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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.
Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns. When I do, they will again say of Jerusalem, ‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells.’
At that time Israel will be the third member of the group, along with Egypt and Assyria, and will be a recipient of blessing in the earth.
He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them and descended from making the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering.
Stay in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will fulfill the solemn promise I made to your father Abraham.
So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you will Israel bless, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”
Their descendants will be known among the nations, their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that the Lord has blessed them.”
because of the God of your father, who will help you, because of the sovereign God, who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb.
What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess.
“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
Look, the sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior; his military power establishes his rule. Look, his reward is with him; his prize goes before him.
Like a shepherd he tends his flock; he gathers up the lambs with his arm; he carries them close to his heart; he leads the ewes along.
Who has measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand, or carefully measured the sky, or carefully weighed the soil of the earth, or weighed the mountains in a balance, or the hills on scales?
Who comprehends the mind of the Lord, or gives him instruction as his counselor?
From whom does he receive directions? Who teaches him the correct way to do things, or imparts knowledge to him, or instructs him in skillful design?
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales. He lifts the coastlands as if they were dust.
Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice; its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings.
All the nations are insignificant before him; they are regarded as absolutely nothing.
To whom can you compare God? To what image can you liken him?
A craftsman casts an idol; a metalsmith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it.
“Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and tell her that her time of warfare is over, that her punishment is completed. For the Lord has made her pay double for all her sins.”
From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields.
And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion; it cannot be upended and will endure forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, now and forevermore.
The Lord will protect you from all sickness, and you will not experience any of the terrible diseases that you knew in Egypt; instead he will inflict them on all those who hate you.
The Lord God, the God of Israel, deserves praise! He alone accomplishes amazing things!
His glorious name deserves praise forevermore! May his majestic splendor fill the whole earth! We agree! We agree!
Look, you will summon nations you did not previously know; nations that did not previously know you will run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he bestows honor on you.
The Lord will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions.
For they were pleased to do this, and indeed they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.
For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil of his eye.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand be crippled!
May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, and do not give Jerusalem priority over whatever gives me the most joy.
Indeed, you had little before I arrived, but now your possessions have increased many times over. The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?”
Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,” says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.
The Lord takes notice of us, he will bless – he will bless the family of Israel, he will bless the family of Aaron.
He will bless his loyal followers, both young and old.
Because you have obeyed me, all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.’”
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name and that of your descendants.
Then the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you and persecute you.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
However, there should not be any poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he is giving you as an inheritance,
This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Look I will raise my hand to the nations; I will raise my signal flag to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Certainly the Lord has chosen Zion; he decided to make it his home.
He said, “This will be my resting place forever; I will live here, for I have chosen it.
When the Lord restored the well-being of Zion, we thought we were dreaming.
At that time we laughed loudly and shouted for joy. At that time the nations said, “The Lord has accomplished great things for these people.”
Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land.
I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms.
I post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. You who pray to the Lord, don’t be silent!
Don’t allow him to rest until he reestablishes Jerusalem, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. You will be lord over your brothers, and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.”
The river’s channels bring joy to the city of God, the special, holy dwelling place of the sovereign One.
“‘I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries; then I will bring you to your land.
I will sprinkle you with pure water and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.
Make your tent larger, stretch your tent curtains farther out! Spare no effort, lengthen your ropes, and pound your stakes deep.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your children will conquer nations and will resettle desolate cities.
The Lord’s city is in the holy hills.
The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
People say wonderful things about you, O city of God. (Selah)
“I will pour out on the kingship of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn.
I will turn them and the regions around my hill into a blessing. I will make showers come down in their season; they will be showers that bring blessing.
The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.
May he increase your numbers, yours and your children’s!
May you be blessed by the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth!
This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Look I will raise my hand to the nations; I will raise my signal flag to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings will be your children’s guardians; their princesses will nurse your children. With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you and they will lick the dirt on your feet. Then you will recognize that I am the Lord; those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
Hear what the Lord has to say, O nations. Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea. Say, “The one who scattered Israel will regather them. He will watch over his people like a shepherd watches over his flock.”
God springs into action! His enemies scatter; his adversaries run from him.
for you live among them. You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.
The Lord speaks; many, many women spread the good news.
Kings leading armies run away – they run away! The lovely lady of the house divides up the loot.
When you lie down among the sheepfolds, the wings of the dove are covered with silver and with glittering gold.
When the sovereign judge scatters kings, let it snow on Zalmon!
The mountain of Bashan is a towering mountain; the mountain of Bashan is a mountain with many peaks.
Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, at the mountain where God has decided to live? Indeed the Lord will live there permanently!
God has countless chariots; they number in the thousands. The Lord comes from Sinai in holy splendor.
You ascend on high, you have taken many captives. You receive tribute from men, including even sinful rebels. Indeed the Lord God lives there!
The Lord deserves praise! Day after day he carries our burden, the God who delivers us. (Selah)
As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God.
For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord who rules over all.
In the future the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure as the most important of mountains, and will be the most prominent of hills. All the nations will stream to it,
At that time men will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made for themselves to worship, into the caves where rodents and bats live,
so they themselves can go into the crevices of the rocky cliffs and the openings under the rocky overhangs, trying to escape the dreadful judgment of the Lord and his royal splendor, when he rises up to terrify the earth.
Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?
many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so he can teach us his requirements, and we can follow his standards.” For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.
Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!
Then if you and your descendants turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being just as I am commanding you today,
I also call on you to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Acknowledge God’s power, his sovereignty over Israel, and the power he reveals in the skies!
You are awe-inspiring, O God, as you emerge from your holy temple! It is the God of Israel who gives the people power and strength. God deserves praise!