Many years ago at the church in which I grew up we used to sing a chorus which went “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Rejoice, Rejoice etc, etc.”

This song was of course based on Philippians 4:4. Normally when we are reading that section of Paul’s letter after we have read that verse we race onto verses 6 and 7 which encourage us not to be anxious about anything and present our requests to God and know his peace guarding our hearts and mind.

These are of course very encouraging verses and ones worth pondering regularly. However if you are anything like me you miss a very short sentence in verse 5 which reads:

“The Lord is Near.”

Today whilst looking at Internet Monk I came across a short talk written by Chaplain Mike Mercer who is one of the current guest contributors on that site at the moment. He said that this phrase was important in how we understood the text in Philippians 4:4-7 and that it changes the whole nature of the text.

Mike said the following concerning the meaning of the text:

What does it mean? There are two primary possibilities: (1) the Lord’s return is imminent, or (2) the Lord is near at hand (present to help).

Once we start to consider this then it helps us to gain a greater understanding of this famous passage. The whole talk can be found here.

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