As some of you may know, Holy is the Lord is my all time favorite praise song. It starts with “We stand and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.” The joy of the Lord is our strength. It’s actually from Nehemiah 8:10, but what does that really mean? How does joy convert into something that gives us strength?
And so I googled the title of this post to find Bible verses that had to do with joy. And the reason I picked joy was because as lead worshipers, we need the joy of the Lord. I was inspired to write about this because of a Jesus Culture song, Alive in You. I think it’s a song that is really full of joy. Even without watching the video, you can tell in the way that everyone is playing their music, the way they are singing, they have the joy of the Lord. *A side note, I think we are definitely capable of playing like this and is how I imagine our acoustic sessions could/should be.
Ok, so without scripture, this is all just conjecture. So, the verses I found most appealing to me was 1 Peter 1:3-9. It reads:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, if for a little while, you have had to suffer various trials, 7 in order that the genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tried by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom, having not seen, you love; and in whom, though you do not see Him now, you believe and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 9 receiving as the result of your faith the salvation of your souls.”
This is the Modern English translation and hopefully it is a little easier to understand. There’s a lot of stuff in these six verses and I really enjoyed them because there’s just so much truth in them. Verse 6 talks about suffering through various trials, and we all suffer. Some more than others, but somehow God is supposed to give us strength, right? Hopefully as Christians, we all know that He physically suffered and died for us, which I think is horrible, but not the worst thing that could happen to Him. GASP! So let me explain. Yes, death is one of the worst things in our lives, and surely back then, death was the worst. But I think in the world we live in, death has kind of lost its place in worse case scenarios. I’m sure we can all think of things that we would rather die than do. But for a god, there’s nothing worse right? A god should be eternal. In fact, a lot of folklore in Asia says gods tend to disappear or turn into demons when they are no longer worshipped. As the gods receive less and less worship, they have to feed on something else like pain, suffering, etc. and turn into demons. I also think sometimes we forget that Jesus actually died and he was dead... for like three days. It wasn’t like he was just immune to death and just had to wait it out like Wolverine. I think this article says it best:
“Jesus' death was a literal event, not some temporary state of unconsciousness. Hence, in His resurrection, Christ did indeed conquer death—both in its spiritual and physical forms.”
I think when Jesus rose again from the dead God was overjoyed. His precious son had conquered death, HE had conquered death and we worship Him because He has conquered death, given us everlasting life by giving our souls salvation. The joy of the Lord is our strength. You know what gives God joy? Simply - us. He loves seeing His children worshipping Him. This in turn gives us strength and we use that strength to lead others into worship, this in turn pleases God, which gives them strength. And when the congregation is strengthened, the pastors and leaders are built up and full of joy and so in turn we sing His praise and it happens all over again. Beautiful right? :)
If you have found this helpful, please consider donating your time to the Grant wants to hang out and write songs with the praise team organization.
