Psalm Book PDF

Psalm Four Find out where joy resides, And give it a voice Far beyond singing. For to miss the joy Is to miss all.

Have you ever been walking in a field or the woods in early spring and seen daffodils blossoming seemingly out of nowhere? These bright and persistent flowers come up year after year all over the east coast – and are especially beautiful here in the mountains if you see them surrounded by a late snow. These beautiful flowers frequently mark the gardens of long-forgotten houses, homesteads, and farms. If the house and the people are gone, though, why do the flowers keep coming back? Sometimes they are literally all that is left of lives brought from across the ocean and transplanted here in the mountains. Flowers like these can often help to remind us of our own lives – growing and blooming, then withering in our old age and going back to the ground. They cycle like generations of people, reminding us how very temporary our lives are – though the truth and the memory of our lives are things that do and will last. This truth is the promise of God – planted so very long ago and tended carefully. The truth of God’s creation and its renewal through the actions of Jesus are reflected in the world around us every day. Jesus was sent as a tiny baby, grew, and lived a life reflecting the goodness and glory of God, but in the end He died and was buried in the earth. Yet, His resurrection was so magnificent! And think that we can see this reflected every year in a seemingly dead flower shooting out of the ground through the cold and dreary winter! Like the winter, a time of cold and quiet – remember that hope for joy comes from a belief in the promises of God. He does not promise joy quickly or easily; indeed, the promise is of hardship and trials. But the promise of Christ’s return is one that is well worth the waiting– a wait that will see our faith (the substance of hope) made sight. Literally, our hoped-for joy will become a tangible thing. A joy we can see, touch, feel, smell and taste. And this joy will be a permanent one, not the temporary and fleeting joy that we chase from day to day. Rather, a joy that envelopes our very being in the form of our Savior returned.

- Robert Louis Stevenson