Psalms 34:2: “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear [thereof], and be glad.”

 

I find the contrast to be quite interesting.  The soul will boast and the humble will be glad. I don’t know about but I am never glad when I hear someone boasting. I find it downright irritating. Someone once said that you usually despise in other people what you despise about yourself.  So I probably just confessed to you that I have a tendency to boast. I find it downright irritating when I catch myself boasting or some friend catches me in boasting and brings it up to me. Not irritated with the friend but with myself for falling in that boasting trap.

 

When I boast I do not make the humble glad but I make them cringe.  Yet, if our soul our hearts are praising God the humble will be glad.  The word glad in Hebrew is samach which comes from a Semitic root to describe the morning sunrise this is when everything that was in the dark begins to brighten up. You can really be down in the dumps and feeling dark and gloomy like Eeyore but when you are around someone who is just rejoicing in the Lord, I mean it is coming from the heart and not the mind,  you cannot help but samach, brighten up. But that boasting must come from the soul or heart, not the mind. Nothing, at least for me, is more irritating than someone pretending to be joyful in the Lord.  They let out a loud annoying  “Whoopee”  and you know he is doing it just to try and convince everyone he is a joyful Christian.

 

They do this because they know it really blesses people when someone is rejoicing in the Lord and they want to be that blessing, they want to get the brethren all excited, but if it is not coming from the soul or heart you will only end up annoying the brethren rather than blessing them.

 

The ones who are blessed by a God inspired, heartfelt whoopee coming from the soul are the humble.  There are a few words in Hebrew that are rendered as humble.  This word is for humble ‘anav from the root word anah. Although the English word humble is not an incorrect translation, in the 21st Century English it could be very misleading.  Anah carries old English definition of humble and that is one who has really been through the ringer. I mean he has lost his job, his money, his house and his cat has died. Such a person in old English would say he was humbled. Today we use the word humble to mean a lack of pride. Remnants of this meaning still hang on. I heard a presidential candidate say he came from a humble background.  Yes, he meant a background that you do not take pride in but apparently he was taking a lot of pride in coming from humble background such as he felt it was a qualification to be President. What he was trying to say is that like Abe Lincoln he came from poor working class background where you really struggled financially. Again you can see how the word humble carries the idea of a lack of pride in this case but actually what this politician was describing was anah and he was talking more of difficulty rather than lack of pride. Lack of pride is just a byproduct of anahAnah is really a word that is used for someone who is depressed and/or afflicted. In the Aramaic it is used for someone who is oppressed.  In the Akkadian it is a reference to someone who is frustrated. 

 

What you do when you have a friend who is really down in the dumps, depressed, really going through the ringer.  You feel for your friend and you want to help.  So you say things like, “Be of good cheer.”  “Everything words together for good.”  “God has a plan in all this.” Or one of many of the audibles that Christians call when they don’t know how to cheer a friend up. Some like to practice tough love and say things like: “Stop whinnying and get on your feet.”  “Cut it out you are dragging me down.”   “Oh snap out of it for crying out loud.”   “Come on, what do you have to complain about?”   They may call it tough love but I call it be cruel, at least in many circumstances.

 

For me none of this works when my world falls apart. I receive bad news, get a bad report, or any number of life’s trials and troubles and I feel down and sorry for myself.  No amount of Christian audibles can snap me out of it and definitely someone using that tough love approach on me will lose a good loyal friend.

 

I will tell you what works, when I am anah, really oppressed what picks me up quicker than anything else is when I am around a Christian who is truly joyful, who sincerely has victory in his heart, who loves Jesus with all his heart.  Just being around such a person and listening to them talk about the Jesus they love really snaps me out of my downer mood.

 

So if you are a Christian worker who has to deal with people who are going through one of life’s many trials and troubles the best thing in the world you can do for them is to make sure you and God are on good terms.  Nothing is more irritating than someone pretending to be joyful, so don’t fake it, they will know and you will only make things worse.  But if you fall in love with Jesus and you just shine with the presence of God and the joy of the Lord, Psalms 34:2 is telling you that you hit upon the thing that your down and out friend needs most.

 

I remember reading how when Jim Bakker was in prison and he received notice that his wife Tammy was filing for divorce.  He fell into a deep depression and did not want to leave his bunk.  In walked a group of prisoners, his friends who dragged him out of his bunk and just had some time of joyful fun. They didn’t sit around and pity him or feel sorry for him, they have all been there and they knew exactly what he needed, to be around others having fun, being joyful. They knew how dangerous it was to let someone withdraw and hide out alone during such a time.  I remember as my marriage fell apart and I was hiding out under yon rock from whence I came.  My brother and sister in law dragged me to a series of meetings in Toronto where they had that Toronto blessing. One night after the meeting we meet in one of the motel rooms for a sort of afterglow.  Suddenly everyone just started to laugh, it took me surprise because nothing funny was said, yet they all just started laughing and laughing out of pure joy.  I was drawn into the so call holy laughter and discovered it was the first time in many years that I had laughed. It was the first time in many years that I was actually feeling the joy of the Lord and so much healing took place in the boasting in the Lord and making the anah glad.

 

True ministry to others begins when you are alone with God on your knees and drawing as close to the Lord as you can and then when that joy and love for God is real, coming from your soul and not from your mind to impress everyone as to how holy you are you will end up doing some powerful work for the Lord in bringing some joy to those who are anah, really in a funk.

 

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