FULLNESS OF JOY

Today’s Reading: Psalms 15-17

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

Belvoir Fortress was constructed by the Crusaders 1,000 years ago on a precipice high above the Jordan Valley. This location is only about 20 kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee and looks across into Jordan.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

YES!!! IT’S TRUE!!! Right now we can experience that “fulness of joy!” and the pleasures that are at His “right hand!” Just think of the amazing honour to be able, by God’s grace, to do as Psalm 15 instructs us.

The Apostle Peter is a participant in today’s blog. Here’s a commentary on Psalm 16 by Peter, given in the first recorded message he preached on the birthday of the Church on the streets of Jerusalem. Let’s read together Acts 2:22-32. Jesus is alive!!! Then let’s read again our key verse. If we are not finding in Jesus the “joy” spoken of in our key verse, we should check our pulses…we may be dead!

Psalm 17 has in it the words, “apple of Your eye.” That’s God’s eye to which David refers in his prayer. Just think how careful we are to protect our eyes. David prayed, “Keep me as the apple of Your eye.” Now that’s protection! That’s the best security we could ever have! YES!!! JOY!!!

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I pray with the writer of this prayer, David (a suggestion to everybody – read and pray out loud, if possible, the following verses…Psalm 17:1-8). Then, Lord, I am confessing with full assurance of faith, “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (17:15). Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I accept and believe God’s Truth! The Apostle John wrote three letters to us all. He begins the first letter with, “These things we write to you [you and me] that your joy may be full!” (1st John 1:4). Then in chapter 3 of that letter, verses 1-3 (click here), John declares that, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Oh, the longing that filled my heart as a 16-year-old as I learned and sang the chorus, “O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer…Come in Thy sweetness. Come in Thy fullness, stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.” I weep with joy as I sing this prayer just now. I can hardly see the keys for tears. The English language fails me in expressing what is in my heart. Therefore, I’m praying, as Paul said he did, “I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding!” (1 Corinthians 14:15). That refers to my spirit. According to the Scriptures, I am “spirit, soul and body.” Here’s a link to that song of longing to be like Jesus.

Yours for “Fullness of Joy!”

David

The moat around the Belvoir Fortress (described in the photo caption above). According to the Shepherd king David, we have much greater security than a castle with a moat around it! Amen!!!