Here is an acid test. You may read these thoughts and go out to your day with a new encouragement. How do these words affect your day and your testimony for the Lord Jesus? Unfortunately, western society has become so sombre, and Christians with it, that not many people will ever know you have been feasting on the Living Bread this morning. I would like to say something very practical. Apply the acid test.

David’s heart is filled with joy when he thinks of and enjoys the LORD’s tender shielding. In fact, it is so filled with joy that he actually shouts for joy! I don’t know when last you were so overwhelmed by the wonders of your Saviour and His saturating care for you that you were moved to shout for joy. It has become unstylish to show one’s emotions in such a way. If you had to shout for joy because your heart is filled with a sense of love and appreciation for the LORD, you may be labelled as a radical or as unstable. Imagine a conservative Christian, in his suit suddenly just shouted with joy, with his face beaming! It would either raise concerns in the minds of the Christians around him or it would change the face of their fellowship.

I’m not advocating a pursuit of bizarre practices like those we see among radicals, I am merely speaking about the fact that if you truly see the beauty of the LORD in the way David did, shouts of joy should come naturally to you and me.

In a similar text, we find the same wonderful atmosphere. Psalm 118:15 says that, “Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: ‘The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things! The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!’” Notice that this Psalm is a messianic psalm. In our day, we see the true, deep realities of which this psalm is speaking. How much more should we be shouting with joy and victory because the LORD’s right hand really has done mighty things? Simply because you can’t see God with your physical eyes, doesn’t make His effusive presence less real.

Does not the delicate grandeur of God’s tender, motherly care and explosive power to accomplish His good purposes for you and His entire creation just make you want to shout for joy? Doesn’t the beauty of God Incarnate, passionately giving Himself over to the agonies of the cross in your place make you want to bellow a resounding note of unparalleled victory? What is it that is tied around your face, a gag? What is it that stops you and I in this moment, like an elephant sitting on your chest, from shouting with abandon, the joy in our God that fills our hearts?