Psalms 28:7: “The LORD [is] my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart is filled with joy; and with my song will I praise him.
“Why am I happy to be going to dialysis? I know I will feel good afterward.” Mary Ann
Old Oriental Proverb: “He who put dishwater soap on top shelf jumps for Joy.”
As a bus driver for the disabled I drive many people to dialysis. This is a life sentence for someone who has kidney failure. They must go to a dialysis clinic three times a week and be hooked up to a dialysis machine for three to four hours. When you consider the time spent in travel to and from dialysis and the wait for a machine to open up you are have pretty well invested three days out of your seven day week
accomplishing nothing but getting the toxins in your body cleaned out that your kidneys used to do.
Very few people are able to work a full time and even part time job is they are on dialysis, most end up on public aid as their insurance has either run out or they cannot afford to pay for their insurance. Half your life revolves around your treatments. Most the people I drive to dialysis are sad, melancholy and have pretty well given up on life but for that hope that they may get a call saying that there is a kidney available and they will get a transplant which will help them resume a normal life.
Mary Ann has been waiting years for a kidney and is rapidly approaching an age where she may not qualify for a transplant. Yet every time she gets on my bus she is smiling and joyful. I asked her why she is always so upbeat and she said she was going to dialysis and she knows she will feel better and that thought alone makes her happy. She then said: “God gives us good things to find happiness in. Dialysis is a good thing so I find happiness in dialysis or this good thing from God.”
You know there are many roads to happiness, but dialysis is definitely a road less travelled and a road I would prefer not to take to find happiness. I thought of Psalms 28:7. “Therefore my heart is filled with joy.” The word therefore is not found in the Hebrew text, it only says “and my heart rejoices.” But it is implied and still this rejoicing is the result of something and that something is found in the previous sentence; “The Lord is my strength, my shield, I trust in Him and I am helped.” As a result of all that the writer’s heart is joyful. There are a number of words in Hebrew that are rendered as joy and happiness. This word is ‘alaz which comes from a Semitic root for jumping. That’s right this is a joy that has you jumping. Have you ever jumped for joy. The only time I ever watch an athletic event is at the end to see the reaction of the winning team. Grown men and women actually jumping up and down. Grown men and women in the stands jumping up and down. They are leaping for joy, they are so full of joy that they have to release it someway physically and that is to jump up and down.
You really don’t need to win an athletic event to jump for joy, you can also jump for joy when you put your trust in God. I’ve seen it in some worship services where people who have just given themselves so completely to God their hearts are filled with such joy that they jump. ‘Alaz or joy is a joy that is expressed in triumph. Hence the joy of winning an athletic event, or a joy in some victory. This is often when you see the jumping and leaping, it is in triumph.
“Alaz joy is a play on the word at the beginning of this verse for strength which is ‘azaz. Just the simple knowledge that the Lord is our strength causes us to jump for joy. Did you ever watch one of those war movies when the tattered, ragged army who are down to their last belt of ammunition and it looks hopeless when all of a sudden over the mountain they see reinforcements, fresh troops well stocked in arms. These worn, weary tattered soldiers who barely have the strength left to lift their rifles, somehow muster the strength to leap for joy.
Have you ever been so battered, beaten down, ready to just give up. Your strength is gone, You have been the good soldier but now you have nothing more to give. Then look at Psalms 28:6, the Lord is your strength and shield and if you trust in Him you will be helped. That word trust is batach in Hebrew which means to adhere to, to be welded to the Lord. If you weld yourself to God you will be helped. The word help is ‘azar which means to support, to assist, to bring aid. God is not saying you will be delivered, you may still have to fight that battle, but now you are a sure winner, all you are doing is working in a cleanup operation. But you now have the strength the ‘azaz to continue the battle onto victory. But check this out you will not have to even finish the battle to rejoice. Like Mary Ann she was rejoicing even before her dialysis treatment knowing it would make her feel better. Like the old Oriental proverb: “He who put dishwater soap on top shelf jump for Joy.” Yep, even if you don’t have the (J)joy in hand, start jumping anyways in faith that you will reach that joy and grab hold of it. God promised it, it is there, it just takes trust batach, welding yourself to Him.
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