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VERSES ABOUT JOY
Think about it: the joy of the Lord doesn't just fill you with strength, it brings us all together. It's a joy that's not meant to be kept to yourself; it needs to be shared. Just like the Israelites were instructed to celebrate and share what they had with each other, you can spread the joy of the Lord with everyone you know.
This joy challenges you to love your neighbor and share the Gospel. When your heart is joyful in God, you are strong and empowered to spread that joy throughout your community. It's a lasting joy, something no one can take away.
Psalm 98:4-6 says, "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King." You can find so many verses like this that talk about the joy of our God.
I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing.
In it will live together Y’hudah and all its cities, the farmer and those who lead the flocks.
On that day Isra’el will be a third partner with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth;
He will love you, bless you and increase your numbers; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground — your grain, wine, olive oil and the young of your cattle and sheep — in the land he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.
Aharon raised his hands toward the people, blessed them and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, because I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants. I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Avraham your father —
Then he added this blessing on them that day: “Isra’el will speak of you in their own blessings by saying, ‘May God make you like Efrayim and M’nasheh.’” Thus he put Efrayim ahead of M’nasheh.
I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Their descendants will be known among the nations, their offspring among the peoples; all who see them will acknowledge that they are the seed Adonai has blessed.
by the God of your father, who will help you, by El Shaddai, who will bless you with blessings from heaven above, blessings from the deep, lying below, blessings from the breasts and the womb.
in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.
“Comfort and keep comforting my people,” says your God.
Here comes Adonai Elohim with power, and his arm will rule for him. Look! His reward is with him, and his recompense is before him.
He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering his lambs with his arm, carrying them against his chest, gently leading the mother sheep.”
Who has counted the handfuls of water in the sea, measured off the sky with a ruler, gauged how much dust there is on the earth, weighed the mountains on scales, or the hills in a balance?
Who has measured the Spirit of Adonai? Who has been his counselor, instructing him?
Whom did he consult, to gain understanding? Who taught him how to judge, taught him what he needed to know, showed him how to discern?
The nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count like a grain of dust on the scales. The islands weigh as little as specks of dust.
The L’vanon would not suffice for fuel or its animals be enough for burnt offerings.
Before him all the nations are like nothing. He regards them as less than nothing.
With whom, then, will you compare God? By what standard will you evaluate him?
An image made by a craftsman, which a goldsmith overlays with gold, for which he then casts silver chains?
“Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her that she has completed her time of service, that her guilt has been paid off, that she has received at the hand of Adonai double for all her sins.”
From the time he appointed him manager of his household and all his possessions, Adonai blessed the Egyptian’s household for Yosef’s sake; Adonai’s blessing was on all he owned, whether in the house or in the field.
House of Y’hudah and house of Isra’el, just as you were formerly a curse among the nations, so now I will save you; and you will be a blessing. Don’t be afraid, but take courage!’
A song of ascents: Those who trust in Adonai are like Mount Tziyon, which cannot be moved but remains forever.
Yerushalayim! Mountains all around it! Thus Adonai is around his people henceforth and forever.
Adonai will remove all illness from you — he will not afflict you with any of Egypt’s dreadful diseases, which you have known; instead, he will lay them on those who hate you.
Blessed be Adonai, God, the God of Isra’el, who alone works wonders.
Blessed be his glorious name forever, and may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen. Amen.
You will summon a nation you do not know, and a nation that doesn’t know you will run to you, for the sake of Adonai your God, the Holy One of Isra’el, who will glorify you.”
“Adonai will cause your enemies attacking you to be defeated before you; they will advance on you one way and flee before you seven ways.
They were pleased to do it, but the fact is that they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared with the Jews in spiritual matters, then the Gentiles clearly have a duty to help the Jews in material matters.
and said to him, “Run and tell this young man, ‘Yerushalayim will be inhabited without walls, because there will be so many people and animals;
Also the Tanakh, foreseeing that God would consider the Gentiles righteous when they live by trusting and being faithful, told the Good News to Avraham in advance by saying, “In connection with you, all the Goyim will be blessed.”
If I forget you, Yerushalayim, may my right hand wither away!
May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I fail to count Yerushalayim the greatest of all my joys.
The few you had before I came have increased substantially; Adonai has blessed you wherever I went. But now, when will I provide for my own household?”
For the mountains may leave and the hills be removed, but my grace will never leave you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says Adonai, who has compassion on you.
Adonai has kept us in mind, and he will bless. He will bless the house of Isra’el; he will bless the house of Aharon;
he will bless those who fear Adonai, great and small alike.
Rise up, Adonai! Save me, my God! For you slap all my enemies in the face, you smash the teeth of the wicked.
and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed — because you obeyed my order.”
Your descendants will be as numerous as the grains of dust on the earth. You will expand to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. By you and your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Adonai your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hated and persecuted you;
But you are a chosen people, the King’s cohanim, a holy nation, a people for God to possess! Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
In spite of this, there will be no one needy among you; because Adonai will certainly bless you in the land which Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess —
Adonai Elohim answers: “I am beckoning to the nations, raising my banner for the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
For Adonai has chosen Tziyon, he has wanted it as his home.
“This is my resting-place forever, I will live here because I so much want to.
A song of ascents: When Adonai restored Tziyon’s fortunes, we thought we were dreaming.
Our mouths were full of laughter, and our tongues shouted for joy. Among the nations it was said, “Adonai has done great things for them!”
Then say to them that Adonai Elohim says: ‘I will take the people of Isra’el from among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back to their own land.
I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Isra’el; and one king will be king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms.
I have posted watchmen on your walls, Yerushalayim; they will never fall silent, neither by day nor by night. You who call on Adonai, give yourselves no rest;
and give him no rest till he restores Yerushalayim and makes it a praise on earth.
May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be lord over your kinsmen, let your mother’s descendants bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
For I will take you from among the nations, gather you from all the countries, and return you to your own soil.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Enlarge the space for your tent, extend the curtains of your dwelling; do not hold back, lengthen your cords, make your tent pegs firm.
For you will spread out to the right and the left, your descendants will possess the nations and inhabit the desolated cities.
A psalm of the sons of Korach. A song: On the holy mountains is [the city’s] foundation.
Adonai loves the gates of Tziyon more than all the dwellings in Ya‘akov.
Glorious things are said about you, city of God. (Selah)
and I will pour out on the house of David and on those living in Yerushalayim a spirit of grace and prayer; and they will look to me, whom they pierced.” They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son; they will be in bitterness on his behalf like the bitterness for a firstborn son.
I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing, and I will cause the rain to fall when it should — there will be showers of blessing.
The trees in the field will bear their fruit and the soil its produce, and they will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am Adonai, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the power of those who turned them into slaves.
May Adonai increase your numbers, both yours and those of your children.
May you be blessed by Adonai, the maker of heaven and earth.
Adonai Elohim answers: “I am beckoning to the nations, raising my banner for the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings will be your foster-fathers, their princesses your nurses. They will bow to you, face toward the earth, and lick the dust on your feet. Then you will know that I am Adonai — those who wait for me will not be sorry.”
For the leader. A psalm of David. A song:
You rained down showers in plenty, God; when your heritage was weary, you restored it.
Your flock settled in it; in your goodness, God, you provided for the poor.
Adonai gives the command; the women with the good news are a mighty army.
Kings and their armies are fleeing, fleeing, while the women at home divide the spoil.
Even if you lie among the animal stalls, there are wings of a dove covered with silver and its plumes with green gold.
When Shaddai scatters kings there, snow falls on Tzalmon.
You mighty mountain, Mount Bashan! You rugged mountain, Mount Bashan!
You rugged mountain, why look with envy at the mountain God wants for his place to live? Truly, Adonai will live there forever.
God’s chariots are myriads, repeated thousands; Adonai is among them as in Sinai, in holiness.
After you went up into the heights, you led captivity captive, you took gifts among mankind, yes, even among the rebels, so that Yah, God, might live there.
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from his presence.
For from farthest east to farthest west my name is great among the nations. Offerings are presented to my name everywhere, pure gifts; for my name is great among the nations,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
In the acharit-hayamim the mountain of Adonai’s house will be established as the most important mountain. It will be regarded more highly than the other hills, and all the Goyim will stream there.
On that day a man will take hold of his idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, and fling them away to the moles and bats!
Then they will enter the cracks in the rocks and the crevices in the cliffs to escape the terror of Adonai and his glorious majesty, when he sets out to convulse the earth.
Stop relying on man, in whose nostrils is a mere breath — after all, he doesn’t count for much, does he?
Many peoples will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the house of the God of Ya‘akov! He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah, the word of Adonai from Yerushalayim.
and that it is in this way that all Isra’el will be saved. As the Tanakh says, “Out of Tziyon will come the Redeemer; he will turn away ungodliness from Ya‘akov
“I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants,
and you will return to Adonai your God and pay attention to what he has said, which will be exactly what I am ordering you to do today — you and your children, with all your heart and all your being.
loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him — for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land Adonai swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.” Haftarah Nitzavim: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 61:10–63:9 B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Nitzavim: Romans 9:30–10:13; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 12:14 –15 [In regular years read with Parashah 51, in leap years read separately]
As the sparrow finds herself a home and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young, [so my resting-place is] by your altars, Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God.
to him who rides on the most ancient heavens. Listen, as he utters his voice, a mighty voice!
Acknowledge that strength belongs to God, with his majesty over Isra’el and his strength in the skies.