Psalm 69:32 (YLT) The humble have seen--they rejoice, Ye who seek God--and your heart liveth.
There is an important lesson here and in other places of God's Word, namely that humility and gladness go together. What do the humble and the joyous have in common? They both lookup. The humble are those who don't look down on anyone. The truly humble look up all the time. They have to look up because their eyes are on God, and He's above them. The joyous are always looking up as well, otherwise, they wouldn't be rejoicing.
The joyous are believing the Good News, so they rejoice! The prideful, however, are those who think they're above everything else and so they look down on people. The prideful are connected to the others who look down, the cynical, the doubting, the despairing, the depressed, the sorrowful, and the hopeless. In the same way that the humble and the joyous go together, so do pride and despair. Humility leads to joy. Pride leads to despair.
Let's get our eyes off of ourselves, off of our problems, off of the world around us. Let's fix our eyes on Him, the Redeemer of our souls. Those who look up in humility, also lookup in joy! Together, let's fix our eyes on Him and be glad!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]As we continue our study of the men who followed David, let’s look at their boldness — the boldness of lions! We also need this boldness in the face of the enemy who is “like a lion”, himself….a roaring lion.
As we continue our study of the Mighty Men of David, another quality is worth pointing out — they were not procrastinators. Notice that these men decided to cross the Jordan river when it was at flood stage! They didn’t wait till the river receded, but rather, boldly crossed when it was the most dangerous!
As David grew in stature those who stood by him increased in number, devoting themselves to fight with him. Though it was a time of adversity for David, and a time of warfare, he found that there were many willing to join their lives to his; "...a brother is born for adversity"; and "there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother". Again we note that David's anointing and his character made him a friend to many...and many became his loyal friends.
In the 1970s when the Alaskan Pipeline was being constructed many Texans went to Alaska to work on the pipeline alongside the Eskimos, native Alaskans. However the Texans could only work a few hours in the frigid weather, while the Eskimos could easily work for hours on end.
A program by National Geographic gives a powerful illustration for us. In the great annual wildebeest migration in Serengeti National Park in Africa a giant herd, thousands of wildebeest, slowly move in groups across the plain. They are invariably followed by stalking lions. But the lions never attack the herd – they simply watch carefully for the stray wildebeest, either careless or seeking greener grass, who separates himself from the larger groups of animals. The isolated wildebeest will become the sudden prey of the lions who attack with lightening speed and ferocity.
50,000 soldiers from the tribe of Zebulun served in David’s army with UNDIVIDED (some translations: “not double-hearted”) hearts. Can you imagine a skilled army with this level of loyalty and devotion?
The mighty men that followed David were of one mind and heart to make him King. Their recognition of David’s anointing may have been the most significant quality of these Mighty Men. What was it in David that drew out this deep loyalty? I believe it was God’s Holy Spirit which David received when Samuel anointed him king.[1 Samuel 16:13].