REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XIV, November 2008, Number 11
Rejoicing in the Lord
A Radio Sermon by H. Hoeksema
As published in the April 1 and 15, 1943 issues of The Standard Bearer
One of the most remarkable and beautiful professions of a strong and living faith, that is always victorious and that triumphantly transcends all the things that are seen, may be found in the last verses of the prophecy of Habakkuk, which reads as follows, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail; and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." If we would paraphrase this inspired declaration of the Old Testament seer and garb it in a more modern form that is more directly applicable to the conditions on this present Thanksgiving Day, we would speak somewhat as follows, "Although the wheels of industry shall be completely stopped, and the labor of the machines shall fail; although the factories in our great industrial centers shall yield no work, and there shall be no profit in business; the money shall be cut off from the banks and there shall be no savings for tomorrow's needs - though our sons are torn from our homes, and are being killed at the battle front; though our armies shall suffer defeat, and the enemy shall ravage our countryside and rain its destructive and murderous bombs upon our cities, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord." Or if we project this mighty shout of faith into the future and look forward to the day of the Lord, we might express the same victorious confidence in the following words, "Although the very foundations of the universe shall be shaken and the heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together; though the sun shall become black as a sackcloth of hair, and the moon shall become as blood; though the stars shall drop out of the firmament, and the mountains and islands shall be moved out of their places - even then will I rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation."
True thanksgiving is not easy. It surely is not everybody's work. Even though Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday, and the impression might be left that thanksgiving is something in which at least every American may take part once a year, it remains an act of faith in the God of our salvation; and therefore, of the people of God in as far as they live from the principle of the new life in Christ and have become new creatures. To give thanks is to rejoice in God as the God of our salvation. For that reason it is not dependent on but victorious over things. Even today there are those that prosper in the world, who are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men; "...whose eyes stand out with fatness", and "...have more than heart could wish (Psalm 73:5,7); "...but who cannot and do not give thanks because their joy is not in the Lord but in things. On the other hand, there are thousands upon thousands today in the war-stricken countries of Europe, who sorely feel the iron heel of the oppressor, whose homes have been destroyed by bombs, whose fields have been laid waste, whose scanty provisions only prevent them from finding rest in death; or who have been taken to cruel concentration camps and dark prison cells, but who join the Church over the whole world in giving thanks to God most high, because their joy is in the Lord, and they rejoice in the God of their salvation.
What then is this ever victorious joy? Often the Bible speaks of it, and it exhorts us to rejoice in the Lord. The psalmist sings, "There be many that say, who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety..." (Psalm 4:6-8). And again, "But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee." (Psalm 5:11) And again, "Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." (Psalm 68:3) "O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms." (Psalm 95:1, 2) Even all creation is exhorted to participate in this joy of the people of God, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord." (Psalm 96:11,12) The apostle Paul writes to the church at Philippi, "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4), and to the Thessalonians, "Rejoice evermore" (I Thessalonians 5:16).
It is evident from all this that this joy in the Lord (of which the prophet Habakkuk sings) is an abiding and unchangeable gladness of the heart, that is always victorious and cannot be downed by circumstances, because it is independent from them. It is such because the ground, the source and cause of this joy is the unchangeable God Himself. This is the meaning of "rejoicing in the Lord" - to rejoice because of Him. Just as when we say that we rejoice in good health, we mean that we rejoice because of good health. To rejoice in prosperity is to rejoice because of prosperity. So to rejoice in God is to rejoice because of God, and to rejoice because of God signifies that we are joyful because we may confess that He is our God, that He is our possession and that we are His. The prophet; therefore, means to say, "Whatever betide, and though all things turn against me, I shall still rejoice, because I know that God is my God."
To say that the Lord is my God is to express a very definite relationship between Him and myself. In a general sense of course the Lord is God over all. For He is the Creator of the heavens and of the earth and He is their absolute Sovereign. He has dominion over all, and no one can ever dispute His sovereignty. In that sense He is everyone's God, the God of the righteous and the wicked alike, of angels and devils. They are all under the everlasting obligation to glorify Him as God, and He holds them all in His power and makes them subservient to His divine purpose. But when God's people rejoice in God because He is their God, they express something far richer. The prophet explains himself when he adds in the eighteenth verse, "I will joy in the God of my salvation." To call God my God means that He is the God of my salvation, who stands in a very definite relationship to me and I to Him, because of His eternal love wherewith He loved me before the foundation of the world. He is my God, the God of my salvation, as He has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. In that definite sense, according to which His relation to us is that of His everlasting covenant of friendship; He is not everyone's God, but the God of His people only. He saves them, redeems them from the guilt of sin, forgives all their iniquities and clothes them with an everlasting righteousness. He delivers them from the dominion of sin and death, renews their inmost heart, cleanses them from all defilement, draws them with chords of love and takes them into His blessed fellowship. He blesses them with all the blessings of salvation in Christ Jesus their Lord and calls them His sons and daughters, His peculiar possession. Because He speaks to them and says, "Ye are my people..." they respond, and say, "Our Lord and our God, God of our salvation!"
This joy in the Lord is an essential element of all true thanksgiving. This is true not only because thanksgiving itself presupposes a glad heart (rejoicing in the remembrance of blessings received), but also because joy in the Lord is an indispensable requisite for prayer, and prayer - true prayer - results in gratitude because our prayers are heard. If our joy is really in the God of our salvation, prayer itself becomes the highest expression of thankfulness, and that signifies that in our prayers we will ask for those things that are pleasing to Him and not seek our own carnal gratification. We know that, if we ask anything according to His will, He will surely hear us and give unto us that which we ask of Him.
Many prayers that we hear give the impression that prayer is looked upon as a means to impose our will upon the will of God - to change the mind of the Almighty. They seek to tell God how He ought to rule the universe, the affairs of men, and especially our personal interests. Instead of expressing childlike submission to the will of our Father "which-is-in-heaven", we insist on having our own way. Instead of committing our way to Him, we ask Him to change to our way; instead of seeking His glory, His kingdom, His will, we seek our own earthly, individual, carnal interests. He sends us sickness, and we immediately ask Him to change our way and restore us to health; He sends us adversity, and we demand immediate prosperity; He sends war, and we ask for peace. All this is quite different from what the prophet professes to be his joy. When the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit in the vine, and the labor of the olive fails and the fields yield no meat; when the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, he does not call a prayer meeting for the purpose of supplicating the Most High to change the situation, but his joy is even then in the Lord, Who doeth all these things. If we do not learn to pray according to His will, we shall not be able to give thanks, for the simple reason that our prayers are not heard.
We asked for health, and behold, we are still sick; we wanted prosperity, but adversity is still our lot; we sent up what we thought was a mighty prayer for peace, and behold, the war continues. Our prayers were not heard. Why then should we give thanks for that which we did not receive? But if our joy is in the Lord, and not in the things of this world, we shall learn to pray for those things that are pleasing to Him. Our prayers shall be heard and we shall come before Him with grateful hearts, and give thanks to Him because we have tasted that the Lord is good!
But there is more. There is in the joy-in-the-Lord, of which the prophet speaks, an element of perfect trust and childlike confidence. He that rejoices in the God of his salvation knows that He is good and that His mercies endure forever. He is always good to us, and always gives unto us that which tends to our eternal salvation. Plainly this confidence that the Lord does all things, and does them well, is the basis for the confession of Habakkuk. God is God, and He is the Lord of all. He is the sole Governor of the entire universe, and the reins of government never slip out of His hand.
I know that the Lord is almighty, and that He doeth whatsoever is His good pleasure. All power is His, even the power of the creature, yea even the power of evil men and of Satan and his hosts. There is in all the universe no power that is not His: the power in nature of sun and moon and stars, of rain and sunshine, of cold and heat, of health and sickness, of life and death; the power of all the rational creation: of men and angels, good and evil; the power of mighty dictators and warring nations, is all His. He directs it all to His own purpose. I will not, therefore, divide things dualistically into those that are sent to me by my heavenly Father, and those that come to me from some other source. I know that all things, even those things that are apparently evil, are sent to me by the Lord in whom I rejoice. I am confident, therefore, that He accomplishes all His good purpose, and I know too that all His work is characterized by perfect wisdom. He never fails. He never makes a mistake. I may be able to see only a very small part of the perfect work of God, and as I consider what God does from the viewpoint of my personal interest, things may often appear to go wrong; but I know nevertheless that His work is perfect, and that in the end the glorious perfection of His work shall surely become manifest. But if I rejoice in the God of my salvation I know too that in and through all things the Lord almighty seeks and accomplishes my good, my eternal salvation. How shall He that loved me, and that revealed His unfathomable love to me in the death of His Son, not freely give me all things with Him? So I am confident that all things work together for good unto me. My joy is in the Lord! And whatever may be my way and my lot, my rejoicing shall still be in Him, and I shall give thanks unto His holy Name!
Yes, then we are able to give thanks in all circumstances of life. Joy in the Lord is an abiding joy. It is ever victorious. It transcends all things and is independent of them. This is very evident in the words of the prophet. Notice that, in describing the circumstances under which he will rejoice in the Lord, he speaks of two groups of apparently evil events. The first of these takes place in nature and constitutes complete crop failure. The fig tree does not blossom, there is no fruit in the vine, the olive labors in vain, and the fields yield no meat. Everything fails. There is utter want and destitution. The second of these two groups of circumstances concerns the enemy. Devastation is caused by hostile men, for the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls. The enemy invaded and plundered the country, so that there is nothing left. Does this calamity affect the prophet's joy? Not at all. He knows that in the last analysis it is the God of his salvation that doeth all these things. In Him, therefore, he shall still rejoice, even though all things fail!
Do not mistake the meaning of the prophet. He is not an abnormal person, a sort of a morbid soul who hates prosperity and rejoices in calamities, as such and for their own sake. Nor do we. No Christian does. We do not rejoice in famine and want, in sickness and pain, in death and destruction such as are rampant in the war-mad world of the present time. We are not coldly indifferent, when our sons are called away from our homes to fight in the bloody battles of the world. On the contrary, these things fill us with fear and trouble, and they cause our hearts to bleed. It was so with the poet. We must remember that at the time when the prophet made this glorious declaration of his joy in the Lord, the calamities he mentions had not yet become real, but it had been revealed to him that they were impending. In a vision he saw the Lord come from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. He saw Him in the brightness of His glory as He came to send His judgments upon the land, and as he visualizes the reality of this impending judgment and catastrophe, what is his natural reaction? Does he rejoice in them? On the contrary, listen to his own words, "When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered in my bones and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble." He was afraid. He was amazed and perplexed. So it is evident that, when in the closing words of his song he expresses his joy in the Lord and his faith, that he will rejoice in the God of his salvation, even when the expected calamities shall come. He is not expressing the morbid joy of one who delights in suffering as such. Who of God's people would not far prefer prosperity to adversity, plenty to want, peace to war - if it could be the will of the Lord?
Again, we must not explain the meaning of the prophet's words, as if he merely contrasts his joy in the Lord with the impending calamities, as if his joy in the God of his salvation is something apart from the approaching sufferings. He surely does not mean to say: when these calamities come, I shall still rejoice in the Lord, because I know that He shall remove them, or that I shall escape them. No, he is convinced that these calamities are from the Lord, that they are sent by the God of his salvation. When the fig tree does not blossom, is it not the hand of the Lord that prevents it from blossoming? When there is no fruit in the vine, who causes the vine to be barren? When the enemy invades the land and cuts off the flock from the fold, who sends the enemy? Is it not the same Lord that is the God of our salvation? Thus it is with all things, not only with the products of the soil, but also with all the affairs of men, social and economical, national and international. It is so with the present war. Behind all the confusion and madness of the present time, behind all the apparent power of mighty dictators and their battling hosts, behind all the destruction and devastation caused by the powers of this world; yea, working through it all and infallibly controlling it unto His purpose, is the Lord, the God of our salvation, Who doeth all things well. His invisible hand is at the controls. We cannot see the wisdom of His work. His ways are past finding out. His judgments are unsearchable. How all these things fit into the perfection of His work, we cannot now discern. But we know it. We understand it by faith. He assures us of it in His Word; therefore, we may even now, though it be with bleeding hearts and with trembling lips, rejoice in the God of our salvation, and with all God's people over the whole earth and in whatever circumstances they may be at present, raise our voices in praise and thanksgiving, knowing that the Lord is good, and His mercy endureth forever!
Let us then in this year of our Lord 1942 give thanks unto the Lord, though it be with fear and trembling. Let us beware lest, when He accomplishes His good pleasure and causes His kingdom to come, we murmur and rebel against Him because we must participate in the sufferings of this present time. If we pray as we should, "Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," let us beware lest we grumble in dissatisfaction, when He glorifies Himself, and reveals His power, and causes His kingdom to come, and executes His holy will, in the way of judgments. The prophet beheld the judgments of the Lord in the calamities of which he speaks. The Lord came from Teman and from Paran to judge. Always He comes from Paran to judge the world, and when He judges, war and famine, earthquake and pestilence - calamities of every kind accompany Him. The hand of the Lord is heavy upon the world today. But we know that all these things must come to pass, and that in the way of these judgments He will finally usher in the everlasting kingdom of righteousness and peace, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Does the present world conflict presage that it is the very eve of His coming? I know not. No one knows. The signs of the times are not given for us to be able to calculate the day and the hour. But one thing is certain, according to His Word He is coming in exactly such ways as those in which He is now leading the whole world. If the Lord is coming from Paran, and if in the present distress and confusion we may see the brightness of the glory of His coming for judgment, shall we as silly children grumble because we cannot have our usual abundance and sweetmeats, and go to the throne of grace to have Him change His ways and give us peace and prosperity again? God forbid! Rather, the Church shall proclaim to the world that the Lord reigneth, and that He determines to do all these things. We shall take the confession of the prophet Habakkuk on our own lips and say, "Though peace and prosperity never return, though all the world go mad, and everything should completely fail, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. I will give thanks in the remembrance of His holiness!"
H. H.
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