Joy In Misery

“Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.” (Ps 70:4 AV)

To me, David’s attitude and faith are something to behold.  It didn’t matter what he was facing, he was able to process his emotions and soldier on.  Oftentimes with a heart of rejoicing even though the odds were stacked against him.  Psalm 70 is no different.  When he utters the words above, he does so in circumstances that were not the best.  We don’t know exactly what the situation was, but he is asking for relief.  Yet, while crying out in this psalm and asking for relief from those who troubled him, he was able to write about joy, gladness, and his efforts to praise God for who and what He is.  This is what really speaks to me when I read of David’s life.  Especially when he failed, I would assume he would lose some, if not all, of that joy.  There were times of great failure in his life.  He failed in judgment.  He morally failed.  And, he failed in the pride of his own heart.  These failures caused quite a bit of damage to other innocent victims.  I would have curled up and died.  But not David.  He confessed.  He sought God’s mercy.  And he soldiered on.  In the above situation, it was trouble caused by some adversary.  Yet again, he soldiers on.  Not merely existing and plodding along.  Rather, with joy and gladness, glorifying the LORD as he does.

I know I have relayed this experience before, but it has stuck with me for more than forty-five years.  Boy Scouts was a big part of growing up.  Lest you get the wrong idea, even though I speak fondly of it, the Boy Scouts I knew was two generations ago.  I could not support them in any way today.  Even though they have lost their way, that didn’t mean that my adolescent years had no value from Scouting.  Anyway, my father did a masterful job of challenging us to train and learn life skills through our outings in scouting.  On one particular weekend, he borrowed the council's canoes as we traveled down the Erie Barge canal.  We were supposed to paddle several miles and then portage the canoes to the trailer Dad had waiting.  It was a rainy and messy day.  Not a nice day to be out in the open.  You can stay only so dry.  If I remember, it wasn’t all that warm, either.  It was just cold enough that we could wear shorts, but we wore jackets as well.  By the time we were out of the canal and carrying our canoes the last few miles, we were half drenched.  As we hiked, puddles were unavoidable.  It soon became apparent we were not going to stay dry.  So, in adolescent fashion, we figured if we were going to get wet, we might as well have fun doing it.  We would stomp in the puddles and yell out, “Cowabunga”.  I think that came from a Saturday morning cartoon.  If we had to do something uncomfortable, we might as well have fun doing it.

David’s life was filled with adversity.  He had many hard times. Some caused by his own faults.  Many were caused by others who reacted to his leadership.  Just because he had to suffer did not mean he had to do so with a downcast spirit.  Yes, there were some hard times wherein there was no other choice.  When Abner died he had a rough time of it.  When Absalom was killed in battle, David was the lowest he could go.  When God refused to save the newborn brought into the world by David’s adulterous affair, David mourned quite dramatically.  These were hard times.  No doubt he had a hard time rejoicing.  Yet, this was not his normal spirit.  When faced with adversity, he could not afford to allow his spirit to be downcast.  He was a leader and example to others. He had to exude hope.  He had to testify to God’s faithfulness.  Others depended on him.  The same is true for us.  There are always others who look at us regardless of our status as an example of how to respond to adversity.  They watch how we react.  They are looking for hope.  We need to leave it with God and walk in joy and gladness, glorifying the LORD as we go.