Gladness of God
“You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
https://www.bible.com/114/psa.45.7.nkjv
Psalms 45 is a Messianic prophecy, meaning this psalm is a prophecy about the Messiah who was to come, Jesus of Nazareth. The truth is God is the most glad being alive. He is purely good, all that He does is good (“you are good and do good” PS:119:68). There is not one moment in eternity past present or future where gladness of God does not abound from His inmost being; it’s who He is. What I love here is that we get to the see the root of His gladness; He loves righteousness and hates wickedness.
God is righteous, it’s His very DNA; more than that though He loves righteousness. He takes great delight and pleasure in all righteousness. Because He is righteous and delights in righteousness in turn He hates wickedness, sin. If you want to understand God’s thoughts on sin look at the ugliness of the cross, now I know the cross also had other purpose it was the stake of love driven into the story of humanity for all eternity. But, it did also reveal the depths God was willing to go to in order to destroy sin and the effects of sin. He took on the human frame and subjected Himself to something that He as the divine would never have to experience; death.
At times as believers I don’t think we understand the key to gladness above all other companions (gladness above what all else has to offer) is in the place of loving righteousness and hating sin. Not just tolerating righteousness, which is what many do because they think righteousness means abandoning all fun or pleasure. This couldn’t be any further from truth righteousness is the way of pleasure, and the love of righteousness leads to being baptized in the very gladness of God. That you experience the delight that God experiences in righteousness.
More than that it is a hatred for wickedness, for sin. For this very nature and source that is in direct opposition of love and goodness; and that seeks to destroy any and all that embrace it. Beloved, the path to gladness beyond human comprehension is found in the place where we aren’t just practicing righteousness but where we in our inner being love and desire righteousness. And in turn we don’t just stay away from sin because it’s bad and it’s what we were taught to do; but that in our inner being because of the delight we have found in righteousness we despise the very thing that stands in opposition against righteousness. It is one thing to tolerate righteousness it is another to delight in it with your whole being. It is one thing to abstain from sin but it is another to truly hate it.
I myself long to step into this place in greater measure, to not tolerate any sin or wickedness in my life. To not be lulled into any form of compromise but to with my whole being love and long for righteousness, righteousness from the inward parts so that in turn my life will be filled with the oils of gladness. For my own life to be infused with the gladness of God far above my companions. Beloved it’s time that we stop viewing righteousness as God’s punishment against joy, and that sin contains all the fun. The opposite is the truth, righteousness is God’s hidden path to the garden of delight, to the garden of gladness. Righteousness is the DNA infusion of God that also connects to His DNA of eternal gladness.
I would like to write this prayer in closing, and I hope you will join in on this prayer.
Father, I ask that you would delight me with righteousness, that you would stir in my heart to love and long for righteousness with my whole being. That wickedness and sin would not be tolerated in my own heart, but that truly from my inner man as I delight in righteousness I would equally hate wickedness. Knowing that it robs me of my inheritance of eternal gladness in you. Father anoint me with those oils of Gladness, help me to see and feel how glad you are so that I will embrace the righteousness of God in me by the blood of your Son. In Jesus name amen!
