In the middle of a wonderful benediction in Psalm 20, David breaks in to say something like, “By the way, when the LORD answers you, the rest of us will be right there with you, rejoicing in God’s provision. In fact, we’ll post it on the company website: “GOD ANSWERS PRAYER. YOU WON!” Way to go God! Pour it on!”
Actually he says it this way:
We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests.
— Psalm 20:5
This seems to be the Old Testament equivalent of “Rejoice with those who rejoice…” (Romans 12:15). You probably know the rest of that sentence: “…and mourn with those who mourn.”
God’s people are not always good at this — rejoicing and mourning with others. The German word schadenfreude (shod-en-froidah, more or less) denotes the pleasure derived from witnessing another person’s misfortune. You’d think God’s people would be above that but who hasn’t felt a little guilty pleasure at seeing someone fail in the marketplace or political arena now and again? We (I) do not always love well.
Sometimes I think that as bad as God’s people may be at helping those who are hurting, we may actually be worse at genuinely rejoicing when things go well FOR SOMEONE ELSE.
Too many of our own selfish motives get in the way of rejoicing in the good fortune of others.
When we rejoice in an answer to our prayer or when God provides in that way only God can, we are usually glad to share the good news with others. And, most of the time, we find ourselves a bit disappointed that others aren’t more excited for us. But don’t we act the same way when others receive good things from God? They tell us good news and rather than entering into their joy we are quick to say something that makes us look good by comparison (as if we were in some sort of zero sum game where there is only so much blessing to go around and we are out to get ours). What killjoys we are (what a killjoy I am).
That is not the spirit of this great Psalm. Here there is enough and more than enough from God’s hand. Here, we celebrate God’s goodness to others. Here we buy a full page ad in all the papers that says “GOD IS CRAZY ABOUT MY FRIEND AND SO AM I!”
