“Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and provide me with a spirit of willing obedience.” (Ps 51:14, GW)
In the previous teaching the remark was made that God inhabits joy. This can very easily be an arbitrary, candied remark. What does it actually mean? Well, 1 Chron 16:27 states it as follows: “Honour and majesty are before Him; strength and gladness are in His place.” In later teachings Zion, the mountain of the Lord, will take a prominent place. But it is of cardinal importance at this stage to know that Ps 48:3 calls Zion “the joy of the whole earth”! Spiritually, Zion is the meeting place of the redeemed in the third dimension; it is the place where the believer is given the oil of gladness in place of mourning; a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Is 61:3).
In Ps 105:43 it is said: “He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.” Out of where? The land of slavery, indeed. But in the Hebrew it is better translated as “brought forth”, thus: “He brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness.” This word is used no less than 1489 times in various applications in the Old Testament alone, and they all relate to something that actively comes into being, even something that is birthed. Literally: you move from one point to another, but in the movement you are changed! That is why David says in Ps 30:11: “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.” Here, where you make a conscious decision to eat the showbread of joy in the Holy Place, you are changed in your passage to the third dimension, Zion, the Holy of Holies. “With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; they shall enter the King’s palace” (Ps 45:15) – the priest’s bell’s are jingling!
Isa 55:12 says it as follows: “For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Come you trees of righteousness, you plantings of the Lord (Is 61:3), “good and faithful servant[s]” who are willing and obedient, enter into the joy of your Lord! (Matt 25:21).
- Sela: The spirit of passivity prevents you from entering the kingdom (Matt 11:12), and thus Satan often discourages you with circumstances that rob you of your joy. Pray for a spirit of “willing obedience” (Ps 51:14).
- Read: Ex 35; Ps 85; Mark 11
- Memorise: Mark 11:26
