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My Cup Overflows...With Joy

















The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  (Psalm 23) 


Joy
      Joy is yellow: bright, cheery, visible yellow. Maybe that's why I think kitchens should be yellow. Joy is written in curves and curls, sweeping gestures and soft edges. It's expansive and expressive. Joy is larger than life. Perhaps that's why Americans don't wish joy on each other. We say "Happy Birthday" and "Happy New Year" and "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas" instead. Joy seems to have been relegated to the realm of the religious. We sing "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" and "Joy to the World" and "I've Got Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart."
     But joy is sneaky; it shows up uninvited and without warning. Listen to kids giggle as they play with puppies. That's joy. Joy can be quiet, too. Read Psalm 23 (above)  slowly and aloud, feeling the words. There's no jumping up and down, dancing in the aisles, or giggling but there's a feeling of great joy. Even when circumstances aren't the sort that we would associate with well-being, success or good fortune, when the prospects don't look good; even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there is still a sense of well-being, success or good fortune found in these verses.
                What is the source of joy in Psalm 23? The Lord is my Shepherd... You are with me.... You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. In fact, Scripture suggests that negative experiences prepare us for and enlarges our capacity for joy (e.g. John 16:20, Romans 5:3, 4; 2 Cor 7:4; 8:2; Heb 10:34, James 1:2.)
In Gary Smalley's The Five Love Languages he says, ”If I feel loved…I can relax, knowing that my lover will do me no ill. I feel secure in his/her presence. I may face many uncertainties…I may have enemies in other areas of my spouse I feel secure.... My sense of self-worth is fed by the fact that my spouse loves me. After all, if he/she loves me, I must be worth loving. My…spouse knows me as an adult and loves me. Her love builds my self-esteem.... Feeling loved by a spouse enhances our sense of significance. We reason, if someone loves me, I must have significance (emphasis in the original)."  What is he describing, if not a sense of well-being? What else, if not joy?
                Joy, then, is a sense of well-being, success or good fortune based on the knowledge or understanding that we are loved.  It is our response to love. What possible greater source of joy could there be than by the assurance that God loves us?
 
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In the Sky: The Quantrantid Meteor Shower peaks tonight.
On this day in history: Louis Braille, Jacob Grimm and Isaac Newton were born. (The Julian calendar places Isaac Newton's birthday on Christmas, but the Gregorian places it on January 4)
 
There are more marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history ~ Isaac Newton
In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence. ~ Isaac Newton
This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being....This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord God "pantokrator," or Universal Ruler....[1] ~ Isaac Newton
 
Since every particle of space is always, and every indivisible moment of duration is every where, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things cannot be never and no where....God is the same God, always and every where. He is omnipresent not virtually only, but also substantially; for virtue cannot subsist without substance.…It is allowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily; and by the same necessity he exists always and every where....And thus much concerning God; to discourse of whom from the appearance of things, does certainly belong to Natural Philosophy.[2] Isaac Newton
Blind metaphysical necessity, which is certainly the same always and every where, could produce no variety of things. All that diversity of natural things which we find suited to different times and places could arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a Being, necessarily existing[3] ~Isaac Newton
 Yesterday was one of the greatest and most beautiful days of my life. I tasted the greatest joys. God was pleased to hold before my eyes the dazzling splendors of eternal hope. After that, doesn't it seem that nothing more could keep me bound to the earth?  ~Louis Braille




[1] Newton, I. General Scholium. Translated by Motte, A. 1825. Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. New York: Daniel Adee, 501. The Greek word pantokrator is most often translated as "Almighty" in the King James Version


[2] Newton, I. General Scholium. Translated by Motte, A. 1825. Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. New York: Daniel Adee, 505-506.


[3] Newton, I. General Scholium. Translated by Motte, A. 1825. Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. New York: Daniel Adee, 506.
 



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