Joy 247
Joy 247. How did you read that? Was it “Joy, two hundred forty-seven”? Maybe trying to decipher a cryptic allusion like “Ode to Joy– Opus 247 in the key of F# Minor”? Maybe it was something like “Joy, twenty-four/seven: all joy all the time”? It is actually the number of times the word “joy” is used in the EHV of the Bible. Just for comparison: KJV=187; NIV=242; CEV=63; GNT=268; MSG=123; AMP=300. [Unsure about the alphabet soup of Bible translations? Explore The Bible Gateway.
This past Sunday, the sermon was based on Ezra 3. [Visit here for the entire October 10, 2021 service.] The following verses got to me:
All the people shouted loud praise to the Lord when the foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. However, when many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of families, who had seen the first house, saw this house being founded, they wept loudly, although many also raised their voices in a shout of joy. The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful cry from the sound of the people weeping, because the people were shouting loudly, and the sound could be heard far away.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra%203&version=EHV>
That passage echoed some of my personal reading/devotion/meditation from the pass week:
Beside the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat, and, yes, we wept as we remembered Zion.
There we hung up our lyres on the willows,
because there our captors asked us for words of a song,
and our tormentors asked for a happy song:
“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing a song of the Lord on foreign soil?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget how to play music.
May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20137&version=EHV>
Praise the Lord.
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing his praise in the congregation of his favored ones.
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker.
Let the people of Zion celebrate for their King.
Let them praise his name with dancing.
With hand drum and lyre let them make music to him.
For the Lord is pleased with his people.
He adorns the humble with salvation.
Let those he favors rejoice in honor.
Let them shout for joy on their beds.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20149&version=EHV>
This fallen world wants to take us captive and torment us! We look to the past as glory days. We lament. Can you distinguish the sound of the joyful cry from the sound of the weeping?
Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the one who brings it to its goal. In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2012&version=EHV>
I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015&version=EHV>
Now Joy 240!
Trust the Promises
Steve Skiver