11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Introduction
Our world rocks from a pleasure explosion! According to a leading news magazine, Americans will spend an estimated $913 billion dollars on movies, music, and sports this year. This preoccupation with pleasure takes on many different forms. Seventy-five million campers spend more than eight billion dollars on camping vehicles equipment and campground fees. This year, 28 million tennis enthusiasts will spend more than five billion dollars playing or watching the sport. Twenty-five million golfers will vie for playing time on 15,000 courses. Bicycle and snowmobile manufacturers must push to meet the increasing demands of the public. America is hard at play!
As we study God’s word, we find three specific kinds of pleasure: sinful pleasure, legitimate pleasure, and eternal pleasure.
For 40 years Moses indulged in the wisdom and wealth of Egypt. All the opportunities of this great nation were his. But he turned his back on it all, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25).
Let’s be honest. Sinful pleasure provides enjoyment. Satan is not such a fool as to fish without bait. All pleasures, of course, are not sinful. God intends for his children to enjoy many legitimate pleasures. Paul writes to Timothy that it is the “living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).
Each one of us should make time for legitimate pleasure. A bow kept under constant tension loses its resilience; it is the same with us. But we must be on guard. Seemingly innocent pleasures can choke out our spiritual lives. Sometimes a simple thing like a boat or an automobile develops into an idol. An innocent hobby can become an obsession.
While this world offers some temporary pleasure, God’s word talks about another kind of pleasure. David said, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11). This is eternal, lasting pleasure; it is pleasure forevermore.
Does that describe what you are looking for in life? Is that what you want? Fullness of joy? Happiness forevermore? If so, you need to know where it is found. It is found on the path of life, at the right hand of God. Eternal pleasure—the fullness of joy—is found in knowing and doing the will of God.
The Bible not only tells us this; it demonstrates it. Look at the life of Jesus. The secret to his great life is that he lived continuously in the will of God. The same is true of the apostle Paul. Though his life was filled with hardships, difficulties, and dangers, he was radiantly joyous. He describes the will of God for us as good, pleasing, and completely satisfying. It lacked nothing necessary for completeness to the apostle Paul (Romans 12:2).
To this I want to add my own testimony. If I had planned my own life, I would have cheated myself. As I look back across the years at my life I realize that had I done my will instead of God’s will I would have missed life’s best for me.
If you want to find the fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore, you also need to find and fulfill the will of God for your life. Since the will of God is so vital to us, perhaps the most pressing questions we can ask are “What is the will of God for my life?” and “How can I know God’s will?”
I offer three suggestions:
1. We must read the book.
First, you can know the will of God through his written word. Most often when we think of the will of God, we think in terms of vocation and location. We have heard so many religious leaders and missionaries speak of God calling them into his service and leading them into some dark distant place that we have a distorted view of the will of God. The emphasis of the Bible is most often on character. God is far more concerned about what we are than what we do for a living or where we do it. In fact, if we aren’t what we should be, it doesn’t matter where we are or what we do.
Look at the scriptures for a moment. Peter tells us that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That clearly declares that it is God’s will for every person to be saved. He wants us to become his children—to become Christians.
It is also the will of God for us to be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 4:3). The word sanctified means “to be set apart for God’s use.” Sanctification has more to do with whose you are than what you are. God wants you to belong totally to him—to be totally dedicated to him. Once you know that you’re his, you won’t have to wonder, “Should I tithe? Should I witness? Should I go to church?” If you wholly belong to the Lord, then you will do those things.
The scriptures also tell us that God wills that we be thankful (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The mass of humanity can be divided into two classes: those who take things for granted, and those who take things with gratitude. Christians ought to belong to that second class. We are to be grateful in all things. The more we mature and grow in our faith, the more we realize that even in times of trouble we can be thankful because God can take even the bad things and work them for our good (Romans 8:28).
Finally, it is the will of God that we be examples (1 Peter 2:15). The Lord wants us—by the good life that we live—to silence the critics of the Christian faith.
In every area of life, everywhere you go, you are to live so that men are drawn to Christ. You see then, that when you know the word of God, you have answered many of your questions concerning the will of God. This will save you from many foolish acts and attitudes.
Years ago, in the days of the Civil Rights Movement, three young civil rights workers disappeared in central Mississippi late one afternoon. A subsequent FBI investigation revealed that the Ku Klux Klan had killed them. When word of this came to some of the leading politicians in Mississippi, they claimed, “God wills it.” Only God knows how many atrocities have been committed throughout history under that guise. If we know the Bible, then we know better.
2. Answer when God calls you.
Second, we can know the will of God through what Peter Marshall called “a tap on the shoulder.” Marshall was the pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and chaplain of the United States Senate.
In his book Mr. Jones, Meet the Master, Marshall has a chapter entitled “A Tap on the Shoulder.” It is his spiritual autobiography. He tells of growing up in Scotland and never knowing his real dad. He was raised by a jealous and ill-tempered stepfather who drank too much. Peter ran away from home to escape the unpleasantness of his stepfather and went to sea at the age of 14. Later in life God called him into the ministry and eventually led him to America, where he pastored some of our finest Presbyterian congregations.
At the close of the chapter he says, “By what right does a man stand before his fellows, Bible in hand, and claim their attention? It is not because he is better than they are; it is not because he attended a theological seminary and studied Hebrew, Greek, and theology; but primarily, it’s because he is obeying a tap on the shoulder. God has whispered in his ear and conscripted him for the glorious company of those voices crying in the wilderness of life.”
That “tap on the shoulder” that Peter Marshall refers to is a spiritual impulse, a profound conviction, a clear impression, or a divine nudge from God. God tapped Moses on the shoulder when he was tending his father-in-law’s sheep on the backside of a mountain. God tapped Amos on the shoulder when he was picking the fruit of sycamore trees. God tapped Peter when he had just finished washing his nets in the Sea of Galilee. God tapped David Livingston on the shoulder while he was working in a mill in Scotland. He tapped William Carey on the shoulder while he was cobbling shoes in England. And he tapped D. L. Moody on the shoulder while he was working as a clerk in a shoe store in Boston. And God tapped me on the shoulder as a 16-year-old high school student.
God has and still does impress, nudge, and call people into his service. Through these divine impressions he makes his will known to us. When we find it and do it, we are walking the path of life. In it we find the fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore.
3. Look for open doors.
Third, you can know the will of God through the doors he presents to you. Open doors are the providential opportunities that God sends your way. Clarence E. Macartney tells of driving across Chicago with William Jennings Bryan. They passed the coliseum where Mr. Bryan delivered his famous address at the Democratic Convention in 1896.
In that speech he concluded with the famous statement, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” That famous speech made him three times the candidate of his party for the presidency. As they passed the coliseum, Dr. Macartney said, “Mr. Bryan, I suppose many times you have made speeches just as great as the one delivered here, but they were never heard of.” Mr. Bryan replied, “Yes, I suppose so, but the convention meeting here was my opportunity, and I made the most of it. And that is about all we can do in this world: use or lose our opportunities.”
General Douglas MacArthur pointed out, “In this world there is no such thing as security on this earth; there is only opportunity.” When God wants us to do something, he always provides the opportunity. In the book of Acts the apostle Paul tells us that he had determined to carry his missionary efforts into Asia, but God stopped him. He then decided he would go to Bithynia, but God stopped him again. Finally the Lord gave him a vision of a man in Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us out.” Paul immediately concluded that God wanted him to go into Europe (Acts 16:6-11).
That is the way of God. He will close one door and then open another so that we might be in the right place and do the right thing. He will make whatever he wants us to do possible for us to do.
David Livingston wanted to go to China, but China and Britain were at war, so he couldn’t. Instead he went to Africa. Considering the great work that he did there, this was obviously the will of God for him. Adoniram Judson wanted to go to England, but the immigration officials would not let him into the country, so he went to Burma instead. Evidently that was the will of God for him. When God closes one door, he always opens another.
However, we cannot interpret every open door as an opportunity from God. When the internationally known religious cartoonist Jack Hamm was in college, he faced a great dilemma. He wanted to be both a cartoonist and a preacher. He had done both. He had a small pastorate in his native state of Kansas and another in Chicago while attending Moody Bible Institute.
To supplement his small pastoral wages he worked on well-known comic strips such as Alley Oop and Bugs Bunny. One day a cartoon syndicate asked him to start a detective strip of his own. For most cartoonists this would have been a dream come true. But for Jack Hamm, it would have meant giving up his desire to preach the Gospel. So he resigned his job, packed his bags, and headed for Baylor University in Waco, Texas, to study religion.
After he received his degree from Baylor University, he joined the Baylor art faculty and eventually became head of that department. Finally he decided that his most effective ministry would be to use his drawing board as a pulpit, and he did that work for many decades. That open door to draw his own comic strip was not an opportunity from God.
George Beverly Shea also saw doors of opportunity that were not from God. In the spring of 1946 a friend called and asked him to audition for the Lyn Murray Singers at the CBS Studio in Chicago. The Lyn Murray Singers was the outstanding singing group of that day. While he was waiting his turn in line, George Beverly Shea learned that the job paid $75 a week. That was more than double what he was making at his present job. Furthermore, it offered national radio exposure on CBS. He saw so many singers being turned down that he considered sneaking out the side door and not even auditioning.
When he did sing, Mr. Murray liked him and asked him to sing some of the music that the group used in their performances. After George Beverly Shea read through the music, he found a line that he felt uncomfortable singing. It read, “And to hell with Burgundy.” He said that when he was a boy, he would have had his mouth washed out with soap for saying things like that. He faced a dilemma. That night he prayed about it and thought of the hurt that might come to his family from this. He also thought of the radio and church singing he had been doing, and of the disappointment it would bring to people he had been helping. He decided that it was not the will of God for him.
The next day he received a telephone call from Lyn Murray’s secretary. She said, “Mr. Shea, congratulations. You are now one of the Lyn Murray Singers.” George Beverly Shea swallowed hard and answered, “Thank you for the invitation, but I decided that I won’t be able to accept the job. Please tell Mr. Murray that I appreciate his kind offer.” They called back again, trying to sell him on the idea of singing with the group, but he held firm.
Just a few months after that he was in a camp with Dr. Will Houghton, the president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. After he had sung, Mr. Houghton said, “Bev, have you ever considered Christian radio as a vocation?” He replied, “No sir, I haven’t.” Mr. Houghton said, “Well, we have an opening this fall at WMBI, the Moody station in Chicago, and I think you may be able to fill it.”
A few days later he received an invitation from Dr. Houghton to join the staff of WMBI and he accepted. It was his exposure on radio that opened the door for him to join Billy Graham, and he thrilled the hearts of people through the years.
So not every open door comes from God. But when those open doors do come, we must pray and discern whether it is God’s will for us to go through them. God has promised to give us such guidance if we seek it. He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 that we should trust in him with all of our heart. We should not lean to our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge him. Then he will direct our paths. It is our responsibility to seek God. It is God’s responsibility to direct us. If we will do our part, he will most certainly do his. And when we do, we find the path of life, fullness of joy, and happiness forevermore. Who could want more than that?