Joy In The Wilderness

Psalm 105:43 –

‘So he brought his people out of Egypt with joy, his chosen ones with rejoicing.’

Today’s passage is looking back on the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. The Israelites have escaped from Egypt and years of slavery and oppression. They’ve crossed the Red Sea, but they now find themselves in the desert. They are nowhere near the Promised Land (it’s still a long long long way away), they’re convinced they’re going to die and they spend a lot of time moaning. And yet they also choose to worship. They find joy in the wilderness.

For many of us this year may have felt like a wilderness. Things have been stripped away, everything has been up in the air, it’s been lonely, and tough going, and we don’t know when it’s all going to end. I want to encourage you today to find joy in the wilderness.

The Israelites decision to choose to worship, and to choose to find joy in the wilderness was a defining moment. It was a way of saying and showing that the joy of God’s people has never been, and will never be, determined by struggles or surroundings, but by our future hope.

Eugene Peterson, who wrote The Message translation, reflects that “One of the most interesting and remarkable things Christians learn is that laughter does not exclude weeping. Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow. Pain and hardship still come, but they are unable to drive out the happiness of the redeemed.”

There would definitely have been a lot of tears and moaning and sorrow for the Israelites - as you read through Exodus you pick up pretty quickly that they weren’t a particularly cheery bunch. But ultimately they had been rescued, they had been redeemed, and so they rejoiced in the wilderness.

Prayer – God, in the midst of this wilderness season, help me to find you. Reveal your joy to me. Help me to choose to worship today, and to sing joyfully!