I Will Rejoice

Sunday March 1, 2026

I will rejoice.  In our psalm today, David is a Miktam for teaching. It is not know for sure what a Miktam is, but we do know this passage was for teaching.  Teaching what?  Perspective and how to pray in difficult times.  The timeframe examine appears to be a time of many victories for David.  Commentator, David Guzki summarizes, “The historical markers against Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah, and Joab returned and killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt place it sometime in the earlier part of King David’s reign, when he subjected neighboring nations. 2 Samuel 8:1-8 records David’s victories over Philistia, Moab, and Syria. 2 Samuel 10:1-19 tells of David’s victories over Ammon and Syria. 1 Chronicles 18:11-13 gives us David’s victories over Edom (and specifically in the Valley of Salt), Moab, Ammon, Philistia, and Amalek. The victories described in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles do not mention the kind of setbacks lamented in this psalm. It reminds us that the historical record often condenses events, and that the successes were real, yet not always immediate.”  Even in difficult battles that are ultimately won, there can be great difficulty in the battle itself.  The psalmist begins, “God, you have rejected us; you have broken us down, you have been angry.  Restore us” (Psalm 60:1).  Notice the psalmist attributes the difficulties to God.  I like what Matthew Henry wrote, “Whatever our trouble is, and whoever are the instruments of it, we must own the hand of God, his righteous hand, in it.”  Yet, while the psalmist ascribes the trouble to God, he also ascribes the solution.  Restore us!  As we read on, and I’ll try to be succinct, we find the reason for the hope of rejoicing for the psalmist.  It appears in verse six, “God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth”.   In essence, the psalmist says that God has spoken, a promise, therefore, I will rejoice.  The promise God spoke can be found in Psalm 89, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David (Psalm 89:34-35).  In good times and bad, God has made promises.  And God is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness.  Regardless of your current circumstance, can you rejoice in the promises of God?