Inseparable: Renew Our Song (The Joy of the Lord)

Jeremy:

We don’t often think of suffering as a path leading us to praise. However, the Psalmist writes in Psalm 126 that “those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.” For the last couple of years, I’ve pondered what Ezra meant when he said in Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” If we look at the context in Nehemiah, we see that the people of God were exiled in Babylon. Nehemiah had received permission from the Babylonian king to return to Jerusalem and re-establish the city, to worship the Lord, and to rebuild the temple. Ezra’s famous statement comes on the heels of the public reading of the word of God.

The situation of the people of Israel was not that different from our current situation. They had experienced exile at a time of great suffering. In these times, we may feel the pressure to “put on a happy face” and to force ourselves into some trite positivity. However, notice that Ezra’s words in verse 10 are not about the people and their grief; they’re about the Lord and His joy. In their grief, Ezra reminds them, and us, to look to the Lord. The Lord’s joy will be their joy and our joy. His joy is the strength we need to celebrate in the midst of sadness and suffering.

Lauren:

Over the last couple of years, we have walked through some of the hardest days for our family. Many of those days, we’ve struggled to continue to hope in the Lord. We’ve led worship choking up on our tears, sometimes even struggled to sing.

Often when we experience deep sorrows, we can wonder if we will ever be happy again, or if we will ever hope again. Even though things get hard, our hope is never in the circumstances surrounding us. Our ultimate hope is not even in improving our circumstances. In fact, our ultimate hope is only in Christ alone, and without His suffering, there would be no hope.

In Romans 5:3-5, Paul reminds us that hope comes through suffering by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. The Lord will renew our song as we hope in Jesus. We can sing through our tears, knowing that as we sing and praise the Lord together, He fights for us, and we fight for one another, teaching one another and stirring up faith and hope in each other.

Jeremy:

God does amazing things when we sing to Him. I’m reminded of Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi. Though in chains, they lifted their voices, singing praise to God. As they sang, a great earthquake shook the foundation of the prison, and their chains fell from them. Instead of escaping their suffering, they used that opportunity to bring their jailer to Christ.

We wrote this song reminding ourselves to look to Christ, remembering that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. That joy is His bride, the church. That’s you and me. Because we have been given His Spirit, should we not now endure all kinds of suffering for the joy that is set before us? That joy is Christ himself. We hope and pray that this song encourages you to lift up your voice with us in praise of our joyful God and may His joy be our strength! Peace be with you.