The Sorrow of the Soul and the Joy of The LORD

A Devotion to Rejoice in the LORD

Today’s article is a guest post, written by a dear brother under the pen-name Providentia.

To the Saints of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who thirst and long for His return.

Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you? Psalm 85:6

Introduction

I have seldom read this verse during my personal devotions and not shed tears at the sight of its solemn words. As a result, I have often mused to myself that this verse was written for people like me (I hope for someone like you, too). That is, for people who need restoration and revival of the soul’s dwindling affections (love) for God. But then, I must say from the outset that those people who never fall and never fail have no business with such a text. Those who succeed perfectly to live above the tide of temptation and never once sink in desperation like Peter in the sea of Galilee have no lot in matters of this nature. You should pass on from this write-up as easily as you surmount the fiery darts of temptation.

But then, let me turn to those saints–I mean to you and I–who hear the faithless voice of sin threatening to turn faith’s gaze from the saviour’s voice. In a word, I want to turn to the desperate and depressed; to those who have felt like they have lost their God, as a man loses his only coin in the middle of the night in a faraway country. I want to speak to those who feel like God stands aloof from them and they have no extra tear to pour on the dust on which they so steadily lie. To you I say, come and see how the Psalmist prays.

Ask Questions to God

Firstly, he prays through a question to God. The Psalmist shows us here that it is no strange thing to ask the Almighty questions. My friend, who would you rather ask a question to, than he who has an inscrutable understanding, whose footsteps are locked in the sea? Yet, how many of us go to God with questions as the Psalmist did? Let us copy this godly example and bring our soul’s unrest to God. For it shows that our hearts are desperate for his answers only, and thus he is pleased. It shows that nothing–no earthly statement or principle–will suffice to calm the storms that so fiercely rage within the heart that is depressed.

In those moments when I have felt myself most sinful and miserable, the only thing that has sufficed to lay my troubled soul to rest is the Word of and from God. His Word assures me that I am loved, seen, held, and kept in Christ’s eternal grip. Therefore, friend, loiter in the court room of Jehovah until the righteous judge hears and responds to the questions of your heart.

The Sorrow of Sin

Secondly, the Psalter implicitly states that they were in a state of spiritual bareness because of sin. Israel had lost God’s presence because of her sins. Thus, there was a real sense of sorrow. My friend, this should teach us the obvious lesson that sorrow flows easily from sin as passion from a man in love. For if he is truly in love, he cannot help but have these affections as proof of his love. Therefore, it goes without saying that those who plunge themselves into sin will be sorrowful sooner or later.

However, a man in love without culmination of that love can have his passions undone by channeling that love to a hobby, however hard and long it takes. Yet he who has lost the presence of God, the true joy, through sin is most miserable. He might try hobbies and all sorts of mind-numbing and conscience-escaping tactics, yet none will rest his soul. None will make him forget his barrenness; none make him happy. As a man feels the pain of his lumbar pinching his spinal nerve that carries signals to his legs, so does a man who is in this barren state aching inescapably by sorrow and is constantly without stamina.

Yet by trying to relieve himself from the effects of his sins through things other than his precious Christ, he still proves those simple words of G.K. Chesterton that, “the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.” At this point, I should pause and cry out in prayer to say: Lord help us to seek you in times of barrenness and the ache of spiritual sorrow. Let us not seek other short-lived pleasures as though they could close up the void carved by separation from you.

Marriage of Glory and Joy

I hope you see the wealth of this text at this point. Sadly, I am forced to leave-out many other things that I could go into. Therefore, I will limit this already-long write-up to this last point of interest to me for the sake of brevity. That is, the twain principles of glory and joy married in a supplication to God. Those who know the Westminster question: “What is the Chief end of man?” Know that the answer marries two principles of tremendous weight and implication.

Answer: “The Chief end of Man is to Glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” We cannot have one without the other. We cannot glorify God and not enjoy him, and we cannot enjoy God and not glorify him. These two are not merely different sides of the same coin; they are the same side of the same coin. And they are what the Psalmist asked for. His plea is that those who have known sorrow would be given the honour of experiencing the might and power of God to revive them back to himself. Thus, in one breath of prayer he exalts God both as the ultimate joy of men and as the ultimate power for men.

Conclusive Prayer

O knower of hearts, O true Joy! Lord, you know our frame and you know where we are presently. You know our condition, even when no one understands the questions that irritate our souls. Teach us that, the things of this world will never satisfy nor do anything to restore us back to you. Teach the church and the nations that we can draw near to the cross and have our souls restored. O how rich this text is, O Lord! And in all these words I know, and you know more than I know, that I have not scratched the surface of any principle laid down so cleverly by your Spirit. Yet you used mud to open the eyes of the blind and a cloth to awaken the dead. What is ink on paper for you? Thus, use these few words to revive us again that we might rejoice in you only. Amen.

-Providentia