They that fear thee will be glad when they see me;
Because I have hoped in thy word (Psa 119.74).
As a human being, you were made for gladness. It does not matter if you are not “the emotional type,” or if your soul is now so numbed by sin and suffering that you wonder whether you could ever feel anything again.
You were made in God’s image and he is an emotive Being. Yes, as God he is above merely human passions,1 but our feelings at their best have a divine counterpart in his glorious nature. He truly rejoices in his beloved people. “The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Psa 147.11). “They that are of a froward [crooked, perverse] heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight” (Prov 11.20). When the Lord completely finishes redeeming his elect, he will even sing over them with joy (Zeph 3.17)! Calvin’s comments on this text are valuable. He guards our sense of God’s transcendence while at the same time forcefully proclaiming the truth that God is toward his people like a husband burning with love toward his wife and celebrating their love.
The restoration of God’s image in us, sinful people, includes the gift of intense and lofty joy for good and holy reasons, such as the psalmist anticipates in this verse will be experienced by his godly companions. God is determined to make his elect happy, like himself, in this way, and he cannot be frustrated in his designs.
Listen, my dear friend, don’t give up hope for being truly and deliriously happy some day. If you have true faith in Christ, this is your destiny.
The theme of this text is Christian fellowship, and we would draw forth three things about it.
ITS QUALIFICATION
Not everyone does or even can experience the joy of Christian fellowship, at least not as they are at the moment. There is a qualification, an absolutely necessary trait one must possess which grants access to the blissful experience.
“They that fear thee” (i.e., God, the LORD) are the ones the psalmist anticipates will be so blessed. That is a line of demarcation which excludes perhaps the vast majority of human beings. The God “The Lord our God is . . . a most pure spirit, without body, parts, or passions” in view is the only true and living God, the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who gave us Scripture and became incarnate in our Lord Jesus Christ. All other gods are mere idols (Psa 96.5).
The holy group qualified for these blessings are only those who “fear” this particular God—not with a servile (slavish) fear but a filial (“son-ish”) fear, as a loyal son holds his father in great awe and esteem.
When used of the spiritual virtue, this word connotes worship and reverence.2 This designation then, “they that fear thee,” is a general label for those whose worship God accepts, whom he regards as truly righteous in his sight. Today we call them Christians, but we must distinguish between nominal Christians (in name only) and real Christians, those who “worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil 3.3).
That is why I have identified this text’s theme as Christian fellowship. It is intuitively obvious to us that one would have to be a real Christian in order to enjoy fellowship with real Christians. “It takes one to know one,” as they say.
This explains why many professing Christians confess, in deeds if not in words, so little pleasure in being a real and vital part of a biblical church. Even on the Lord’s Day they come grudgingly and will hardly stay for the duration of our gatherings, despite our earnest pleadings that this is their solemn duty. They find more pleasure away from church because they are hypocrites, still unchanged on the inside. Their façade religion is like the cheap plastic brick facing in the kitchen of a mobile home.
It looks like brick, but it is only a thin veneer which gives a false if pleasing appearance. The only hope for people like this is that the Spirit will regenerate them before it is too late. Let each examine himself, whether he is in the faith (2 Cor 13.5).
You must be one who fears the Lord to experience the joy of Christian fellowship.
ITS EXHILARATION
The psalmist testifies by faith, “they that fear thee will be glad.” The Hebrew word so translated appears 155 times in the Old Testament and is variously rendered “to rejoice, be made joyful,” etc. It means to be elated, that is, to have a feeling or attitude of joy and happiness, with a possible focus of making an outward expression of that joy.”3 In one form it can even mean to “drink alcohol as a mood elevator, but apparently prior to the full stage of staggering drunkenness,” as in Eccl 10.19, “wine maketh merry.”
Grumpy and grim Christians have given the wrong impression that we must resign to perpetual and undiluted depression if we would be godly. Scripture teaches otherwise. There is a “foretaste of glory divine” for us here and now. This spiritual happiness coexists with a broken and contrite heart, and neither completely swallows up the other in this life. The psalmist praises God in these words, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased” (Psa 4.7). In other words, his spiritual joys exceeded mere earthly joys. Think how happy you would be if you won a huge lottery or received widespread and enthusiastic acclaim or were about to marry the woman of your dreams. The saints in all ages witness that these pleasures are inferior to sacred ones. Really believing that with all your heart will be useful for motivating you to seek them earnestly.
So many professing Christians needlessly resign themselves to a ho-hum life through ignorance or disbelief of these precious truths. Christian fellowship can be positively exhilarating.
What did the psalmist say would be the occasion of their joy? “They that fear thee will be glad when they see me.” This godly man’s presence would trigger their holy happiness, and though it is unstated, they would trigger his as well, and for the same reason.
When a bonfire burns low and the scattered coals become ashen gray, there lies a hidden potential within them. Separated from each other, they will soon die out completely, but heap them together and their thermal life becomes more apparent. A flame blazes once again! As one writer expressed it, albeit in a bad metaphor,
There is keen spiritual refreshment in meeting a Christian who is on fire for the Lord Jesus. Those who hope in God’s Word become radioactive with the Holy Spirit.4
This is illustrated in Paul’s life experience, for example, when he says, “They glorified God in me” (Gal 1.24). Commenting on this Matthew Henry wrote, “thanksgivings were rendered by many unto God on that behalf; the very report of this mighty change in him, as it filled them with joy, so it excited them to give glory to God on the account of it” (in loc.).
At first it may sound arrogant to say that others “will be glad when they see me,” but not when we realize the spiritual reason for this joy—“because I have hoped in thy word.” They did not love and rejoice in him for his own sake, but as God’s grace was seen in him. The evidence of this grace was the psalmist’s persevering hope that all would be well at last, a solid hope based squarely on God’s promises of faithfulness to his people resulting in their ultimate deliverance from all their enemies and unto the full consummation of their redemption.
Every time Christians see one another continuing as believers, we will experience joy if we are spiritually-minded enough. None of us are particularly lovable in our unredeemed selves, but to the degree we are being transformed into Christ’s joyful image, we become an ever greater blessing to our brethren, who love us for his sake, because they love him who is progressively showing his own loveliness in our Christian faith and hope and love.
John has been called “the apostle of love” because his writings so emphasize this theme. He wrote, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him” (1 John 5.1). Born again Christians resemble to some degree the beloved Father, so all who love him also love his children, that is, fellow Christians.
Have you ever considered what great service you may render to the body of Christ by simply being a true believer in Christ, and by growing in faith and persevering in hope? Christ saves each one of you not merely for your own individual and personal benefit, but also to make you the means of greater joy to his other loved ones. When you trust God, obey his Word, maintain confidence in his promises, and press on in righteousness despite all hindrances and discouragements, then other believers will see you and rejoice on account of God’s gracious work in you. Your attendance at church and willingness to take a public stand with us for the gospel and the church and the glory of God is, in itself, a stimulant to our joy. “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord” (1 Thess 3.8).
Please, brethren, let each one of us do his part to promote the joy of Christian fellowship in this church. Amen.
Notes:
1. “The Lord our God is . . . a most pure spirit, without body, parts, or passions” (1689 LBCF II.1).
2. DBLSD #3710.
3. DBLSD #8523.
4. Believer’s Bible Commentary, in loc. Radioactivity is deadly, so I judge this a bad metaphor.
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