
He scatters, drives away, and destroys them; just as smoke vanishes quickly in the wind, the wicked who hate the Lord perish in the wrath of God.
Like wax melting before fire, the wicked perish before God.
Therefore, the righteous rejoice and are glad because the righteous God punishes the wicked and causes them to perish.
In other words, the righteous rejoice and are glad because they experience the justice of God.
During this morning’s early prayer meeting, I prayed while thinking of the brothers and sisters who are being held hostage in Afghanistan, asking that God’s justice would be revealed. I prayed that God would judge the wicked and save the righteous. Therefore, I hoped that God’s glory would be revealed, that those who speak ill of Christianity would be silenced, and that the gospel of Christ would be proclaimed even more through those who have been saved.
Although I am not accustomed to praying in this way—asking that the wicked be destroyed so that God’s people might be saved—by continuing to meditate on the Psalms and seeing that the psalmist prayed similarly, I also offered this prayer.
Certainly, our just God will rise up, scatter and drive out those who hate the Lord, and ultimately bring them to ruin. Because God cannot deny Himself, we can confidently trust His justice by faith. Therefore, we can rejoice and be glad.
Secondly, the reason the righteous rejoice and are glad is because God causes the righteous to prosper.
Consider Psalm 68:6:
“God sets the solitary in families; he brings out those who are bound into prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”
Our God is “the father of the fatherless and the judge of the widows” (verse 5). He leads those who are lonely and without family—the solitary—into a place like a warm home (according to Pak Yoon Sun).
The God who rewards good and punishes evil is the God who causes the dwelling place of the rebellious or apostates to become a dry land (also Pak Yoon Sun).
But God causes His beloved righteous ones, especially those struggling in loneliness and captivity, to prosper.
Those solitary ones who enjoy this prosperity rejoice and are glad because of God’s warm love of salvation.
During this morning’s early prayer meeting, I meditated on Jeremiah 22:21, which says:
“I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your habitual practice from your youth, not to listen to my voice.”
Reflecting on this verse, I considered my own bad habit—the sinful habit of not listening to God’s voice.
Particularly, when do we fail to listen well to God’s voice? The Korean Bible says “in times of peace,” but the NASB English Bible says “in your prosperity,” meaning that when I am prosperous, I do not listen to the Lord’s word.
The important lesson is that whether in prosperity or adversity, it is always crucial to have a spiritual attitude that desires to listen to the voice of the Lord.
Then, as David says in Psalm 68, even in the “wilderness” (Psalm 68:4), we will experience God’s saving work and the blessings of prosperity He provides (verse 6).
When we do so, we can rejoice and be glad.
Thirdly, the reason the righteous rejoice and are glad is because God strengthens them in times of hardship.
Look at Psalm 68:9:
“O God, you have sent a plentiful rain, whereby you have confirmed your inheritance when it was weary.”
Our God is the one who sends abundant rain even to the land of Canaan, strengthening His inheritance when it is in need — that is, when there is drought and the grain and fruit trees cannot survive.
In other words, He is the God who restores the land of Canaan to prosperity (Pak Yoon Sun).
David led the people to faith by reminding them of the power of God displayed during the time of the Exodus and the wilderness period (verse 7 and following, Pak Yoon Sun).
That power of God bestowed the Lord’s favor, His goodness, upon His people in the land of Canaan (verse 10).
He is the God who shows His goodness even in times of hardship.
The psalmist, having tasted that goodness (Psalm 34:8), rejoiced and was glad because of God.
We must look to the truly good God, who works all things together for good even in times of hardship (Romans 8:28).
Without God’s grace, we cannot do this by faith, but when God grants His grace, we can praise the “Good God” in faith even during hardship with gospel songs.
Therefore, we should hope that God will turn our lack into abundance.
Of course, it may be easier to praise the “Good God” when we prosper, but we must also praise the good God by faith in times of hardship, so that we may experience how God turns our sorrow into joy and gladness.
God’s mercy and goodness toward us are eternal.
We should be God’s people who rejoice and are glad not only in prosperity but also in hardship, because we experience God’s eternal mercy and goodness.
Fourth, the reason the righteous rejoice and are glad is because God enables us to be victorious.
Look at Psalm 68:14:
“When the Almighty scattered the kings there, it was like snow fallen on Mount Salmon.”
David, in verses 11-14 of today’s passage, narrates the history of Israel’s conquest of Canaan. God gave His people words of power and promises of sure victory related to the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan. Therefore, the people of Israel believed those words and marched forward, and their women sang (verse 11) (Pak Yoon Sun).
In particular, when we look at the history of the conquest of Canaan, “the kings of many armies fled” (verse 12). God defeated all the kings of Canaan by His power. Therefore, even weak women were able to drive out enemy soldiers and divide the spoils (Pak Yoon Sun).
Though the people of Israel were in Egypt or the wilderness, which was as filthy as a sheepfold, through such suffering their spiritual life shone like silver and gold (Pak Yoon Sun).
The Almighty God scattered the kings of Canaan and gave victory to the people of Israel. Therefore, the people of Israel rejoiced and were glad.
We often fall defeated and collapse in the battles against ourselves, the world, sin, Satan, and death, and we frequently face discouragement, guilt, and suffering. Yet the reason we can rejoice and be glad even in the midst of these trials is none other than the victory of Jesus on the cross.
When we look to Jesus, who conquered death and rose again, we live in the hope of victory. Furthermore, with confidence in that victory, we rise again and engage in the spiritual battle (verse 698).
Therefore, we “give thanks to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
With that gratitude, we can rejoice and be glad because of Jesus’ victory.
Lastly, fifth, the reason the righteous rejoice and are glad is because God is with us.
Look at Psalm 68:18:
“You ascended on high, you led captivity captive; you received gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell there.”
David, in verses 15-18 of today’s passage, describes how after God allowed Israel to conquer Canaan, He established Jerusalem as the site of the temple and bestowed grace (Pak Yoon Sun).
The reason David rejoiced and was glad in that grace was because God dwelled with the people of Israel.
Especially, God who dwells on “the mountains of Bashan” (verse 15), the “high mountain” (verse 16), the “mount Sinai” (verse 17), that is, “on high” (verse 18), was with David who lived in low and humble places, and so David rejoiced and was glad.
When I think about this passage, the words of Habakkuk 3:17-18 come to mind:
“Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
The reason we rejoice and are glad is because of God. We do not base our joy and gladness on what God gives or does not give us, but because God Himself is our joy and delight.
I am reminded of the lyrics of hymn number 82, verse 1:
“My joy and my hope,
My life, O Lord,
Though I sing Your praises day and night,
My heart is still restless.”
I also think of Zephaniah 3:17:
“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”
The reason we can rejoice and be glad even in a sorrowful world is because God cannot contain His joy over us.
That God is the one who destroys the wicked and makes the righteous prosper. He is also the God who strengthens us in times of hardship, grants us victory, and is always with us. Therefore, God rejoices and is glad in the righteous.
Living and tasting the great joy that God gives even in the midst of great sorrow the world brings,
Shared by Pastor James Kim
(with a heart trusting in the God who turns sorrow into dancing)