Isaiah 55:12-13 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
Fellow travelers,
Today may bring thorns and briers, but as we travel toward eternity, consider the marvelous picture of nature glorified in a new heaven and earth in this Psalm.
First, the mountains and trees we experience in this world may not be the same as trees in heaven. They will rejoice when the perfect creation is made manifest because they are not fully what they should be now. Tolkien may have been thinking of this when creating the Ents of Middle Earth. If the trees are described as clapping in heaven, what will people do?
Bring some of that joy to this earth.
Second, the Psalm describes a direct reversal of the curse on Adam in Gen 3:17-18, where the ground would be cursed and “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Instead, the cypress and myrtle will come up. The new creation will not fight against us, but instead sprout glory after glory.
While I don’t know how most of my readers will spend their day today, and I’m even uncertain about what I’ll do today, there’s one thing about today I do know:
“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24
Today, we may have activities and responsibilities we didn’t choose, but this is the day we have. We don’t have control over things we’d like to control, but this is the day we have.
Today, we have no other day but this one, and it is from the Lord. It is a good day because it is given to us by Him. If He is good, it is good.
Today, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24
Rejoice in this day!
“There is a vital objection to the advice merely to grin and bear it. The objection is that if you merely bear it, you do not grin.” – GK Chesterton
Life is often a battle with inconsistency. We go from feeling good about our situations and God’s favor, to feeling like we are in a spiritual desert, and back again like a pendulum. Knowing this, God provides verses like Psalm 126:4-6, which says:
“Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb! Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
The metaphor is a comparison to the south of Israel, which has a very dry climate, yet experiences flooding in a rainstorm. The Negeb also is mentioned in the story of Caleb and his daughter Achsah. Her inherited land was in the infertile Negeb, and she asks him also for springs of water, which he gives her.[1]
Like Achsah’s father Caleb, our Father God also provides for us in our seasons of trouble. Here, the Psalmist compares tears to seeds, reminding us that in the dry times as well as the times of overflowing blessing, God is with us, using those circumstances. Our current loss is future gain, and our current time of suffering is bound and measured by God’s will, like the Babylonian exile was measured at 70 years[2] and the year of Jubilee came after every 49 years[3]. After our time, we will enter His rest and rejoice eternally.
In this life we may experience spiritual and emotional extremes, like drought and flood in the desert. Don’t overreact to the pendulum swing but count your tears as seeds. Pray that He will restore your fortunes and thank Him that our seasons are in His hands.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” – Matthew 5:4
[1] Joshua 15:18-19 [2] Daniel 9:2, 9:24 [3] Leviticus 25:8
Have you ever asked yourself what Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, and author of much Biblical wisdom, would have to say about modern retirement? Probably not, but I’m going to write about it anyway, because Solomon actually had some relevant advice.
Since this blog is not a source of income, I have a day job which happens to involve helping companies help their employees save and invest for retirement. In American culture, retirement has in some ways replaced heaven as the future we hope for. Advertisements promise retirees can do all the things they dreamed of doing during their working years. Travel. Relax. Read those books you’ve been putting off reading. If you can, buy a yacht. After all, if you’ve worked so hard for it, you deserve it, they say. Like many marketing schemes, something good and prudent (saving for retirement) is wrapped in a lot of gloss to get you to do something you might not do otherwise. Sacrifices made now are worthwhile because of a later reward.
A photo I took from a Florida beach over the Atlantic near sunrise. I’d like to retire here, but heaven is better.
A guest at church this morning inspired me to write this post, since he was working with a ministry to grandparents. The ministry is called Legacy Coalition (website link). While talking with him, I made a connection and wanted to share it here. That connection is that Solomon[1] when writing Ecclesiastes was acting in the role of a wise, Godly grandfather in a way that offers a sharp contrast to the story of retirement that goes unchallenged in our culture.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon lays out an argument that he lived almost the exact life pictured in our retirement ads but learned to regret it. While still a very young man, he had the power and wealth to try anything he wanted. He planted vineyards and drank a lot of wine. He built gardens and pools and acquired many servants and property. He also had 700 wives and 300 concubines.[2] He could have everything he desired – everything the retirement ads would show you if they could be R-rated – but he ended up disappointed. Ecclesiastes is his advice to those who come after to not repeat his mistakes.
While a blog post can’t cover all of Ecclesiastes, I must add that Solomon did encourage us to invest for the future, but also not to place all our bets on one specific vision of the future: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.” (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2). A long, healthy and prosperous retirement is one possible future among many, but eternity with God is a future certainty. Earlier in the book, Solomon writes: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) God gives us a sense of what He has planned for us, but not many of the details. We should not foolishly ignore the future, but we should not cling to one future we desire at the cost of the present God has given us and the future He already knows everything about.
Solomon encourages everyone – young and old – to live more in their own moment, enjoying the gifts God has given them and sharing those gifts with the people around them. While Solomon is encouraging the young to not repeat his own mistakes, he is also encouraging the old to share their perspective. In both cases, Solomon is telling us not to stress too much about what may or may not happen, but to invest what we have in light of what will be meaningful in eternity. Joy comes from enjoying the relationships and things God has blessed us with now, not from sacrificing the now in light of a false vision of retirement.
Solomon recommends joy in God’s provision, and so I close with this quote, and pray that we all experience joy and thankfulness in the gifts God has given us today. Don’t keep them to yourself.
“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” – Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
[This Rewind Wednesday post was originally posted in March 2022]
[1] I’m going to proceed for the sake of argument that Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes, although I know some debate that and it’s not explicitly stated. [2] 1 Kings 11:3
Gospel literally means “good news.” What impact should receiving that news have on you and I, and on how we approach all the bad news around us?
This article by Steve Brown at Key Life is worth the read. I’ve been thinking a lot about joy, and part of the journey toward that is taking what the Bible says about it seriously (apparently an oxymoron, but really it’s not). If Paul said he had joy in prison, he actually did. If you don’t believe joy is possible, it will never happen.
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 