For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. –Psalm 21:6
It’s so easy to find our joy in stuff. We do it every day but yet seemingly we remain unsatisfied. I just recently read that some 45 percent of Americans are unsatisfied with their jobs. I find this amazing considering the current economic situation that we find ourselves in. You would think that people would just be pleased to work right now. But dissatisfaction still persists. People still go about day by day looking for joy in things that will never provide the joy that they are looking for. Not even a steady paycheck can bring someone complete satisfaction.
The Psalmist puts it so well here in Psalm 21:6. For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. King David here has come to the understanding that only in the strength of the LORD can he rejoice. No doubt David was a man who was rich to the standards of the world. He had the money, the house, the girls, and the fame yet he says that his joy was being in the presence of God. We know that later in David’s life he tried to find his joy elsewhere; the beautiful, naked Bathsheba bathing on a roof. But we also know that his life was turned to misery for a time after that situation until God was put back in David’s place of joy.
The question for us to ask here is what gives us the most joy? Is it our hobbies, our spouse, our kids, our toys, or is it the only true and living God that we most delight in? Does the presence of the LORD bring you delight or is He just what you do on Sunday like every “good Christian”? Delight yourself in God! He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
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I have been thinking about the difference between joy and happiness. In Gal 5:22 joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Happiness is fleeting and often predicated upon our current circumstance. Joy however is second in His list of fruit we can and will bear if we abide in the Lord. The first gift is Love and I think that we should all seek to love one another as Christ loved all. This is only possible as we seek Him for that kind of love for others, I don’t think we can love as He loved unless He enables us to love that way. As we strive and seek Him to enable us to love as He loved, I think that we will experience His joy. His joy can not be stolen or lost it is from above. I also believe that His joy will come upon us as we are obedient to His will for us. When we do His will He becomes over joyed with us and that joy spills over all over us.