Be joyful - praise Him!

The last few verses of the sixth chapter of Ezra are so positive! Look at verse sixteen:

Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. (v 16)

Their offerings at the dedication may not have been as lavish as the dedication of Solomon's time, but it was a sincere offering of what they had. (I Kings 8 says that at Solomon's temple dedication, thousands of cattle and sheep were sacrificed; so many that the altar could not hold all of the offerings!) They offered a separate sacrifice for each of the twelve tribes of Israel; the sin offerings were acknowledging their failures and the covenant of God to forgive them. The note regarding the priests and the Levites being appointed (v 18) shows their dedication to worshiping God in the way that was written, the way that would please Him.

Then they observed the Passover, a celebration of God's mercy and salvation. It commemorates how He delivered them from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread (which immediately followed) symbolized the holy relationship of a redeemed nation with their God. Now, in the New Testament times and today, those two feasts are combined into the Lord's Supper -- our way of remembering the sacrifice of Christ for us.

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (I Corinthians 5:7b-8)

In order for our praise to be genuine, it needs to be accompanied by sincere and heartfelt joy. Undignified? Maybe. Spontaneous? Should be.
I talk to people today that are concerned and perhaps even apprehensive about heaven. Why? So many pastors and believers make it sound as if the only activity in heaven will be to sing and shout praises to God. Especially for those who in this life have not been able to "carry a tune in a bucket," this sounds a bit strange. Nothing else? (Frankly, I think that since God is the best Father ever, and He knows human beings, that there will be plenty to do. That feeling of worth and accomplishing things is a vital part of our make-up, and I believe that God will assign us some things to do. Just my opinion.)
Even the great Christian writer C. S. Lewis, when he was beginning to believe in God, could not understand all of the demands in Psalms that we praise God. He didn't see the point. He is quoted as saying that it seemed to him to picture God as craving "for our worship like a vain woman who wants compliments."  He goes on in one of his books to show why he was wrong:

 .....But the most obvious fact about praise - whether of God or anything - strangely escaped me....I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise.....The world rings with praise - lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game.... My whole more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment; it is its ....consummation.
From Reflections on the Psalms, C. S. Lewis

To bring this home to each of us, when we have something excellent and wonderful happen in our lives, what do we do? When we are filled with joy about a positive health test, a financial obstacle being removed, a new relative being born, or any other thing that rocks our world with happiness . . . what do we do?
Why, of course!
We bubble over with that joy -- and we tell someone! Maybe several someones! We humans can experience joy and praise when we're alone, but isn't it so much better when we share the experience with others?
It's the same with worship. The people who celebrated the temple dedication, the Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread truly enjoyed the praise of God in a corporate setting. Yes, let's praise Him in our devotions; let's also praise Him with others.

The last source of joy that I'd like to cover in this study is the joy of obedience to Him. We read in Ezra that they rebuilt the temple "according to the command of God" (in 6:14). In the eighteenth verse, it says they organized their worship time "as it is written in the book of Moses." And in the twentieth verse, it says the priests and Levites purified themselves. In fact, all of the people who celebrated were committed to a holy and pure life, separate from unbelievers:

So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord, the God of Israel. (Ezra 6:21)

To have true joy in God, there must be holiness in our lives. We must separate ourselves from the impurity of the nations around us, so to speak. This is not to say that we cannot "meet and greet" with unbelievers. After all, getting to know unbelievers will allow us to witness to them!
I believe the true gist of the thought is this: It's hypocritical (and the Lord hates hypocrisy) if we live "like the nations" all week, and then put on a pious mask to worship Him on Sunday.
And contrary to popular opinions of the day, purity of life and obedience to our Father do NOT rob us of joy! Sin only gives brief pleasure -- and then lasting scars and pain. Obedience may be difficult momentarily, but it yields long-lasting joy!

Do joy and obedience not seem to us to fit together? Joy sounds liberating. Obedience sounds restrictive. Joy makes us think of a light-hearted person; obedience makes us think of a person burdened down with rules and regulations.
Am I right?
But that's our human side.
Our human understanding. Obedience has rewards:

 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,  (I John 5:3)

Peace. Righteousness. Commands that are not burdensome. Pursuing these will bring us closer to Him. Will bring us joy.
C. S. Lewis makes what would seem to many to be a radical suggestion - that the thought that it's bad to desire our own good (and enjoy it!) is a vital part of the Christian faith. In case you haven't noticed, I really enjoy his writings. (Grin) What silly creatures we are.....fooling around with drugs, alcohol, sex, and wealth, when truly infinite joy is being offered to us.
Yes, Mr. Lewis, you are right . . . God Himself is our cache of infinite joy. We should pursue joy in Him with each breath we take. Then we will have what Paul talked about:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

So, the question to us today is this: are we making the pursuit of joy in our Lord one of our top priorities? God's aim is to give us great joy in Him, in His providential care, and in His providing for our needs. When we have true joy in Him, we will glorify Him and praise Him to all the folks we come in contact with.