| April 2, 2022 -- I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say Rejoice! Philippians 4:4
When we read the above quotes, perhaps we may say to ourselves “What with all the things going wrong in the world right now, how can I possibly rejoice?” But watch what both Paul and Isaiah are saying. They are NOT telling us to rejoice in the present state of the world around us: war in Ukraine, COVID, climate change, and political turmoil; they are telling us to rejoice “in the Lord”. When Paul wrote to the church at Philippi he was writing from prison, with almost certain death awaiting him. And yet he was able to rejoice, rejoice in the Lord.
And the reading from Isaiah is from that part of the book sometimes called Third Isaiah, not the words of Isaiah himself, but of an unknown prophet some 150 years later, written when Israel was returning from captivity in Babylon, and when the earliest returnees were finding out that not all was as expected. Many of their hopes were being frustrated by the resistance of the people who had moved into the land during their exile and by the fact that help that was promised from Babylon was not forthcoming. And yet we read: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.”
What both Paul and the prophet speaking in the Book of Isaiah are both saying is that we should rejoice at all times, no matter how we are feeling, or what is the state of the world around us. We should at all times give thanks to the Lord for his love and provision. No matter the uncertainty of the present times we can do more because the Lord is with us. They both know that in the long run the Lord will be our salvation, and we should rejoice because of that fact. Although you cannot see God, remember that the Spirit of the Lord is with you always, as close as anyone can be to you. So Rejoice in the Lord always!
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