“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.”
Isaiah 61:10
If You’re Happy and You Know It…
Amongst the many songs sung during Sunday school growing up, one particular song was fun to sing: “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!” Other kids at church were also eager to join along because it involved actions and movements—stamping your feet, snapping your fingers, and going round in circles. The premise of the song is straightforward: if you are happy, then show it—exhibit it! Let your joy be made known!
What makes us happy and joyful? Is it when we complete deadlines, finish tasks, accomplish goals? Consider our walk with the Lord: are we currently experiencing and exhibiting joy in our Christian life? Do we still have the joy that accompanied our original acceptance of saving grace in Christ?1 Or do we lack joy?
A besetting sin, pressures of life, deadlines at work, tensions in relationships, can upset our life’s rhythm. And when we begin to sense a lack of control over situations and circumstances around us, it could feel like we are running on empty. How then, do we refuel?
The Spirit anointed Jesus with power so that Jesus would be honored in the work he did and words he taught that the will of the Father might be done.
Back to the Basics
It is crucial and beneficial, then, to go back to the basics; to rediscover and be reminded once again of the awe-generating truths, about the gospel found in the Word of God. Consider Isaiah 61:10a: “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.” When the prophet speaks for the redeemed remnant of the people of God, he shows us that joy is a response to the blessings from God. And “since the Lord bestows these benefits, it follows that from him alone we should seek and expect them.”2 Allow me to make two observations.
Joy in the Lord is of the Greatest Value
Firstly, joy in the Lord is of the greatest value. The first part of the verse says, “I delight greatly in the Lord”—My soul rejoices in my God. The source of the prophet’s joy is not in himself. He does not even have the ability to produce it. Joy is God-produced. How can this make sense in our life—presently and experientially?
We would do well to remind ourselves that the gospel is not just God’s initiating, life-changing, restoring act but a truth that needs to sink-in daily. “Real joy is not found in listening to yourself, it is found in listening intently to God. It’s found when your ‘delight is in the law of the Lord’ (Ps 1:2), when your happiness is tethered not to circumstances but to promises, when you can’t get enough of your Bible”.3 Let this be etched in our minds: Placing our faith and trust in Christ Jesus is a one-time experience. But growing in our admiration for this loving act of God is a daily endeavor.
God’s joy-producing ability is seen throughout Scriptures, especially the Psalms. Observe what the Psalmists have to say: “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound,” (Ps 4:7). “You make him glad with the joy of your presence,” (Ps 21:6). “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my joy and my delight,” (Ps 43:4a). As one Christian put it, “In himself, God is infinitely all sufficient, glorious, and all satisfying so that we say, there is nothing I desire beside you.”4
Joy is the Enabling Work of the Holy Spirit
Joy is the “delight in God because of the salvation in Christ, the reconciliation and being received as children.”5 And it is the Holy Spirit who moves our heart to not only understand this, but to experience and relish this truth. Thus, joy is the enabling work of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22). When Jesus quotes Isaiah 61 (while in the synagogue as mentioned in Luke 4), “he is indicating that he was Spirit-anointed to the people in the synagogue. The Spirit anointed Jesus with power so that Jesus would be honored in the work he did and words he taught that the will of the Father might be done.”6 Simply put, all that the Spirit wants to talk about is Jesus. He loves talking about Jesus.
We would do well to remind ourselves that the gospel is not just God’s initiating, life-changing, restoring act but a truth that needs to sink-in daily.
Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit who helps us to focus on Jesus, constantly reminding us of our gracious standing before the Heavenly Father made possible through the finished work of Christ. This is the sweet nectar of the gospel. This is why the Psalmist invites us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Ps 34:8a) and why the apostle Paul says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” (Rom 15:13).
Some Applications
To return to the original question I asked, how do we refuel ourselves? It is by going to the cross, to fall prostrate, and beseech the benevolent Father to fill our heart with a renewed sense and refreshed understanding of the gospel. And two ways we do this is through prayer and meditation on God’s Word, the ordinary means of grace. We go to God in prayer asking Him for wisdom (Jas 1:5) to be enthralled by His beauty and reflecting on God’s revelation of Himself as the Psalmist says, “Great are the works of the Lord, they are pondered by all who delight in them.” (Ps 111:2).
When we do this, our Father in Heaven promises us that “before they call, I will answer, while they are still speaking, I will hear,” (Isa 65:24). If besetting sin has set up camp in your heart, then we ask God to give us “a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,” (Ps 51:17). May the Holy Spirit convict us, producing repentance, and aid us to seek His help by praying, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me,” (Ps 51:12).
As another Christian puts it, “To obey God from the heart, that is to love, to adore, and enjoy him, feeding on him as a fire feed on oxygen is an end in itself. It is its own reward, because deeper obedience fosters deeper communing with God. Because God himself is the fuel on which we are made to run, such communion with him is the deepest and most solid joy we can know.”7 This is what the Puritans believed as well: “True happiness is not a flippant circumstantial feeling, but a deep and abiding joy in God that draws its source from the fountain of Joy: God Himself.”8
- How to Restore the Joy of Your Salvation // Roland Kalifungwa – TGC Africa
- John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, 316.
- Real Joy Has an Address
- Joe Rigney, Strangely Bright, 48.
- H N Ridderbos, Commentary on Galatians, 207.
- Bruce Ware, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 107.
- Dane Ortlund, Surprised by Jesus, 52.
- The Chief Ends of Man? How Westminster Weds Glory and Joy | Desiring God
