The Grace of Christ
“God my exceeding joy”
Psalm 43:4
Bombarded by a constant barrage of erotic media and celebrations of the wicked, our world is being swept away by a tsunami of sin. We now have a government that actively legislates unrighteousness and criminalizes righteousness. Many Christians are confused, hurting, lonely, and afraid; and many struggle to find answers in their churches. But all too often their shepherds are like those whom God cursed in ancient Israel, “they have healed the brokenness of My people superficially” (Jer. 6:14); “they are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the LORD” (23:16).
In times like these we all need a soul-exhilarating vision of the Most High, for indeed, our help and hope comes only from Him: “How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God” (Ps. 146). In Psalm 93 the psalmist lamented over the chaos of the unbelieving world and its opposition to God saying, “The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their pounding waves” (v. 3). But no matter how ferocious the winds and how high the waves of the wicked; they are but foam, noise, and bluster. They terrorize for a moment, but then disappear; yet our God reigns forever! With this in mind the psalmist went on to say: “More than the sounds of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea, The LORD on high is mighty” (v. 4).
We can rejoice knowing our God is actively sovereign, not passively glorious. And we see Him most vividly in the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a joy to know that He is the author and finisher of our faith. In Him we have spiritual life. In Him we gain that soul-exhilarating yet soul-terrifying vision of the Most High who has reconciled us unto Himself through the gift of regenerating grace. We have no faith apart from both an understanding of and a love for Him. There is no greater subject in the world than Christ.
However, we do not study and proclaim Him merely for the sake of theological accuracy and acumen, but rather to know Him more intimately as the Lover of our Soul. This is what strengthens our faith and encourages our heart, like Paul who longed to “know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10).
Maurice Roberts put it this way: “Once a believer has tasted this love of God in his soul he can never rest content till he has it again and again. The biblical enjoyment of the grace of Christ is not to be looked on as abnormal or extraordinary but as part of his earthly inheritance . . . enjoyment of God . . . is to be expected and to be looked for. There are gracious communications made to us in this life. The Spirit is the agent who generates a felt joy and exhilaration in the consciousness of the child of God.”
May the Spirit of God produce within you a profound awareness of inner joy and increasing faith, so much so that you will be able to say with the psalmist: “God my exceeding joy” (Ps. 43:4).
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