The Joyful Sound - Audio

Greater Life Church

Our text from Psalms is an encouragement and coach on how to live life. The singer declares that blessed is someone who knows the joyful sound, for they will walk in the light. Life has a way of wearing on us. If we are not careful, we allow life's situations and challenges to set a dark tone over our lives. When we utter the joyful sound noted in this psalm, we rebuke the darkness the enemy wants to cast over us. Far too many people allow the challenges in life to sour their view of how blessed they are. Even amid the most challenging trials, we have hope in the love and faithfulness of God. Happiness is not determined by wealth or the things we possess. Solomon was the wisest and most wealthy man of his time. But even in that, he allowed a shift in his thinking to change his focus, which led to his undoing. We see evidence of this decline in the opening chapters of Ecclesiastics. Solomon mentions himself in the form of I or me forty-three times but only mentions God four times. When we make life about us, there is no room for God. When life is about us, we are miserable to be around. Solomon also began to compare himself to others. When we compare ourselves to others, we often find ourselves lacking or a disparity that we perceive to be not in our favor. Comparison leads to unthankfulness and unthankfulness to resentment. This psalm was written amid the darkest time in Hebrew history. Solomon's undoing had ended the house of David. Israel lay in ruins, and God's people were in captivity. Somehow, the writer looks through all that, turns his focus back to God, and declares a truism that will lift the spirit. God is a covenant-keeping God. Things might have looked bad, but God's promise was still intact. What is that joyful sound? It is praising during trouble with the knowledge that God will sustain and deliver. We must not let life take that joyful sound.