The Root of Enduring Joy
Scripture Reading: Psalm 90:14-15
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
The language Moses uses here is disorienting. We can quickly make sense of verse fourteen. We understand how we could be satisfied and rejoice in God’s love. What makes less sense to our natural mind is verse fifteen. How are we supposed to be glad when we experience affliction and look upon evil?
By evil here, Moses means trials, difficulties, and the problems of life. He had experienced a lot of trouble throughout his life. Forty years as a nomadic shepherd, an exile from his people, and then another forty leading those recalcitrant rebels around the wilderness when they could have been enjoying the land flowing with milk and honey.
Yet, he prays for and expects that it would be right if he lived joyfully satisfied.
The whole of Psalm 90 is somber in tone. It is about the brevity of life and the troubles it brings us, often troubles that are self-inflicted wounds due to our iniquities and sins.
Nevertheless, Moses sets before us this vision of life that despite whatever trials we may endure, can be joyful. We can be glad even when we are afflicted.
The key is to find that gladness in God’s mercy, grace, and love. If we seek it anywhere else, it will be fleeting and futile. It won’t last and it won’t meet the deepest need of our hearts. But if we find it in Christ and the gospel of grace, we can be glad for as many days as we have here on this earth
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