Meditations on Christian Joy, Part One
I remember a preacher once saying that we all looked like we had swallowed a pickle. Instead of joy on our faces, we evidently looked glum. Clearly, God wants redeemed sinners to know joy, but can we just change the expression of our faces and have joy? Hardly.
A cursory read through the Psalms, for example, reveals that genuine God-fearers may occasionally look like they have swallowed a pickle. Many of the Psalms are laments. David, and others, frequently express “disquiet of soul,” a downcast countenance, sorrow and grief. In Ecclesiastes we are reminded that; “there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:4). Christian joy is not a denial of reality. It is not a grit your teeth and bear it attitude that we force ourselves to adopt to paper over pain, grief, or tragedy.
Happiness, on the other hand, normally depends on circumstances. Healthy…then happy. In a harmonious marriage…happy. Money in the bank…happy. Sunshine…happy. Normally, we don’t expect people who don’t have enough money to pay their bills to be happy. Or those in abusive relationships. We don’t expect people struggling through sleet on their way to work to be happy while cold drizzle runs down their back. In fact, if they pretend to be happy, we think them strange. Generally, pleasant circumstances make us happy.
Fifteen months ago, God called my wife of 61 years home to heaven. Fortunately, most of my family and peers didn’t expect me to get over my grief quickly. Yet some Christian writers who have gone through grief write as if “the joy of the Lord” will quickly triumph over tears. So, this subject is very personal to me.
I am not alone in dealing with grief. All around us there are a multitude of those who have been abandoned, abused, widowed, or struggle with cancer, the loss of a child, or a mental illness of some kind. What do we expect God to do for them? Should we expect them in a reasonable length of time to break into joyful song? Paul and Silas did while in prison. Clearly, we need to look deeper.
After the exiles returned from Babylon and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, Ezra read “from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.” When they saw how far short of God’s moral standards they had acted, they began mourning and weeping. However, Nehemiah and the leaders urged them; “This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). They found joy in God’s covenant love which had led to their return from captivity and the restoration of their city and land.
The prelude to joy is an acknowledgement of our sinfulness and need of forgiveness. We cannot expect joy to pervade our beings if we are self-righteous and judgmental of others, if we harbour unconfessed sin or lust, if we pilfer from our boss or spread gossip. Joy comes when there is nothing but a sense of God’s forgiving love between us and our Saviour. Joy comes from a source outside of ourselves.
Isaiah writes that we will joyfully draw water from the wells of salvation. (12:3) Wells of salvation? We can’t obtain water unless we have a source, in this case, a well. To get a well we first have to dig it. In the case of Christian joy, we’re fortunate that God steps in and metaphorically digs a well in our hearts that bubbles up with joy. How does he do that? By calling us to faith in Christ. We become born again. He takes away our stony hearts and gives us new hearts, tender, and sensitive to his love.
Clearly then, the prerequisite to know joy is to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ who bore our sins upon the cross. In a biblical sense if we do not have salvation, we have no well from which to draw up draughts of joy. But being saved means we have an inexhaustible source of joy through meditation on our forgiveness, adoption, reconciliation, justification, and many other facets of redemption.
Of those who know his salvation, God declares that he has made known to them, “the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Psalm 16:11). That might indicate that this joy is not fully known until we go to heaven. But no, joy is offered along “the path of life” as we walk with a sense of God’s presence. Having that sense is crucial.
Do we know God is near? Do we believe that “underneath are the everlasting arms?” With David do we realize that God is beside us, ahead of us, behind us, beneath us? (See Psalm 139.)
Jesus makes it clear that the impact of his message on his disciples is “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). His joy. Gospel joy. Christian joy. This joy cannot be experienced outside of his message. Ignorance of his teaching muddies the well and rusts out the bucket. Are we daily drawing water from the descriptive well of Scripture?
There is much more to consider about this delightful subject.
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