Let the righteous be glad and rejoice.
[Psalms 68:1-18]
This morning I saw brother in Christ “Sung-min Shim’s father mourning the death of his son on the Internet news. The picture that I saw was the picture of Shim Jin-pyo, the father of Shim Sung-min, who sent his son first, crying while looking at his portrait. This is what the father said: ‘Sung-min, please go to a good place. Go well and help a lot of difficult and poor people. Your father, mother, and younger siblings will live well.’ Father Shim Jin-pyo (62 years old), who arrived with his bereaved family in the morgue of the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, swept away his son’s portrait, as if he couldn’t believe his son’s death. He cried for almost 10 minutes and it made other people to be in tears as well (Internet). Truly, this world is full of anxieties, of miseries, and of sins. Truly, this world is full of deaths. All that this world can give us is pain, suffering, sorrow, and tears. However, it is because of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus that we Christians can praise God, saying, ‘It is very glad and joyful, while living in this world. We, who enjoy the saving grace of the Lord Jesus forever, can have peace even in this world where there is no peace.
Our God is the God who turns our sorrows into dancing in joy. Look at Psalms 30:11 – “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” In Psalms 68:3, the psalmist David says, “But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.” I hope and pray that this will serve as an opportunity for us to be glad and rejoice as we meditate on the five reasons why the righteous should be glad and rejoice.
First, the reason why the righteous is glad and rejoice is because God destroys the wicked.
Look at Psalms 68:1-2: “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered, And let those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God.” Our God is the God who scatters, drives out, and eventually destroys our enemies, “those who hate Him.” He scatters, drives away, and destroys our enemies just as smoke is driven away in an instant by the wind, so the wicked who hate the Lord are perished in the wrath of God. “As max melts before the fire,” the wicked perish before God. Therefore, the righteous is glad and rejoice because the just God punishes the wicked and destroys them. That is, the righteous is glad and rejoices because he experiences the righteousness of God.
Today’s early morning prayer meeting, I prayed for the brothers and sisters in Christ who were held hostage in Afghanistan and asked God for His righteousness. We prayed that God would judge the wicked and save the righteous. Therefore, I prayed that the glory of God would appear, so that those who criticized Christianity would be silent, and the gospel of Christ would be proclaimed more and more through those who were saved. Although I am not accustomed to praying like this that I want God's people to be saved by God destroying the wicked, I prayed that way because , as I continued to meditate on the book of Psalms, the psalmist prayed like that. Surely our righteous God will rise up and scatter and drive out those who hate Him, and eventually destroy them. Since God is a God who cannot deny Himself, we can be sure by faith when we consider His righteousness. That’s why we can be glad and rejoice.
Second, the reason why the righteous is glad and rejoice is because God makes the righteous prosper.
Look at Psalms 68:6 – “God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.” Our God is “A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows” (v. 5). That God is the God who leads the lonely people who are without their families to a place like a warm and sweet home (Park). The God, who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, who destroys the wicked and makes “the rebellious” or the apostates (the rebels) into “a parched land” (Park). But God brings prosperity to the righteous whom He loves, the souls struggling in solitude, especially those in prison. The lonely who enjoys that prosperity is glad and rejoices because of God's warm love of salvation.
If we look at Jeremiah 22:21, the passage that I meditated on this morning prayer meeting, the Bible says, “I spoke to you in your prosperity; But you said, 'I will not listen!' This has been your practice from your youth, That you have not obeyed My voice.” As I meditated on this word, I thought of my own wrong habit, a sinful habit of not obeying the voice of God. Especially when I think about when I don’t listen to God’s voice well, it is time when I am“in your prosperity”. That is, when I am prospering, I don’t listen to the God's words. I think the important lesson is the spiritual attitude that our ears always want to hear the voice of the Lord, whether we are in prosperity or not. Then, as David says in Psalms 68, we will experience the work of God's salvation in the “wilderness” (Ps. 68:4), and the God’s blessing that makes us prosper (v. 6). Then, we can be glad and rejoice in Him.
Third, the reason why the righteous is glad and rejoice is because God refreshes our weary.
Look at Psalms 68:9 – “You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance.” Our God is the God who makes the Lord's inheritance, that is, the land of Canaan, to be refreshed by sending enough rains when the crops and fruit trees are droughty and cannot live. In other words, He is the God who makes the land of Canaan better again. David reminded the Israelties the power of God that was revealed in the time of the Exodus and in the wilderness in order to lead them to God and gain faith (Park). That power of God gave the Lord's benefits, the Lord's goodness, in the land of Canaan for the people of God (v. 10). He is a God who reveals His goodness even when He is weary. The psalmist who experienced that goodness (34:8) was glad and rejoiced before of God.
Even when we are weary, we must look to the very good God who works for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Without God's grace, we cannot do it, but when God shows us grace, we can praise the gospel song “God is so Good” with faith even when we are weary. Therefore, we must hope that God will turn away our poverty and enrich it. Of course, it can be easy for us to praise “God is so Good” when we prosper. However, even when we are weary, we must experience that God turns our sorrows into joy because we praise the good God with faith. God's goodness and lovingkindess toward us is eternal. We must become God's people who are glad and rejoice because we taste the eternal lovingkindness and goodness of God not only when we prosper but also when we are weary.
Fourth, the reason why the righteous is glad and rejoice is because God makes us victorious.
Look at Psalms 68:14 – “When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, it was like snow fallen on Zalmon.” In Psalms 68:11-14, David described the Israel’s conquest of Canaan. God gave the word of His power, the word of the promise of victory, in relation to the work of the exodus and the conquest of the land of Canaan. Therefore, the Israelites believed the word and marched, and their women sang (v. 11) (Park). In particular, looking at the work of the conquest of the land of Canaan, “Kings and armies flee in haste” (v. 12). God defeated all the kings of Canaan with His power. Therefore, even the weak women were able to drive out the enemy soldiers and share the spoils (Park). Although when the Israelites were in Egypt or in the wilderness were like being in a dirty place (like a sheepfold), through such suffering life, their spiritual life was shining like silver or gold (Park). Almighty God gave the Israelites victory by scattering the kings of Canaan. Therefore, the Israelites were glad and rejoiced.
We are often lost in the fight against ourselves, against the world, against sin, against Satan, against death, and are fallen, and are often faced with discouragement, guilt, and suffering. However, the reason we can be glad and rejoice even in the midst of them is none other than because of Jesus' victory on the cross. When we look to the risen Jesus who overcame death, we can dwell in the hope of victory. Furthermore, we rise up again with the conviction of victory and engage in our spiritual battles. Therefore, we are thanking God “who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). With that gratitude, we can be glad and rejoice over Jesus' victory.
Fifth and last, the reason why the righteous is glad and rejoice is because God is with us.
Look at Psalms 68:18 – “When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious-- that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.” David stated in verses 15-18 that after God made Israel to conquer the land of Canaan, He set Jerusalem as the place of the temple and gave them grace (Park). With that grace, the reason why David was glad and rejoiced was because God was with the Israelites. In particular, God who dwelt in Sinai (v. 17), that was like “The mountains of Bashan” (v. 15), “rugged mountains” (v. 16), that is, the God who is in the high place (v. 18), was with David who dwelt in low place, David was glad and rejoiced.
When I think of these words, I think of Habakkuk 3:17-18: “Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” The reason why we are glad and rejoice is because of God. We are glad and rejoice because of God, not based on what God gives us or doesn’t give us. This reminds me the hymn “O Thou, in Whose Presence”: “O Thou, in whose presence my soul takes delight/ On whom in affliction I call/ My comfort by day, and my song in the night/ My hope, my salvation, my all!” (verse 1).
I remember Zephaniah 3:17 – “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” We can be glad and rejoice even in a sad world based on the fact that God takes great delight in us. That God is the God who destroys the wicked and makes the righteous prosper. He is also the God who strengthens us when we are weary. He is the God who makes us victorious and is always with us. The reason is because God is glad and rejoices with us, the righteous.
Living with great joy that God gives in the midst of the great sorrow that this world gives,
James Kim(Trusting in God who turns our mourning into dancing)