Spurgeon: January PM
* 01/01/PM
"We will be glad and rejoice in Thee."
--Song of Solomon 1:4
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee. We will not open the
gates of the year to the dolorous notes of the sackbut, but to
the sweet strains of the harp of joy, and the high sounding
cymbals of gladness. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us
make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation." We, the
called and faithful and chosen, we will drive away our griefs,
and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let
others lament over their troubles, we who have the sweetening
tree to cast into Marah's bitter pool, with joy will magnify the
Lord. Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the
temples in which Thou dwellest, will never cease from adoring
and blessing the name of Jesus. We WILL, we are resolved about
it, Jesus must have the crown of our heart's delight; we will
not dishonour our Bridegroom by mourning in His presence. We are
ordained to be the minstrels of the skies, let us rehearse our
everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New
Jerusalem. We will BE GLAD AND REJOICE: two words with one
sense, double joy, blessedness upon blessedness. Need there be
any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? Do not men of
grace find their Lord to be camphire and spikenard, calamus and
cinnamon even now, and what better fragrance have they in heaven
itself? We will be glad and rejoice IN THEE. That last word is
the meat in the dish, the kernel of the nut, the soul of the
text. What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of
infinite bliss have their source, ay, and every drop of their
fulness in Him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, Thou art the present
portion of Thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of
Thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be
glad and rejoice in Thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord,
and December close with gladness in Jesus.