Joy

We are continuing in our Advent series for this Christmas season, as we not only remember the first Advent of Christ, or his first appearing on earth, but we also look forward to his second coming when he gathers his people together as his bride to live with him forever.

In our first week of Advent we looked at Psalm 33 and the hope we have in Christ. (Light Hope Candle) We saw that as Christians, having hope means that we are not wishing for a result but trusting that God will do what he says.

Last week, we looked at Psalm 23 and the peace that we can find in God as our Good Shepherd. (Light Peace Candle) We saw how God brings us to green pastures, still waters, and is with us in the valley of the shadow of death. We concluded by looking at the life of Horatio Spafford, who lost his wealth in the Chicago fire of 1871, lost his 4 daughters at the time to a boat collision on their way with Spafford’s wife to England. And in the midst of that grief wrote the song, “It is Well”, about the peace we can have in Christ in the midst of our trials and tribulations.

This week, we look at Psalm 16 to see the joy we have in being God’s children. (Light Joy Candle) When we put the Lord before us as the focus of our lives we can have joy no matter what circumstances we are facing in this life.

Big Idea: True joy is found in our Heavenly Father

What is Joy?

The dictionary’s definition of joy is:

“a feeling of great pleasure or happiness that comes from success, good fortune, or a sense of well-being”

According to the dictionary, and how we can see the world in general interpret this concept, joy is circumstantial. Joy is a feeling we get based on what is happening to us or around us. The problem here is that the world does not define terms the same way as Scripture does.

Remember two weeks ago when we talked about hope. The world defines hope as a wishing for a certain outcome that they are uncertain will come to pass. While we saw the Biblical definition of hope to actually be a trust that God keeps his promises. When God says he will do something, it will happen because God does not lie. The timing may not be what we want or expect, but God always keeps his promises. Hope for Christian is having a certainty in God.

The same can be said for Joy. While the worldly definition of joy is circumstantial, the Biblical definition is about certainty. One theological website I read had this definition of Joy:

Joy is a feeling of good pleasure and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us.

This definition of joy is still about having good feelings or pleasure in life, but that sense of happiness is because of knowing who Christ is, not because of how great life is going around us.

I happen to really like John Piper’s definition of joy that he gave in an article for his DesiringGod blog:

Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world.

I agree with Piper, that joy does not come from us, but from God. It is a fruit of the Spirit that he cultivates in us through the process of sanctification. The Spirit grows hope and trust in us as we face hopeless situations in our lives. The Spirit grows peace in our hearts when we go through times of chaos and upheaval. The Spirit grows joy in our hearts and minds when the things around us may be falling apart, when we are mourning, or when we are in troubled times. Christian joy is also associated with contentment. When we are content, we find ourselves at peace with where God has us. Our peace is also facilitated by the fact that we are hoping, or trusting, in God’s plan and working in our lives. I told you in previous weeks that the different themes of Advent would be very intertwined.

So lets start digging into our text this morning from Psalm 16.

Psalm 16:8

I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

In this psalm we see David expressing his confidence in the Lord. He talks about his intentionality of keeping the Lord, “set…always before” him. Being called a man after God’s own heart by God himself, David lived a life of service to the Lord.

We too need to have this intent to keep the Lord before us. As your pastor, I cannot lead you in following after God if I do not have him always set before me. I cannot point my family to Christ if my life is not intentionally pointed at him. I cannot show this city, this valley, this county, or this state the true love of Jesus if I am not making sure to have the Lord as my focus each and every day.

Next Step: I will set the Lord before me daily by _________

This could mean that you need to be more consistent about reading your Bible. It could be that you need to spend more consistent time in prayer. These are practices that take time to work into your daily routine. If you need help figuring out ways to better set the Lord before you in your life, please come and talk to me or the elders after service to we can help encourage you in seeking after the Lord.

David says that God is always at his right hand. The right hand is a place of honor and strength. Today, according to scripture, Jesus is at the right hand of the throne of God. (metaphorical language since the God the Father is spirit and has no physical body) This image shows an attitude of highly honoring the Lord by David. By saying that the Lord is at his right hand, David is stating that God is his protector and strength. Again, this is not about the circumstances around David. Instead, this confidence that he has is about knowing who God is.

David knows that God is at his side and so he is not shaken. His trust in the Lord does not falter. He has his hope that God is with him and will take care of him, which in turn gives him peace in his circumstances.

Psalm 16:9

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.

Because David knows God is with him, and he knows the strength of the Lord, he is able to rejoice, to have joy in this world, to have joy in his life. He says that his flesh dwells secure. When we can trust the presence of God in our lives, it should bring a joy to us that can never be shaken. We can have a security in the one who created all things, that he is omnipotent (all powerful), he is omniscient (all-knowing, not caught off guard by something “unforseen”), he is omnipresent (he is with us wherever we are) There is no need for anxiety in the loving arms of God!

Turn with me to Psalm 139. This is another psalm of David in which he is talking about the greatness of God in which he addresses all three of these “omnis” of God:

Omnipotence

Psalm 139:13-14

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made

Omniscience

Psalm 139:16

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

Omnipresence

Psalm 139:7-8

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

For followers of Christ who have submitted their lives to the will of God the Father, there should be hope, peace, and joy in understanding God’s all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present nature! It should give us confidence, like it did for David, that God knows us intimately and has such kindness toward his children.

David spoke at the end of this verse of having security in the Lord. He said that his “flesh also dwells secure”. Again, this security has nothing to do with David’s confidence in himself or in David’s own abilities. Going back to verse 8 of our passage, his confidence and security comes from knowing that God is at his right hand. The security David felt went beyond the everyday troubles that he faced in his life.

Psalm 16:10

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

David’s confidence in the Lord helped him to know that God would not abandon or forsake his soul to Sheol. According to the website GotQuestions (which is a fantastic resource if you are looking for answers to hard questions about the Bible or theology), “The Old Testament taught life after death and that everyone who departed from this life went to a place of conscious existence. The general term for this place was Sheol, which could be translated ‘the grave’ or ‘the realm of the dead.’”

The New Testament equivalent is Hades because of the Greek language influence. Even in Greek mythology, Hades was not hell, but was just the place where the dead resided. Tartarus was the area of Hades that was specifically a place of torment for evil people when they had entered the afterlife.

Sheol was the afterlife with two different areas, a place of torment for those who do evil, and paradise for those who served God. We see this described in the book of Luke where Jesus tells a parable of the rich man and Lazerus. The rich man was in Hades and in torment, calling out to Lazerus who was with Abraham. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazerus to get a little water to cool the burning that he had to endure. But there was a chasm between them, set in place so that you could not go from torment to paradise or vice-versa. Once you were put in one of those two places in the afterlife, there was no going back.

So, David is saying that he has confidence the Lord will not abandon him to the place of the dead where he could see corruption. I believe David is saying he is sure that God would not send him to the place of torment within Sheol. Like David putting his faith in God to save him, when we have been made alive in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we no longer need to fear death.

How many of you who have had kids remember when they first told you that they were afraid of death? It is not a fun conversation to have. It can make your heart hurt a little bit. However, it can give you the opportunity to talk about life with Christ and the confidence we can have in him.

If you are made alive in Christ, you should know the security you have in him.

Turn with me to John chapter 6. Here in this passage Jesus is talking with the crowds of people who ask him to perform a sign so they will believe in him. Jesus tells the people that he has already done signs among them and they still do not believe. He says that he has come to do the will of the Father.

John 6:39-40

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Christ will lose nothing that is given to him. Those who believe in the Son of God will have eternal life. When you become a Christian the Holy Spirit works in your heart and mind to regenerate you from spiritual death to spiritual life, the spiritual life is eternal. Jesus does not lose those who have been given to him. He is not like us who can’t find our keys because we accidentally put them in the wrong pocket. Christ is one with God the Father and has those same “omni” traits. Christ always knows right where we are at and so we can never be lost when we have truly submitted our lives to him.

David also says that the Lord’s Holy One would not see corruption. In Christ, we are made holy. We are given the righteousness of Christ from his perfect life and sacrifice for us (righteousness clothes for sin clothes) when we repent of our sins and submit to his rule and authority. Jesus took our sin upon himself so that he could place his righteousness on those who submit to him. This makes us holy in the sight of God.

But this passage is also a Messianic prophesy. Our text today from Psalm 16 was the same passage that the Apostle Peter used in Acts 2 to describe Jesus to the mass of people who had heard Jesus’ disciples speaking in different languages on the day of Pentecost. Right after quoting our passage from Psalm 16, Peter tells the people how Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of this Davidic Psalm:

Acts 2:29-33

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

Peter says that David was not simply speaking of his own body and soul. Though David was singing about his confidence in God, he was also acting as a prophet, maybe not even knowingly, speaking about Christ, his descendant, who would be the ultimate ruler of all of Israel. Though David’s body did see “corruption” in that when he died his earthly body decayed, Christ’s body did not decay. He was raised to life again so that we may have life in him. This is why Jesus came during his first Advent. He came not only to die, but to be raised again, proving that he is the Messiah, the Son of God who has come to take away the sin of the world.

Psalm 16:11

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

David declares that the Lord makes known to him the path of life. I do not believe David is saying that God showed him the answer to every single decision he had to make. There are times in our lives when God makes answers to decisions very obvious for us. There are also times when we have to make tough decisions that could go either way. And even after we make the decision and start to walk that path, we could feel like it was the right choice or a very wrong choice. However, I believe God reveals the path of right living (Psalm 23) which in turn leads to life. I believe that God gives us the wisdom to make choices that will most honor him. Sometimes we make that right choice the first time. Other times we are given second, third, tenth, or hundredth chances to make the right choice.

Next Step: I will ask God for wisdom in making difficult decisions.

Doing this does not mean that your choices are going to be easier, but you may find yourself doing a lot less second-guessing about the choices you have made when you sincerely ask the Lord to guide you in what would bring him the most glory.

David says that there is “fullness of joy” in the Lord’s presence. When we submit our lives to Christ, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. God’s presence is with us. Knowing the saving work of Christ is at work in us right now should fill our hearts and minds with a joy that cannot be dimmed by the circumstances of the world around us. If you are submitted to Christ, you have been given life. You have been given freedom from the clutches of this world. You are no longer bound to eternal punishment for the ways you have rebelled against God. That should make you leap and shout for joy no matter what troubles you may be facing in this world. You must look past your present circumstances to what lays before us in eternity. This was Jesus’ approach to life as well.

Turn with me to Hebrews 12. The previous chapter of this book is a long list of people in the Bible who had an extraordinary amount of faith that God would provide. Hebrews 11 is often called, “The Hall of Faith,” or, “The Faith Hall of Fame.” But after the writer of Hebrews lists all of these Old Testament people who had faith in God while going through terrible and difficult circumstances, he says this:

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus went through a lot while on this earth. First of all, he came to earth as a human purposely leaving aside some of the rights and privileges of being in the immediate, infinitely holy presence of the God the Father, but still fully God, he became a human. He got tired. He needed naps. He needed to eat. He bled. He died. Jesus faced the limitations of the human body.

It was not just that he died, but he died a horrific death. He was beaten with rods, whipped to the point his flesh was probably falling off his body, had a crown of thorns forced onto his head, then had nails driven through his wrists and feet on a cross, and then hung up in shame for everyone to see as he struggles to lift his upper body enough to take the pressure off his diaphragm and fill his lungs with air to breathe. This is considered the most cruel and degrading form of execution ever known to man and the Romans were terrific at it.

That was not the worst thing that Jesus had to endure. When we say that Jesus took our place on the cross, taking the punishment that we deserved for our own sins, that means Jesus faced the wrath of God’s punishment for your sins and my sins. Every lie, every bit of gossip, every covetous thought, every act of adultery, every murder that is repented of when we turn from our lives of sin and submit our lives to Christ, the punishment for all of those acts of cosmic treason was placed on Christ as he hung on the cross. And he took upon himself the wrath of God, that would have been poured out on us at the final judgement. THAT is the sacrifice Jesus made for us. That is what it means when we say that Christ paid the price for our sins.

And yet, for the joy set before him, the JOY set before him, knowing what he would have to endure to get to that joy, he endured the cross anyway, despising its shame, and is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. Waiting to gather his people to himself, the ones he paid for, that we may join him in the presence of Almighty God.

At the right hand of God are pleasures and joys so unfathomable that we will be able to enjoy them forever and still likely not ever experience just how great the goodness of our God actually is.

Jesus is our model. He understood the road that he would have to walk here on earth and did it anyway because he knew the end of the story. We also know the end of the story. Its already written down for us. So what happens in this life cannot compare to the glory that will be revealed in us when we are with Christ in heaven.

Maybe you are here and you have no joy. You feel like there is nothing to look forward to. You have no peace. You have no hope. There is a God who can be trusted. In him you can know what hope really is. You can have a peace in life that cannot be understood by those around you. You can have contentment through difficult circumstances because you know that the trials of this life are temporary, and there is joy waiting for you on the other side. If that is you, I have a next step for you.

Next Step: I want my joy to be found in Christ.

If that is you, the elders and I would love to pray with you, encourage you, and talk with you about what it means to follow after Christ, to submit your life to him. Today is the day to find joy that is secure and can never be shaken.

Let us Pray.

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