I’ve always liked a good “makeover movie.”
Do you know the kind I’m talking about?
In films like Sabrina and My Fair Lady, audiences cheer to see the main character go from grunge to glamour. Because, typically, this transformation opens up a whole new life for her. Within the span of two hours, she’s either gotten the guy or the dream job and she’s well on her way toward a happy ending.
Now, we all know this tidy plotline is unrealistic, but it reflects the way many people—even we Christians—pursue happiness, today.
We think that if we can just be spectacular in some way (in our work, appearance, ministry, etc.), the right people will appreciate us and we’ll finally feel happy.
And so we give ourselves makeovers and stack self-help books on our nightstands.
We try to improve ourselves all the way to a happy ending.
But Psalm 149:4-5 offers us a glorious alternative: a special kind of joy we don’t have to work for and we don’t have to wait for.
It says:
“For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. Let the godly ones exult in glory; Let them sing for joy on their beds.” (NASB, 1995)
God delights in us and God beautifies us.
These two truths lead to a joy we can enjoy today.
God delights in us
The Psalmist tells us: “… the LORD takes pleasure in His people…”
This is pretty astounding! The Lord is filled with delight and joy when He looks at us. But it’s not because we are spectacular enough to warrant that—we aren’t!
We’re just ordinary folks…
- who wake up and go to work, day after day.
- who clean bathrooms, do dishes and forget to dust.
- who take unexpected phone calls and rush to sit by sickbeds.
- who say the wrong things and have to apologize more often than we’d like.
- who more closely resemble the “before” than the “after,” in those beloved movies of ours.
And yet, despite all this ordinariness, Scripture says God delights in us. Why?
God delights in us because we’re His.
We’re His creation: Each of us was woven together by His hand in our mother’s womb and we bear the signature image of our Maker. He ordained the exact moment we’d come into this world and now God delights to see us live the lives He gave us—no matter how ordinary they may seem.
We’re also His children: When we were at our worst—far from home and caked with sin—God still loved us enough to buy us back with His own blood. Now, we are His in the truest sense of the word: we are His children. As a result, God delights when we live into this new relationship. Whether we’re talking with Him about the needs of our day or listening to Him speak through Scripture, simply being with God brings joy to His heart.
How encouraging to know that God delights in imperfect, ordinary people like us. But this isn’t our only reason for joy.
God Beautifies us
The Psalmist says, “He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
Even though God loved us in our “before” state, He didn’t leave us there. The moment we were saved, God began making us over. He began beautifying us with salvation.
You know, the Hebrew word used here for “salvation” is “Yeshua,[1]” which is also the Hebrew spelling of the name Jesus.
So this is what I draw from that:
Even though we are just ordinary folks—rumpled by problems, drab with sorrows, and grungy with sin—God is making us beautiful with Jesus.
All of the kindness, holiness, peace and wisdom that is so captivating in our Savior, God is applying to our very souls.
It’s an inside-out makeover that makes us the best version of ourselves—with no self-help required. God Himself delights to make us into the people we were meant to be.
How this brings joy
In verse 5, the Psalmist responds to these two truths by, saying: “Let the godly ones exult in glory; Let them sing for joy on their beds.”
Our joy builds in tiny moments where we recognize and celebrate…
1. the honor of God’s delight in us: I love that the Psalmist calls us to sing for joy on our beds. Because you can’t get more ordinary than there.
When the makeup and fineries are removed and all that’s left is plain old us, God still looks at us with delight. This means that in all our other unimpressive moments, God delights in us, too.
Whether we’re folding laundry, paying bills, or just driving our usual stretch of road, God looks at us with joy, inviting us to catch His gaze and find our joy in communing with Him there.
2. the hope of God’s work in us:
There may be times we feel particularly afflicted—by trials, fears, grief and failures. But in these moments, we have a promise to cling to: “He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
If you’re afflicted, God is going to make you beautiful with Jesus. His hands are on you even now, fashioning you in the hardship.
You know, in the movies we spoke of earlier, there is usually a makeover montage where the girl is plucked and painted before our very eyes.
That’s where we are in our own stories. We’re not what we were, and we’re not what we will be. We’re living in the makeover.
But unlike in the movies, our happy ending has already begun. The God who loved us at our worst is with us now—working and delighting in the process. May we notice and share His joy today.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my reading plan: “Accessible Joy” To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along!
©2024 Paige K. Burhans
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation. www.lockman.org
[1] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3444.htm
