October 6th, 2013
1 Peter 1:7-8 — … the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Do you know this charming snippet from a somewhat questionable poem by Robert Browning? This portion if the poem is called “Pippa Passes”. I wonder if it describes the way you feel about the world:
The year’s at the spring, And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven; The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world!
As Myra and I drove through our development on the way to church this morning, I definitely wasn’t feeling that way. A power surge seems to have damaged one of the components of our audio system last night, and it felt like just one more aggravation in a series of minor irritations afflicting us recently. But then …
As we drove through the gate out of our development I saw a beautiful tree, a larch, against a glorious blue sky. It struck me then… Joy. Joy is always present, and if a man truly understood what was in store for him in heaven and the character of Him who promises it then he could never lose a sense of joy.
There are so many things I love about this letter of Peter’s. There is no better example in all of Scripture of a man triumphing through trial. Peter was a fisherman. He was practically smart, for sure … but no intellectual. He started off with having lots of bluster, but a being a little short on basics. By the time of this letter, the bluster as gone, and it’s all about basics. In verses 3 thru 12 Peter just about lays out a complete gospel message. In a few verses he delivers the bad news and the good news. “Yes, things are going to be tough … And we should be jumping for joy!” (Peter wasn’t preaching platitudes from a distance — he was in their suffering too.)
Alexander MacLaren points out that faith is the energizer of joy, and where faith is, there should be unspeakable joy:
“It is poor wealth that can be counted; it is shallow emotion that can be crammed into the narrow limits of any human vocabulary. Fathers and mothers, parents and children, husbands and wives, know that. And the depths of the joy that a believing soul has in Jesus Christ are not to be spoken.”
Believing, we rejoice with a joy that is unspeakable, and not just unspeakable, but glorious. Our joy is to ordinary happiness or joy what the pictures of Michelangelo or Rembrandt are to my feeblest attempts at painting. It is the music of the finest orchestra to the sound of traffic in the city. It is a joy beyond comparison and compare!
God IS in is heaven. All IS right with the world!