You Have Put Gladness In My Heart

You have put gladness in my heart,
         More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
         For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Ps 4:7, 8

I recently read a quote from actor Lee Marvin in the later years of his life. “They put your name on a star on Hollywood Boulevard and you find a pile of dog manure on it. That’s the whole story, baby.”  How many stars over the years have been laid along that street? How many actors and actresses have dreamed of that day? How many of them have defined success by that achievement? Mr. Marvin’s point is well made.  The honor and glory associated with that experience is short-lived. The satisfaction it brings lasts only a moment. God gives so much more!

So many people need a “happening” in order to have “happiness.” They require the seasons when the grain and wine increase as in the verses above. It’s essential for their satisfaction, and yet they’re never truly satisfied. The next day or, in some cases, the next hour, they are depressed, lonely, and bitter again. Their happiness depends on external things, but God grants his people “gladness in [their] heart,” internally!

What would a man pay for such a thing? To be able to “lie down in peace and sleep”–what is that worth? To rest with a clear conscience–can you put a price on that? The rest that Christ gives is priceless! Some people have such an abundance in this life that they’re always looking over their shoulder wondering who’s going to try to take it from them next, but the Lord’s people have been granted that which can never be taken away. His blessings are eternal! Live this day with an awareness of the multitude of blessings the Lord has granted you. Rejoice, Christian, that you “dwell in safety” because the Lord, the Shepherd of your soul, will keep you! Surely the One that bore your sins in His own body upon the tree of Calvary loves you with such an everlasting love that He will never leave nor forsake you. (1 Pet 2:24, 25; Heb 13:5)

Jamie

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