WEEK 4 – DAY 5

GOD, THE PINNACLE OF JOY

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. . . Psalm 43:3–4

The psalmist asked God to send out His beacon to light the way into His presence.  He asked the Lord to bring him “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).  God was his overwhelming, glorious jubilation.  God is not only the source of joy, but He is the essence, the totality, and the fabric of joy.   The Lord inspired a spontaneous melody for the psalmist to play on the lyre.  The psalmist chose to demonstrate or share his reasons for joy even while still walking out of despair.

Practically my whole last undergraduate semester, I had walking pneumonia, which doctors kept misdiagnosing.  That was extremely frustrating.  Finally, the doctor who normally saw me in the infirmary figured it out.   He sent me home to bed and said that I was not supposed to get out for anything.  My caveat to him was, “I am going to church because I need to be in an atmosphere of healing and praise.”   He reluctantly agreed.   I went back to class slightly too soon, and my caring professor sent me back home and told me in no uncertain terms not to come back to class or I was not going to graduate on time.  This caused me to have to write my undergraduate senior project within a six-weeks’ timeframe, rather than having the entire semester like everyone else had.  That was terribly challenging.  I thrived, despite the time limit, by the grace of God.  Even though I got a “C” on the format because I did not have the proper style manual, I got an “A” on the content.  It did not make the sting of the substandard grade any less for me because of the battles I had gone through in order to bring it to completion. God was my exceeding joy, for His extravagant grace enabled me to graduate on time. Are you rejoicing in a goal accomplished?  Praise God that He is the pinnacle of your joy! 

Father, thank You that even in the worst circumstances, You give us joy!