Communion with God gives power as well as gladness. The life of abiding with God is also one of strenuous effort and real warfare. In the context it is promised that God will be for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
The luxurious life of self-indulgence ends, as all selfish life must do, in the vanishing of delights. The life of joy in God issues, as all true joy does, in power for work and in power for conflict.
'God doth anoint thee with His odorous oil, to wrestle, not to reign.'
III. There will be a coronation day.
'In that day,' the day when 'the crown of pride shall be trodden under foot,' the people of God are crowned with the diadem of beauty which is God Himself. That twofold work of that one day suggests—
The double aspect of trials and sorrows.
The double aspect of death.
The double aspect of final Judgment.
'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.'
To be crowned or discrowned 'in that day' is the alternative set before each of us. Which of the two do we choose?