In this episode of Pray the Word on Nehemiah 12:43, David Platt calls Christians to rejoice with great joy when they experience the goodness of God’s grace.
“And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and children also rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.”
– Nehemiah 12:43
What a great verse. You hear the repetition there, don’t you? “They offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and children also rejoiced and the joy of Jerusalem was heard,” five different times in one verse we see this picture of rejoicing with great joy. All the people rejoicing in a way that’s heard far away among the surrounding nations around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 12:43 Calls Us to Sing with Joy
Remember, these are people who had taunted God’s people when they were rebuilding the walls and said, “Even if a fox climbs up on those walls they’ll fall down.” Well, now in Nehemiah chapter 12, they are dancing on the walls, they’re marching around them, singing with great joy. What a picture of joy to the glory of God, how God gives joy to all who trust in him.
Joy that Surpasses Circumstances
A joy that surpasses circumstances, a joy that transcends suffering, a joy that nothing in this world can take away, contentment in Jesus and all that he is for us and all that he promises to us. Joy in God that resounds to the glory of God. So I just want to pray this over you and then for us to pray this together over the nations.
Nehemiah 12:43 Gives Us Pure Joy
So God, I pray, first, the people who are listening to this right now, I pray that no matter what they are walking through in their lives right now you would give them joy, pure joy, transcendent joy, no matter what their circumstances might be.
Rejoicing in Suffering
God, I know that some people listening to this right now are walking through really, really hard times but I also know what your word says in Romans 5, “How we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, not only so we rejoice in suffering knowing that suffering is producing endurance and endurance is producing character and character is producing hope, and hope will not put us to shame because your love has been poured into our hearts.”
And I pray James 1 over them, “They might experience pure joy and its trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of their faith produces steadfastness, and steadfastness leads us to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Nehemiah 12:43 Calls Us to Praise God
God, we praise you for the joy we find in you and we pray that you would help us to grow in our experience of that joy. I pray this over my life. I pray this over every single person who’s listening right now. And God, we pray you to help us to spread this joy when we think about people who’ve never heard the good news of your love for them, who’ve never heard the good news of how Jesus died on the cross for them to make it possible for them to have a joy that transcends anything this world brings them.
Praying for Those in Remote Peru
God, we pray for those people, people groups, to experience your joy. Let the nations let the peoples be glad in you. Let them rejoice in you. Oh God, we pray specifically today for the Ucayali, Ashaninka people of Peru, this remote tribe in the central jungles of the Peruvian Amazon. God, we pray that they would experience joy in Jesus through the spread of the gospel to them.
Praying for the Spread of the Gospel
God, please bless those who are working for the spread of the gospel. To them, please raise up others who can take the gospel to them. God, we pray for the spread of your joy far away among all the nations through our lives, through our families, through our churches. We pray that you would help us to walk and experience the fullness of this joy and to spread it to others right around us and far from us. God, we pray this according to Nehemiah 12:43. In Jesus’ name, amen.
View the 2022 McLean Bible Church Reading Plan.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
