James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Deuteronomy 26:11
‘ALWAYS REJOICING’
‘And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee.’
It is our duty to give unstinted welcome to every visit of enjoyment with which we may be favoured. We frequently allow streams of refreshment or exhilaration to run past us without dipping into or tasting them; we blunderingly overlook many a cup of soothing and pleasing that is offered to us as we go trudging by. We are slow to discover and seize our golden chances, and hardly know how to make the most of them. At times we are afraid, it would seem, pausing now and then to squeeze a drop or two of severe or melancholy reflection into the goblet, as if there might be sin in having it too rich and sweet. The angel descending to solace us in our Gethsemane with a brief pleasant thrill, with a brief glimpse and gust of pleasure, flashes by under the sombre, wailing olives in vain, is allowed to vanish unharboured and unutilised.
I. Never turn, in your bitterness of spirit, from any ministry of temporal enjoyment that may intervene; never be so wedded to your woes, so shut up and sunk down in them, that you cannot issue forth to accept such ministry. For, remember, we want to be made joyful for our education quite as much as we need to be tried and troubled. To laugh, to luxuriate, to ripple and glow with delight at times is just as essential for us, as it is at times to weep and suffer.
II. At times some of us may have had the feeling that there is so much misery in the world that it is hardly right to ignore and forget it for a moment in rejoicing.—But let us reflect that, since God is our Father and we His children, we are justified in losing sight of trouble for a time when He gives us a joy to taste. Being only a child, however I must feel about His world, and share in His travail concerning it, I need not be afraid at intervals to cast the entire load upon Him and let Him carry it alone. Souls must turn aside at times to bask in what sunshine they can find, and be mellowed and warmed and rosied with it, in order to be of service in the darkness, and to help to soften and relieve.
Illustration
(1) ‘Many Christians take their joys too sadly, as if afraid of being too joyful. “Thou shalt rejoice in all the good which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee.” ’
(2) ‘Some, more spiritual than the Bible, have no sure and well-recognised place in their creed for a healthy delight in the pleasant things of life; from which error come unnaturalness, gloom, and, perhaps, hypocrisy. How refreshing the large freedom of the Bible which, putting joy in God first, commands us to serve Him with gladness, and to rejoice in every good thing He sends. He “giveth us all things richly to enjoy,” We are not at liberty to be miserable.’
(3) ‘Of course, happiness must not be an end in itself. It is also wrong to lose our sense of God in His gifts, or of His presence amid the rapture of our surroundings. We must ever recognise that every good and perfect gift is from the Father of lights, and we must turn perpetually from the gift to the Giver. But when we can rejoice in every good thing which He gives us, let us rejoice; and if only our hearts were more at rest in Him we should discover plenty of good things to rejoice in, brooks creeping past us hidden by the grass, patches of colour, however sombre and cloudy the prevailing line of our lives may be.’
(4) ‘It makes the greatest difference to the outlook and temper of the soul when we begin to realise the practical meaning of this solemn league and covenant between ourselves and our God. It is our privilege to live in the sense of this Divine relationship, to rejoice in its sweetness, and to rely on its strength—“to know that in the bonds of God’s everlasting covenant, He is in us, and we are in Him, brought near by His Son, kept near by His Spirit—bound together by a threefold cord which shall not be quickly broken.” ’