A Song of Joy

I've been teaching the adult Sunday School class on how to meditate. We've done that by looking at a Psalm and taking it apart together. Sunday we were looking at Psalm 100 and the idea of joyful singing, when someone asked a question that went something like, 'How do you sing joyfully when life is hard and you don't feel up?' In response I opened a nearby hymnal and read the first verse of this hymn:

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Holy his will abideth;
I will be still whate'er he doth;
And follow where he guideth:
He is my God: though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path;
I know he will not leave me:
I take, content, what he hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait his day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking:
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet am I not forsaken;
My Father's care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to him I leave it all.

This is a song of joy. We sometimes sing it with tears because of the bitterness of the cup Jesus has placed in our hands. But we sing it and that because it is true, because it is our hope, because Jesus is made to look good as we do sing it. We need to learn more songs like this so that we can sing them, with joy, when life is hard and that to the glory of Christ and for the protection of our souls.