Weeping and Joy

This morning I read the following:

"This day is holy to the LORD your God;And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:9-10ESV)

I was honestly a bit shocked, as it was evident from context that this last phrase has been completely empty of the meaning that the context here clearly gives it.  I'm not sure how many songs I have sung about the Joy of the Lord being my strength.  But I've always thought of it in terms of relationships between the Lord, joy, and strength as in Psalm 28:7 (NKJV):

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
         My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
         Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
         And with my song I will praise Him.

That is, I have always meant that the Lord is in focus when considering the origin of the strength, and the Joy is a byproduct (of his help, provision, etc.).  As if I could hum a couple words of the song "The hmm hmm hmm Lord is my strength," and the meaning wouldn't change much.  And that goes with my basic outlook on life--Joy is a nice byproduct of what is right, when it comes, but don't count on it. But that doesn't do justice to the context of the words in Nehemiah.

So I did a search.  Certainly a song I've sung all my life could not be taken so wrongly from scripture, or else surely I could not have a minority interpretation of it that was never corrected?  The song must come from another use of the phrase in scripture.  But where?  I looked through six popular versions (how many can we get before the rest get at least one?!?!) for verses containing "joy," "Lord," and "strength."  And I found nothing of the sort anywhere, in any of them (fyi, I checked NIV, NASB, NLT, ESV, KJV, NKVJ -- I didn't bother with the ones that have come out since I was a kid).

So I'm left to hope that I was the only one who didn't get it, and never got corrected.  But it certainly doesn't look to me like Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites didn't have Joy as a byproduct of faith in mind.  Joy seems to be an appropriate and necessary response to  the holiness of God.

Which brings me to another issue that seems to keep coming up.  It seems we Americans (at least) have a hard time talking about sin, unless it is someone else's, or collective (essentially still someone else's).  We don't like to admit that we are guilty, and that our sins deserve death, and oh, so much more.  But it seems like we miss the point/context of the Good News if we don't get sin.  Otherwise, from what are we saved? Or is the good news that we had a pretty good life, and Jesus made it better? So I've spent a lot of time thinking and talking about the reality of sin and its consequences, since that seems to be a message that is otherwise absent.

But here the people get their sins.  The people wept when they heard the law because they had listened to it, understood it, and applied it to their lives (collectively and/or individually might not be distinguishable here?).  They knew their lives were contrary to the word of God and that He had wrath--righteous anger--against them, because of it. And so they were crying.  Which again matches the way I have thought: if we're guilty, then we should feel it, and showing others (genuinely) doesn't hurt.  But this wasn't right.  The people heard God's word for the first time in a long time, and it convicted them.  But hearing His word also made the day holy (I presume that's what did...), so weeping wasn't the appropriate response-- Joy was.

Which brings me back to my issue.  We don't get the Gospel if we ignore sin, but we don't get it either if we stop at sin. There have been traditions that have been criticized for focusing on sin, and perceived to walk around morose all the time. I think they're generally more right than the Sunday morning rock concert-goers, but the problem for us all, I think, is to hold the two both firmly, and keep applying them both.  The holiness of God, and the application of his word to our life brings grief, for we are sinners.  But it also brings Joy, because He is holy, and as well our God (which should be enough to make our heads spin!)   If God in Christ has accepted us despite our sins, having paid for them himself, how can we not have joy?  Jesus is both Just and the Justifier of the ungodly (i.e., us), how can we not have Joy?  If in our confession of sin, Jesus shows himself faithful and just (how can you be both faithful to a sinner and just at the same time?), and if He not only forgives us of our sins, but also cleanses us from all unrighteousness, how can we not have joy?  I confess that, as hard as I have made out joylessness in Christ to be, I have managed it enough times.  So I guess I may have pushed a bit too far on 1 John 1:8, and need to focus more on v 9 (8-10 will come in time, I presume!):

⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (1John 1:8-9 ESV)