Jabulani

Psalms 30-32

Jabulani is a Zulu word meaning come to bring happiness to everybody or rejoice. When the psalmist cries out to the Lord in Psalm 30 that the Lord would hear his pleas and have mercy on him, his resultant feeling was one of Jabulani... "You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!"

Oh that we would likewise be filled with joy, not from worldly things, but from the knowledge that the Lord hears our cries and has mercy on us. In the short space of time that it has taken me to write this entry, each of my three children has come to me asking for help -- to fix a bike, to fix a computer, to find some pliers to make a stink bomb device. The world begs us to engage it and to be consumed by it. Moving into Psalm 31, we see the answer "I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God." The only true rescue we can find from the world is in the blood of Jesus. If we will trust in Jesus... trust in God... depend upon his ways, he will cleanse us from our sins and take our guilt away. "So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!" Psalm 32:11.