Tuesday, January 25

Psalm 16:1-11

Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods,

I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.

So, if God is a joyful being, which he is; and if the Bible is a joy-filled book, which it is; and if we are created to live in joy – why don’t we experience it more often? What defeats and destroys the joy that God wants us to know?

A few years ago I saw a little story about a corporate outing to the Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Illinois. Perhaps you have spent a day at Great America – or a similar amusement park. They are pretty much all the same – crowds of people; giant roller coasters; cotton candy and all kinds of attractions designed to create fun and excitement while simultaneously separating you from your money! My own personal theory to explain the existence of amusement parks goes like this: Our culture is so starved for genuine joy that we have created giant “artificial joy machines” (amusement parks) to give us a kind of simulated joy that lasts just as long as we are on the ride or in the park! That may be a little cynical – but I think there is at least a kernel of truth in the thought.

Back to the corporate outing: This group of adults went to Great America to have fun – and to experience the “simulated joy” offered by the roller coasters, etc., but wound up getting just the opposite when the roller coaster they were on malfunctioned and left them dangling upside-down 100 feet off the ground for two hours. In other words – they went looking for joy – but found the opposite!

So what turns our joy upside down?

The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.

Here David is talking about the gods of the pagan people that surrounded Israel. These “gods” demanded all kinds of detestable practices including the sacrifice of human blood – and they did not bring joy – but rather fear and terror. We may think there are no such pagan gods around us today – and we would be wrong!

If worship is to offer extravagant devotion to someone or something – then there is no shortage of candidates for the place of God in our lives! As human beings we are capable of offering our extravagant devotion to everything from money to our favorite sports team to a new car – and, if we do, the Bible says, our sorrows will increase.

This is another way of saying that we defeat our own joy when we misplace our affections. For when we misplace our affections it is inevitable that we will eventually misplace our worship, misplace our priorities and misplace our behavior.

So, is there any way in which you may have limited your own joy by offering your devotion to a “lesser god?”

Ask God to both restore and deepen your joy as you offer him your extravagant devotion!

Brian Coffey