Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation… I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God. This does not certainly seem like the ease with the anchorite and the ascetic and the hermit. A religion that fails in the direction of felicity would seem to lose claim, at all events, to be considered a true ideal of the gospel. Mediaevalism rejoiced in pictures of the saints, who could not fairly be said to have an aureole, of gladness about their heads. I. THERE ARE GREAT REASONS FOR REJOICING. 1. God has forgiven and forgotten our sin. He has blotted it out of his book of remembrance. "He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation." 2. God has made us one with himself. The highest pleasures are those of fellowship with mind. To know the author is more than to read the book; to know the heart of a beautiful nature is to discover a greater world than Columbus did. What, then, is it to walk as Enoch did with God, and to know him whom to know is life eternal! Here we have introduced the relation of bride and bridegroom - so condescending is the love of Christ. II. THERE ARE GREAT DEPTHS OF REJOICING. "My soul." Joy may be superficial. It is idle to deny the fact that there are pleasures which have their root in the passions, or in the imagination, or in the accumulative faculty. But all these joys have their reactions, their limitations, their exhaustions. But spiritual joy is connected with the soul, and as such it is (1) ever capable of increase; (2) never liable to exhaustion; (3) and immortal in its sphere of development. At God's right hand there are pleasures for evermore. - W.M.S. Parallel Verses KJV: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. |
    |