REJOICE IN יהוה, YOU RIGHTEOUS
Tehillim/Psalm 97
Shabbat Shalom all, all praise and esteem belongs to יהוה, and we are truly blessed and
privileged to be able to be together as a family being built up in Messiah and
praise and worship His Magnificent Name! We have a week to go before Pěsaḥ and
Matzot (Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread) and I am certainly looking
forward to celebrating His Feasts and rejoicing in יהוה, as we continue in our diligence in walking in His Righteousness!
Zeḵaryah/Zachariah
9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Tsiyon! Shout, O
daughter of Yerushalayim! See, your Sovereign is coming to you, He is righteous
and endowed with deliverance, humble and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal
of a donkey.”
These prophetic words of Zeḵaryah were fulfilled just
before Pěsaḥ when יהושע entered the
city and came humbly sitting on a colt of a donkey as we see recorded as such
in both Mattithyahu/Matthew 21:5 and
Yoḥanan/John 12:15. At His
arrival many came with great rejoicing as they worshipped and praised Him
declaring, “Hoshia-na
to the Son of Dawiḏ! Blessed is He who is coming in the Name of יהוה! Hoshia-na in the highest!”, while many others were disturbed at His arrival and
sought to kill Him as Messiah certainly turned things upside down during the
days leading up to the Pěsaḥ where He would be slaughtered for us all! He
turned over the tables of the money changers in the Temple and he cursed a fig
tree for having leaves but no fruit and was critically and closely inspected
for 4 days, being found to have no evil or guilt and could therefore be the
Perfect Lamb without spot or blemish that would take away the sins of the
world! Just as there was mixed emotions at His first coming as a suffering
servant, where some rejoiced while others did not; and so too we will see this
happening at His second coming as the Righteous King, that there will once
again be those who are rejoicing and those who are not. In a message tonight
called, “Rejoice in יהוה, you
righteous!” please turn with me to Tehillim/Psalm
97 (Read).
This Tehillah deals most certainly with His coming reign on earth
and how we are to be a faithful rejoicing people. Before we look further into
this Tehillah/Psalm I would just like to share with you briefly some of the
Hebrew words in Zeḵaryah/Zechariah 9:9
that we opened with in order to set the scene of how we too, like those who
rejoiced at His first coming, we are to be found to be truly rejoicing in our
Maker, aměn!
Three words I want to expand on from Zeḵaryah/Zechariah are: ‘Rejoice’, ‘Greatly’ and ‘Shout’:
Rejoice – in
Hebrew the root word used here is גִּיל
gil
– Strong’s H1523 meaning, ‘rejoice, be
glad, be joyful’, and this joy may be expressed in song, shouts, or even joyous shrieks and
calls and its root meaning is to ‘circle around or spin around’ and is
applied to vigorous, enthusiastic expression of joy!
Greatly - מְאֹד meod –
Strong’s H3966 and means, ‘muchness, force, speedily, utterly,
abundance, exceedingly, great, and might as in strength’. This
word is mainly used in Scripture as an adverb in expressing the idea of
exceeding to the highest point!
Shout - רוּעַ rua – Strong’s H7321 meaning, ‘raise a shout
for joy, make a joyful noise, give a blast or battle cry, shout in triumph,
sound the alarm’, and figuratively is carries the meaning to ‘split the ears’!!! The word ‘Teruah’
comes from this root word, and so we can clearly see that on the day of Yom
Teruah/Day of Trumpets or the Day of the Awakening Blast there will
be a resounding shout and cry from the heavens that will be met by few with
great rejoicing, and by many it will be heard in shock as this sound will split
the ears of the whole earth!
In understanding these words as
prophesied in Zeḵaryah/Zechariah, we can get a better picture or
understanding into the events that took place on that day when יהושע entered the city and came humbly
sitting on a colt of a donkey. There was a great rejoicing and shouting going
on – can you picture the elation and the joy and excitement on the faces of
those who knew who He was – they gave it their all and they rejoiced
exceedingly and with great noise, so much so that the religious leaders started
asking questions and tried to silence His taught ones telling יהושע to rebuke them to which He replied
that if they would be silent even the stones will cry out!!!
Have you ever rejoiced in יהוה like this? Shouting aloud in great
excitement and ‘spinning around’ so to speak with great joy expressing it with
great gusto? Well we need to be rejoicing in this way, for the day we hear the
sounding of the Trumpet Blast, we are to be found to be a people who are
rejoicing in Him continually until He comes for us.
For once again not only will the righteous be rejoicing, but ‘the
stones’ will too as we see in verse 1 of Tehillim/Psalm
97 that the earth rejoices and many isles are glad – this speaks of many
distant lands or peoples (living stones) rejoice and are glad – why – because יהוה reigns!
In essence
the summary of this Tehillah is this:
There is a stark contrast described between the fate of the wicked
nations and that of Yisra’ĕl, and in this Tehillah we see the use of some very
dramatic and often frightening terms that are used in regards to the
devastation that יהוה is
bringing upon His enemies! We see how ‘fire goes before Him and burns His
adversaries” and “His lightnings shall light the world and the earth shall
tremble and the mountains shall melt like wax”.
We see this language being used clearly in Ḥazon which speaks of
that which comes from His Dwelling Place and that which will precede form there
in judgement upon the earth:
Ḥazon/Revelation
8: 5-9 “And the messenger took the censer, and filled
it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises,
and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake. 6 And the seven messengers who held
the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. 7 And the first messenger sounded,
and there came to be hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to
the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was
burned up. 8
And the second messenger sounded, and what looked like a great mountain
burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood,
9 and a third of the living creatures
in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.”
Ḥazon/Revelation
4:5 “And out of the throne came lightnings, and
thunders, and voices. And seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne,
which are the seven Spirits of Elohim.”
Ḥazon/Revelation
11:19 “And the Dwelling Place of Elohim was opened in
the heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His Dwelling Place. And
there came to be lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and
great hail.”
Ḥazon/Revelation
16:18 “And there came to be noises and thunders and
lightnings. And there came to be a great earthquake, such a mighty and great
earthquake as had not came to be since men were on the earth.”
In contrast to these events that will catch many by terrifying
shock and surprise, the people of Tsiyon will rejoice and celebrate the
announcing and arrival of Our Redeemer and King, and this Tehillah/Psalm
concludes by addressing the righteous in exhorting them to continue in being
steadfast in their opposition to evil as the promise of the hope of the great
reward of eternal joy is still secure. And as we consider carefully the very
clear and definitely different fates that await the wicked in contrast to the
righteous; we should naturally and immediately appreciate the value of walking
in and staying in righteousness and be bold and confident in resisting the
pressures and temptations that the world throws at us in trying to get us to
join in with the fleshly ways of the wicked and unrighteous. What is also clear
is that we while the cloud and darkness from which His righteous judgement and
right-ruling come forth from, Light is sown for the righteous; and this too
should inspire us to abhor evil and commit our lives daily in total devotion to
Elohim – and our ability to be a righteous rejoicing people, rejoicing in יהוה is what will encourage and inspire us
to just that.
Verse 2 makes it
clear that righteousness and right-ruling/justice are the foundation of His
Throne; and this refers to the basis on
which יהוה’s rule is exercised, and could be expressed simply as, “He rules people in a way that is right and just, and He
rules them from behind clouds and darkness.”
His Torah is His rule and that is the basis by which He rules,
therefore no one is without excuse for He has made known His Righteous
Right-Ruling through Mosheh and it has been revealed through the life, death
and resurrection of Messiah!
In us being able to further understanding that this Tehillah
speaks of that which is still to come, we see how verse 6 echoes the same imagery in the words יהושע spoke concerning the end days in:
Mattithyahu/Matthew
24:29-30 “And immediately after the distress of those
days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the
stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken. 30
“And then the sign of the Son of Aḏam shall appear in the heaven, and then all
the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Aḏam coming
on the clouds of the heaven with power and much esteem.”
When He comes, all those who have served ‘carved images’ and the
man-made worship systems which are carved images of preferred worship of the
work of man’s hands will be put to shame – all their boasting in their belief
systems that are not grounded in Torah shall be finally revealed and exposed as
matters of nought and every knee shall bow before the Coming King!
Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah
10:13-16 “When He makes His voice heard, there is a
roaring of waters in the heavens. And He makes vapours rise from the ends of
the earth. The lightnings for rain He has made, and brings wind from His
treasuries. 14
Everyone is brutish in knowledge; every smith is put to shame by his idol. For
his moulded image is falsehood, and there is no spirit in them. 15 They are worthless, a work of
mockery. In the time of their punishment they perish. 16 The Portion of Yaʽaqoḇ is not like
these, for He is the Maker of all, and Yisra’ĕl is the tribe of His inheritance
– יהוה of hosts is
His Name.”
Ḥazon/Revelation
14:8-12 “And another messenger followed, saying, “Baḇel is
fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of
the wine of the wrath of her whoring.” 9 And a third messenger followed
them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image,
and receives his mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, 10 he also shall drink of the wine of
the wrath of Elohim, which is poured out undiluted into the cup of His wrath.
And he shall be tortured with fire and sulphur before the set-apart messengers
and before the Lamb. 11 “And
the smoke of their torture goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest day
or night, those worshipping the beast and his image, also if anyone receives
the mark of his name.” 12
Here is the endurance of the set-apart ones, here are those guarding the commands
of Elohim and the belief of יהושע.”
For many this day will come as a huge and very frightening shock,
but not so for those who are awake and looking for the blessed hope – those who
are faithfully enduring as they guard the commands of Elohim and the belief of יהושע.
Verse 8 echoes
this truth – Tsiyon shall hear and be glad and the daughters of Yehuḏah rejoice
– because of the right-rulings of יהוה!
Tsephanyah/Zephaniah
3:14 “Shout for joy, O daughter of Tsiyon! Shout, O Yisra’ĕl! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of
Yerushalayim!”
The closing verses of Tsephanyah
3 speak of the great joy of Yisra’ĕl that realises and recognises their
Redeemer and King – He who has turned aside judgement and has faced the enemy
and overcome and will no longer need to fear evil for the Sovereign of
Yisra’ĕl, יהוה is in our midst – and He sings over us!!!
This shout for joy is a command! Be glad and rejoice with all our
heart – can you do that knowing that יהוה is in our
midst? We have reason to rejoice!!! יהושע Messiah has turned aside our
judgements by facing our enemy and taking our sin upon Himself and defeating
death, that we may live with Him forever and this is the woe that goes out to
those who rebel and defile His word – you will die if you do not repent and
fear the Righteous One in our Midst.
The 4 words used here in Tsephanyah/Zephaniah
3:14 that express the true rejoicing are:
1) The first ‘Shout’ is רָנַן ‘ranan’ H7442 meaning ‘to overcome, cry out, shout for joy, give a ringing cry,
sing aloud’, often also translated as praise.
2) The second ‘Shout’ is רוּעַ rua –
Strong’s H7321 as we have already mentioned earlier
3) ‘Be glad’ - שָׂמַח ‘samach’ – Strong’s H8055 and means, ‘to rejoice, be glad, be joyful, delight in and be elated’.
A derivative of this word is שָׂמֵחַ ‘sameach’- Strong’s H8056 and carries the same meaning as well as implying ‘to be merry’. Both of these words are used in the command to
rejoice in Deḇarim/Deuteronomy 16:14 & 15.
The word ‘samach’ can also carry the meaning ‘to brighten up’, giving us the picture how
we are to carry His joy as the light of the world and let praise and rejoicing
abound!
4) ‘Rejoice’ - עָלַז alaz – Strong’s H5937 and means ‘exult, become jubilant’ and the word
describes an emotion of joy expressed in singing and shouting and is a natural
response to the faithful!
Once again we see the clear description in Scripture as to the
joyful and jubilant expression of rejoicing that is done by the faithful
remnant that walks in righteousness!
Now part of walking in righteousness and our ability to be a
rejoicing, singing, shouting and praising people is that we who love יהוה must hate evil!!! We must hate all
evil, and if we know that love is more than just a feeling as it is obedience
to the instructions and commands of the One we love, then clearly hate, being
the opposite of love, clearly expresses that we are to not submit or bow to the
evil and wicked ways of the enemy and the fleshly luring of the world’s ways,
which include man-made religious systems – we are to hate them – that is to
stay far away that which is not of Elohim. The word for hate in Hebrew expresses an emotional attitude toward persons and
things which are opposed, detested, despised and with which one wishes to have
no contact or relationship. It is therefore the opposite of love. Whereas love
draws and unites, hate separates and keeps distant. Here in this Tehillah, the
command is clear – hate evil! Now when we look at Scripture we clearly see what
יהוה hates and we too are to hate what He
hates. It understanding the times and as we go forward to ensuring that there
is no leaven in our lives, let us see what things we are to hate and be done
with as this is made very clear to us that we are to be done with evil in:
Mishlĕ/Proverbs
3:7 “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear יהוה and turn away from evil.”
Tehillim/Psalm
37:27 “Turn away from evil, and do good; And dwell
forever.”
To hate evil means to turn away from it and do good – that is to
walk in the Torah, following Messiah that gives us eternal life!
Let us look now at the things that are to be hated as seen in
Scripture:
Tehillim/Psalm
101:3 “I set no matter of Beliya’al before my eyes; I hate the work of those
who fall away; it does not cleave to me.”
This speaks of the ‘work of
quitting’ – it takes work to fall away – especially when you know to do
good. Hate that which tries to tell you that you do not have to keep the
commands and tries to lure you into the evil notion of a belief only doctrine. This
also speaks of not giving up – we are not of those who draw back to
destruction, but rather we are of those who press on in the belief and maintain
the good works of righteousness!
Tehillim/Psalm
119:104 “From Your orders I get understanding; Therefore
I have hated every false way.”
Hate every false way – how? By understanding the orders of יהוה, being able to present yourself as a
skilled workman approved to Elohim who does not need to be ashamed, rightly
handling the Word of Truth! How will you know every false way and turn away
from that which is false if you do not know the Truth!!! Hating every false way
means ‘loving His Torah’ and doing it!
Amos 5:21
“I have hated, I have despised your festivals, and I am
not pleased with your assemblies.”
יהוה hates and
despises false worship and so should we! No matter how sincere many may be in
their institutionalised worship systems – if it does not line up with the plumb
line of the Torah it is false and must be hated and turned away from! Many in
the modern church use this verse as a verse to claim that we no longer have to
keep the Feasts of יהוה as He
hates and despises their festivals! This is not saying that we are no longer to
keep His Feasts. What it is saying is that He hates ‘your’ festivals – in other words what they had made His Feasts in
to. יהוה here is
referring to man-made feasts of falsified worship that have been devised to
suit their own fleshly whims and desires of compromise and comfort. יהוה hates false worship and the
falsification of feasts that many claim is about Him, when it has nothing to do
with Him but is rather pagan rooted sun-worship practices clothed in twisted
truth and is an abomination before Him. Even while at the time of Amos,
Yisra’ĕl may have been gathering at the Appointed Times, yet the feasts they
were observing were observed in such a way that it was no longer focused upon יהוה and the Truth of His Word but rather
had syncretised its practices with the abominable worship of the surrounding
nations and had become man-driven festivals which no longer adhered to the
plumb line of Torah! The Christian church and its pagan rooted feasts of false
worship He hates and so too should we, turning far away from it!
What we are to LOVE are His Feasts as instructed for us to keep in
every generation, given clearly in Wayyiqra/Leviticus 23 – for these are His
Appointed Times! His Feasts – our rehearsals! Anything beyond this by means of
adding or taking away He hates!
Zeḵaryah/Zechariah
8:17 “And do not plot evil in your heart against
another, and do not love a false oath. For all these I hate,’ declares יהוה.”
False oaths and plotting of evil יהוה hates! Let your yes be yes and your no be no lest you fall into
judgement (Ya’aqoḇ/James 5:12)!
Tehillim/Psalm
119:163 “I have hated falsehood and loathe it, Your
Torah I have loved.”
Once again – love for the Truth will enable and cause you to turn
away from falsehood. If you do not hate something you will not leave it!!! And
the ability to hate that which is false and leave it is only increased as you
love – that is to obey – His Torah! Many people will say that they hate some of
the things they do but cannot stop – what they are in effect saying is that
they are not making the necessary effort in loving the Torah!
We must learn to do what is right and mean what we say – if we say
we love Him then obey Him!
Mishlĕ/Proverbs
12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to יהוה, But those who deal truly are His delight.”
Romiyim/Romans 12:9 “Let
love be without hypocrisy. Shrink from what is wicked, cling to what is good.”
Do not be a hypocrite
– do not say you love יהוה while you
do not follow his commands, but rather leave all wickedness and evil and cling
to what is good – are there is only One who is Good – Our Good Shepherd – the
Living Torah!
Tehillim/Psalm
119:113 “I have hated doubting thoughts, But I have
loved Your Torah.”
A doubting mind is a
divided mind or rather double minded, unable to make up their mind and this is
a very unstable state to be in, for Ya’aqoḇ tells us that a double minded man
is unstable in all his ways. Again, how do you tackle the issue of double
mindedness? Loving the Torah – and doing what is clearly instructs – there is
nothing double minded about that!
Let us further look at
that which יהוה says He
hates:
Mishlĕ/Proverbs
6:16-19 “These six matters יהוה hates, And seven are an abomination to
Him: 17 A proud look, A lying tongue,
And hands shedding innocent blood, 18 A
heart devising wicked schemes, Feet quick to run to evil, 19 A false witness breathing out lies, and one
who causes strife among brothers.”
A proud look speaks of
self-sufficiency and the inability to put your total trust and reliance on יהוה. He hates lies and lying tongues,
devising of wicked schemes, those who walk disorderly, gossipers and
slanderers, and he utterly hates strife that is caused by those who seek to
bring division among brothers – this of course is one of the underlying traits
of the Izeḇel/Jezebel spirit which יהוה hates and
will destroy!
When one considers that which יהוה hates it is very clear that He hates any other way that is
contrary to His written Word. These 3 verses speaks of the hate He has for the
breaking of His commands – do not have any other mighty ones before His face,
do not lie, steal, commit murder, bear false witness or commit adultery – for
those things He hates!
The promise we have is that He guards His lovingly committed ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wrong. Those who love יהוה and hate evil He protects and this is
certainly worth rejoicing about, aměn!
Light is sown for us as we guard the good deposit, walking in the
Light as children of Light, having our hearts filled with gladness and the
ability to joyously praise our Maker!
As we close we come now to the last verse in Tehillim/Psalm 97, giving us once again the clear reminder and
instruction that we, the righteous, are to rejoice in יהוה. The word used here for ‘rejoice’ is שָׂמַח ‘samach’ – Strong’s
H8055 as mentioned earlier; and we are to
give thanks to Him and that is the word יָדָה yadah – Strong’s H3034 and means,
‘to cast or throw’ and this word as a
verb with the root meaning ‘the extended hand’ or ‘throw out the
hand’ really expresses the nature of the action of praise unto יהוה.
יָדָה yadah means ‘to lift hands; to give thanks;
confess, praise; make confession; shoot; to cast out or cast down’.
יָדָה yadah in practice would be to lift my hands in gratitude and thanks, expressing a
surrendering of self totally unto יהוה! Sha’ul tells us in his letter to Timotiyos/Timothy that he wants men
everywhere to lift up their hands in prayer!
We know the victory that total surrender brings! When Mosheh lifted up
his hands in prayer and supplication and praise unto יהוה Yehoshua had victory on the
battlefield, and when his arms were down Yehoshua faced some defeat! Lifting
hands in surrender unto יהוה is for me a great expression of praise unto His Name. It is an
acknowledgement of His Name as יהוה of hosts – head of the heavenly host that battles for us, He is our banner
– the one under whom we walk, He is our healer, shepherd, provider – He is our
peace and He is our Saviour! Lifting hands unto Him reveals our acceptance of
His work and provision and confesses our reliance upon Him, where we recognise
that our hands cannot bring what He brings and so we lift up hands in praise in
devotion to declaring His authority and rule over our lives!
The instruction is clear – REJOICE IN יהוה, YOU
RIGHTEOUS!
Let our lives
reflect true and pure rejoicing as we make our rejoicing in יהוה heard and known, lifting our hands unto Him and fleeing
all evil as we consider and realise the very different fates that await the
wicked and the righteous!
As Pěsaḥ
approaches and we consider how they rejoiced back then, may we again be
encouraged to be a rejoicing people, who love the Torah and make His praises
known in all the earth, aměn!
