The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength
Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, the iconic American holiday that leads up to Christmas. It has become a traditional time to remember the founding of one of the first English settlements in the North American continent — Plymouth Colony in 1620 by the Puritans. But the true roots of Thanksgiving lie in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be a national holiday. 1863 was a time of grief, despair, and deep darkness as the true horror of the American Civil War began to dawn on the Union and the Confederacy. There were 22,000 casualties at the battle of Antietiam in September 1862, making it the bloodiest single day in American history. In July 1863 the battle of Gettysburg was fought on Pennsylvanian soil. 35,000 men were killed or wounded, another 10,000 taken prisoner. Between these two epic battles many more men were killed by combat or by disease in both the North and South. In this time of grief and horror (for the first time photography was bringing the grim reality of the battlefield into the parlors of the men, women, and children on the ‘home front’), Lincoln decided to call the Nation to a time of repentance and worship, and petition God for peace and harmony.
Lincoln, urged on by Sara Josepha Hale, issued a proclamation on September 28, 1863 designating the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving. In part, his proclamation read:
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States . . . to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife . . . and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union”.
Today Americans all over this country take time to offer thanks. Some offer thanks to God with grateful hearts, other express their thankfulness and gratitude to one another. While the world is still a place of grief and horror, there is much that is good all around us. For these things, some of which we have to look for carefully, we give thanks.
But for Christians, while every day should be a time of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father, Thanksgiving Day is a special opportunity to thank God for His grace, mercy, goodness, and love shown to us in His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross for me and for you. I am thankful for the Gospel, the Good News, that the Kingdom of God is here, not perfectly but not in some far-off, distant future either. And because of Christ I have the right and privilege to enter into and live with the Creator of the Universe in His Kingdom now as an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ (Romans 8: 17 — the implications of this truth are far-reaching and amazing) when I believe and repent. Hallelujah!
Luke, the author of The Book of Acts, tells us that near the end of his life while under house arrest in Rome Paul “From morning till evening . . . explained and declared to them the Kingdom of God” (Acts 28: 23) and “Boldly and without hindrance he preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28: 31). As we know Paul only preached the Gospel, the truth for which he was most grateful and thankful.
As I was praying early on Thanksgiving morning, I had a sense of depression hovering around the edges of my consciousness. I wouldn’t say I was depressed, only that my joy was being dragged down, like I was walking in a fog, not being able to clearly see and appreciate all that God has done for me and my family over the last year. And then I had an epiphany, almost like an emotional breakthrough. I didn’t have to be joyful in my own power. I didn’t have to rebuke the powers of darkness in the name of Jesus. All I had to do was receive Jesus’ joy. His joy, which is perfect, can be my joy. His peace, which He tells me in John 14: 27 He has given me (“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you”), can be my peace. It sounds simple, even childish (which I guess, is kind of the point) but in that moment I felt the fog lift and His joy and peace push back the veil of depression. And then the Scripture “the joy of the Lord is your strength” came into my mind.
I have to admit I didn’t know where those words were in the Bible. I just knew they were there. Maybe Paul spoke them in one of his letters. Nope. They are in Nehemiah 8:10. As I read Nehemiah 8 I realized that these words apply perfectly to my view of the Thanksgiving Day I was about to celebrate with my family.
Here is some context. Nehemiah led the remnant of Judah from Babylonian exile back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. In fact, he was leading them out of slavery and back to the Promised Land, the land that God had given to their ancestors, the Old Testament equivalent of the Kingdom of God for us. At some point on this journey Nehemiah must have stood on the east wall of the Jordan valley looking west toward the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem. The long journey was almost over, the Promised Land was within sight and the great job of rebuilding the walls was about to begin. Not only were the walls about to be rebuilt, but their relationship with God in the Promised Land was about to be restored.
After the walls were rebuilt, Ezra and the other Priests and Levites gathered all the people together at the Water Gate on the east side of the wall. There, Ezra read aloud the Book of the Law of Moses (probably the entire Pentateuch, but no one knows for sure) and all the people listened attentively. In Nehemiah 8 we read that all the people could see Ezra because he was standing above them. As he opened the book the people all stood up. He read for about 6 hours. As Ezra praised the Lord the people lifted their hands and shouted Amen! Amen!, fell to the ground and worshiped the Lord, and wept. It must have been powerful, when every heart was united with love for the Lord during this time of worship, thanksgiving, and gratitude.
And then we read something strange in this account. During this assembly “the Levites . . . instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read” (Nehemiah 8: 7 ,8).
To me this scene conveys the ideas that the people were weeping from both a sense of gratitude at what the Lord has done for them and shame at how they had turned their back on the Lord and His Word. But also that the Book of the Law was unfamiliar to them. As the Book of the Law was explained to them, they began to see that the Lord was their God and they were His people, His treasured possessions. They began to see the depth of His love and compassion for them. As the words were explained, the lights went on and the darkness was pushed back. They began to return to the Lord and love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. Almost like the Prodigal Son when he had returned home and stood repentantly before his father.
Nehemiah told them “this day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law”. The walls had been rebuilt and now the relationship between God and His people had been restored.
Then “Nehemiah said, go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve . . . Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been spoken to them” (Nehemiah 8: 10 -12). They ate and drank on this special day, just like we do on Thanksgiving Day. If they had been able, would they have gathered around the TV, watched football, and fallen asleep, another American Thanksgiving ritual? I doubt it. This day was holy to them. On this day they understood “the joy of the Lord is my strength”.
To me, these words are a beautiful picture of Thanksgiving. Each day I understand more deeply the words that have been spoken to me and about me in Scripture. These words are about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. I am not alone, I am not a cog in the vast universe whose only point is to perform my function and them die. I am loved, I am the beloved. And nothing can take that away. All the the Father gave to the Son is now my inheritance also. As these words spoken to me in Scripture sink deeper into my heart each day, I am profoundly thankful. Although every day should be a day to celebrate this truth, Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity to come together with my family and friends, just as the Jews did during the time of wall building, and understand one more time the Good News that most of us Christians in America miss in all the hustle and bustle that can fill this day. And in the midst of our thankfulness, as Abraham Lincoln wrote over 152 years ago, we need to repent of our perverseness and disobedience and pray for others less fortunate than us. And as the Jews did in the gathering where the Law was read, we need to think how we can carry the Word of God “to them who have nothing prepared”.
It is in the words and meaning of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God, that we can find our ultimate joy and peace — the abundant life that Jesus died for us to live, now. His joy, available to me as I live with Him in His Kingdom, is my strength — or maybe I can say it this way “His Strength is my strength”. To Him belongs the glory for ever and ever, Amen!
Happy Thanksgiving