Psalm 97:12

Psalm 97:12

Rejoice IN the Lord

We are not told here to rejoice to the Lord or at the Lord but in the Lord. This means that we don’t just praise and worship Him for what He has done for us, but we rejoice because of who He is. In becoming one of His people or part of His body we have come into Him. He is not distant or obscure, He is part of us and we are part of Him. Our joy is founded on His works, His revelations, His inspiration and a thousand and one other things but it is also rooted in who He is. His very existence and the fact that we know Him is cause enough to rejoice. Where would we be without Him? What would be the reason for living without Him? If He did not exist, nor would we and so we rejoice in Him. We are not strangers and aliens but those who have been brought near and who benefit from the comfort and daily strength of His company.

This privilege is only available to the righteous. In the psalm writer’s time, the righteous were those who kept God’s commandments and who obeyed His laws. Today the title of the righteous is given to all who have been washed clean by the blood of God’s Lamb of sacrifice and who have inherited, through Christ Jesus, a place in the family of God. This gives us a million reasons to praise His name and to keep on rejoicing. Whatever happens to us in this world, nothing can take away our place in the Lord, we are in Him forever. Hallelujah!

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