It is Christmas Eve! Which means we should be thinking about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We should be thinking about the divine mystery of the incarnation, God taking on flesh, dwelling among us. Or we should be thinking about the gift of family and time with those we love. But, for some of us—especially if you are under a certain age—right now you are probably thinking about what you will be getting, or what you hope to get, tomorrow morning!
But, you know what, God loves presents. The Bible tells us that God loves to give presents to His children. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change,” (James 1:16-17). If the verse starts with “do not be deceived,” then that means that there is a good chance we are going to be deceived! We are going to think that the good and perfect gifts we enjoy in life don’t all come from God, but some other source.
Here is what that deception looks like: God and church are here to give us the important, “spiritual” things we need—but they are like vitamins. A good supplement for your diet, but you don’t live off vitamins alone! You need real food, real life too. Snowboarding, beach vacations, warm brownies, and jokes with friends—those aren’t very “spiritual” but they feel like the things that make life worth living. We are going to be tempted to think that there is a division between “spiritual” things like Bible reading, sermons, prayer, etc. and “unspiritual” things, like food, family, and fun. James says, “No, every good and perfect gift, everything that makes you happy comes directly from God.” And if that is true, then that means that God cares about our joy!
Psalm 51 is a plea for mercy, for cleansing, an admission of a broken heart—but it is also a plea for joy.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
- Ps 51:7-12
The Source of Joy
“Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me,” (Ps 51:11)
Under the Old Covenant (the time before Jesus came), the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell individuals the way He does under the New Covenant—this verse shouldn’t be understood to be saying anything about the experience of a Christian under the New Covenant losing their salvation. This is referring to the work of Spirit under the Old Covenant, where He would fill individuals, usually leaders, to empower them for a specific task, like ruling as king. But David remembers Saul who had the Spirit taken from him. Now that David has experienced God’s presence and He is fearful that he will lose it.
But I want to argue that David’s plea throughout this psalm for his joy to be restored and him to not lost God’s presence are one and the same. Give me joy and give me God are the same requests.
We see the connection between joy and God’s presence in some of David’s other psalms:
“For you make [the king] most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence,” (Ps 21:6)
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore,” (Ps 16:11).
It is God’s presence that brings David such joy. Think about what brings you joy, what makes you happy. Earlier in Psalm 16 David explains, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance,” (Ps 16:6). David is expressing gratitude that the circumstances of his life have been so wonderful, so fortunate. That is usually where our joy comes from. You stick your hand in the pocket of a coat you haven’t worn for some time and pull out a twenty-dollar bill, you are surprised by a kiss from your spouse, the meal turns out even better than you were expecting. You are taken aback. You have a sense of gratitude and surprise: the lines have fallen in pleasant places for you.
But does that mean that our experience of joy is dependent on favorable circumstances? Can we only be satisfied when life is awesome? That can be what it feels like sometimes, right? But, if “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore” are found in God’s presence, then does that mean that God’s presence is limited to favorable circumstances? In Psalm 4, after God reveals the “light of [His] face” on David, David writes: “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound,” (Ps 4:7). More joy!
David’s source of joy was God’s presence—what is yours?
Practically, this means we can be content, regardless of our circumstances. The question to ask in whatever situation we are walking into is: will God be there with me?
“I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye. I rejoice in being exactly what I am — a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look a while out the window. I gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty Hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe and then sit down and think myself one of the happiest beings in it,”
- An unknown, poor Methodist woman’s journal entry in the 1800’s (Quoted in Steve DeWitt’s, Enjoying God in Everything, p. 62)
The Restoration of Joy
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. (Ps 51:8)
David has probably not heard much joy lately. He has heard weeping, the weeping of Bathsheba as she mourns her husband, mourns the death of her child. He has heard himself lying, distorting, defending, and finally confessing. He has heard the whispers of others who now speak about the shameful fall of the once mighty king. It is interesting that David says that he wants to hear joy and gladness—not just feel joy and gladness but hear it. He longs to be immersed in joy and gladness so that he hears it.
David’s joy has been lost, so He asks God to restore it. A cloud has passed between him and the Lord, he cannot feel the warmth of God’s sunshine, he cannot experience the joy he once knew. Sin comes with a terrible price. Sin preys upon our natural appetites for joy—we were made for joy—but sin offers synthetic, false joy.
When David was walking on his roof and first caught a sight of Bathsheba bathing, there was already a deficit of joy in his heart. If there wasn’t, he wouldn’t have indulged in the sin! David knew what he was doing was wrong. But it just looked like too good of an opportunity to pass up, a shot at being happy. But now, the forbidden fruit that looked so enticing has turned into gravel in his mouth—he is even less happy than before! And so he asks God to let him hear joy again, to even let his broken bones rejoice.
God has broken David’s bones. The consequences for his sin have been severe. But, David asks that God may grant his broken bones joy. Sometimes, in order to restore our joy, God must first break us. Break us of our arrogance, our pride, our cleverness, break us down until we stop searching around for alternative sources of joy besides Him. God has laid David low, God has humbled him—but He has done so precisely because He is committed to David’s joy. And God is committed to your joy—and if sin has bent your legs so that they have grown crooked, then God, in His love, will break that bone to reset it so that your legs will be straight and function the way they ought to.
Sometimes, the path to joy must come through the valley of sorrow.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Ps 51:12)
So, on top of his requests for mercy and cleansing, he asks God to restore the joy he has lost. More specifically, David wants the “joy of [God’s] salvation” to be restored. What is that? God’s salvation is whenever God intervenes to deliver and to save. David has seen God do this over and over again through his life, from when he was a child and was rescued from the paw of the lion and the bear, to being rescued from the hand of Goliath, to being rescued from the hand of Saul. When God steps in to save, He reveals both His power and His heart. God is the One who is able to save and the One who is willing to save. When David asks God to uphold him with a “willing spirit,” I think he is saying essentially the same thing—God, are you still willing to save a person like me?
Salvation is a revelation of who God is. This is why there are many places where the Bible can actually equate salvation with God, like in Isaiah’s song:
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isa 12:2-3)
With joy you draw waters from the wells of salvation because God’s salvation is none other than a disclosure of God Himself. Here is a silly analogy. Think of the person that you considered to be unbelievably cool when you were in high school. It may have been a fellow student, or some famous person: an athlete, an actor, a musician--whoever. And let’s say that your senior prom rolls around and you have no date and you are just humiliated, everyone has told you “no.” And then, Mr. or Ms. Incredible shows up and says, “Nothing would make me happier than if you would join me at the dance.” Your shame is wiped away entirely and you are overjoyed that such a person would even notice you, let alone want to be your date. That’s an imperfect analogy, of course. You may be excited because of your own vanity, how good you now look with such a date. When God saves us, we aren’t thinking about ourselves at all—only Him.
Here is another analogy. In the Lord of the Rings, when the last bastion of mankind is about to fall to forces of evil, and about all that is left is Gandalf and Pippin, suddenly the horns of Rohan sound out from the hills: reinforcements have arrived to save the day! But listen to Pippin’s experience of hearing those horns: “But Pippin rose to his feet, as if a great weight had been lifted from him; and he stood listening to the horns, and it seemed to him that they would break his heart with joy. And never in after years could he hear a horn blown in the distance without tears starting in his eyes.” (Return of the King)
David saw this in the ways that God has delivered him. We likewise see this in how God delivers us. How has God shown you both His power and His willingness to intervene on your behalf, to deliver you from evil?
Able: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them,” (Heb 7:25). God took on flesh, the Son of God become Man, in order to bear your sins at the cross and pay your debt you owed. This restores your joy because you now can be brought back into a right relationship with God, the source of your joy!
Willing: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,” (John 17:24). Jesus wasn’t dragged against His will to the cross; He freely laid His life down because He desired that you would be with Him, forever.
For the joy of our salvation to be restored, we must reflect on both what God has done on our behalf and His willingness to do it. Jesus has saved you to the uttermost, and He desires to save! We must fixate our hearts upon those truths so that, like Pippin, whenever we hear the horns of salvation, whenever we are reminded of the cross, our hearts too break for joy.
Joy comes from being in God’s presence. Sin robs us of joy, but God’s salvation in Jesus delivers us from sin and brings us back into God’s blessed presence.
The God of Joy
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Ps 51:18-19)
Aaron already covered these passages last week, but I just want to draw your attention to the language of God’s own happiness. David asks God to do good to Zion according to God’s own pleasure, in His pleasure—as in, according to what makes God pleased, happy. Then, God will “delight” in right sacrifices, be happy in sacrifices. We have been talking about how we can rejoice and be happy, but what of God’s joy? Is God happy?
The Bible tells us that God rejoices in doing His people good (Jer 32:41; Deut 30:9); He delights in showing steadfast love (Mic 7:18); He takes pleasure in those who hope in Him (Ps 147:11). Jesus invites us to spend an eternity in His own joy: “Enter into the joy of your master,” (Matt 25:23). Psalm 115 tells us, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases,” (Ps 115:3).
Consider Jesus’ words in John 15: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full,” (John 15:11).
This is crucial to understand. The joy of God is what is offered to us. Jesus’ words are a gateway into the very happiness of God. What is the essence of God’s own happiness?
…and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt 3:17)
The Father loves the Son, the Father is well pleased with the Son. The happiness of God is the inner-Trinitarian delight in one another. It is their mutual love and fellowship. Picture the most enjoyable, satisfying moment of your life. Take a minute to think about it. Maybe a wedding day, or the birth of a child, or some exquisite experience—whatever it is, hold it in your mind. Now, imagine if the object of your delight wasn’t just an experience, but was somehow made into a person—so that you are not merely interacting with an event or object or memory, but a person. And then let’s imagine that the object of your delight, the person, is scrubbed clean of any flaws, any defects; anything that was lacking or disappointing in that experience is removed and they are perfectly beautiful, good, righteous, satisfying, and infinitely interesting. And then imagine that you are scrubbed clean of any defects, so that now all of your receptors and taste buds for joy are fully operational, there is no sickness, no ignorance, nothing inhibiting you from fully delighting in what is good, true, and beautiful. And then imagine that you know that this other person finds you infinitely desirable, satisfying, and lovely. And then imagine that this isn’t merely a moment, but is forever.
There is a certain point in that thought experiment that our mind just hits the end of its tether. We can’t imagine what it is like to perfectly delight in another, to be endlessly interested in someone else, to imagine someone not finding any flaw in us. But that is because we are not God. However far your mind can run before it hits the end of its leash, just look along the lines of the trajectory of thought and imagine what the triune communion of eternal delight, love, and joy would be, and we may come but to the fringes of God’s eternal happiness in Himself.
So, when Jesus says “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full,” (John 15:11), this is the joy He is referring to.
Why this matters…
God Wants You to Be Happy
An eternally happy God made you, made this world, made everything. The nuclear reactor of the cosmos, the seat of all creation, is the happy, loving, triune God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, loving, delighting in, and enjoying each other. And out of the overflow of their eternal joy, they have created this world, created you. And you are made in their image, which means that your desire to be happy is given to you by God.
Our sin, Satan, and the world has cast a spell upon us that has tricked us into viewing God with a side-eye of suspicion, to become skeptical about His heart for us, to actually view God as a Person who is contrary to our joy. We are parched travelers who have somehow come to view the clear mountain stream as an obstacle to the slaking of our thirst. But this spell can be broken through the gospel of Jesus Christ. When the birth of Jesus is announced, the angels tell the shepherds: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” (Luke 2:10-11).
“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing,” (C.S. Lewis).
Chase the Sunbeam
God has filled this world with a panoply of pleasure, joy, beauty, and delight. Receive all of it as a good gift from your Father the way all gifts should be received: with gratitude and adoration.
Children, if there is one thing that your parents do not want you to do tomorrow, it is to open up a present and then refuse to enjoy it or refuse to thank them for it. The gift is given so that you would be happy and in your happiness, you would turn to mom or dad and say, “Thank you!” And God has given you a million gifts in life so that you would rejoice and delight in them, be happy in them. And through your happiness, would then stand back and say: Wow, if this gift is so good and comes from God, then what must God be like?
“Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary [flashes] are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun. If I could always be what I aim at being, no pleasure would be too ordinary or too usual for such reception; from the first taste of the air when I look out of the window…down to one’s soft slippers at bed-time.” (C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcom).
“I walked out to the hill just now. It is exalting, delicious. To stand embraced by the shadows of a friendly tree with the wind tugging at your coattail and the heavens hailing your heart, to gaze and glory and to give oneself again to God, what more could a man ask? Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth. I care not if I never raise my voice again for Him, if only I may love Him, please Him,” (Jim Elliot).
Notice what Elliot does here: his eyes are open to the beauty of the world around him. But he doesn’t stop there. The beauty flings his heart up into delighting in God Himself. Elliot knows that the hilltop view and friendly trees are just signposts of beauty, pointing to the Source.
Long for Heaven
In Heaven, we will finally get to experience the fullness of God’s eternal joy. We will finally shift out of first gear of our experience of joy. But because God is infinite, and unsearchable, that means that Heaven will be an ever-expanding experience of joy!
“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle)
