Joy- The Berometer of the Believer's Heart

Joy is the essence of our inner being’s atmosphere.

When Joy is lacking or even missing:

When joy is no longer present in the believer’s life or the life of the church, there are 3 main places to consider as the cause:

Ignorance- We do not know that we are to be joyful.

Sin- blockages of the inner being that halts the joy we know of, yet that joy is absent.

Refusal- I can’t or will not permit myself to know joy.

Each of these places deserve review for us as individuals and as a church.

No Joy due to Ignorance, being unawares that it is available and real:

Psalm 4:7-8 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” 7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

(Psalm 5) 11  But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;let them ever sing for joy,and spread your protection over them,

(Psalm 20) 5 May we shout for joy over your salvation,and in the name of our God set up our banners!May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

No Joy because of sin: actions of transgression or disobedience. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

The psalm of this condition is Ps. 51 “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 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. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Because of Refusal to be Joyful: what!

Refusal is the expression of self. It is a focus on self over what God has done for us. This is a great temptation that can lead to a unique lifestyle of disobedience and self indulgence.

In 1965 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, published a book entitled Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, which became one of the most highly valued and widely circulated books he ever wrote. The only conceivable reason it has been so popular is not that the subject itself is attractive, but that so many people, including Christians, are depressed and looking for solutions. We are all depressed at times. We get down in the dumps. We sing the blues. We feel that God has forgotten us and that we will never be able to get on track with God again. It is a condition the old mystics accurately labeled “the dark night of the soul.”

Boice, James Montgomery. 2005. Psalms 42–106: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Since most of us are downcast at some time or another, we turn naturally to a psalm that asks honestly and forthrightly, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?”

How does this come about? Refusal to be comforted: This is a part of grief: Matt. 2.18, “18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”” (Jer. 31.15)

then there is a personal connection: more than loss- Psalm 77:2-3 “2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. 3 When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah”

Psalm 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation 6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. 8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

CAUSES OF SPIRITUAL DEPRESSION:

Forced absence from God’s presence- captivity or unable to be with the people of God, the desire is there, but not attainable.

Taunts & Teasings of Unbelievers. there was the constant challenge to God’s people, “where is your God?” That is a cause for deep depression. Where is God indeed? Where is God when I am in a far country, separated from my usual work, taunted by enemies? Why doesn’t God seem to hear my cries? Why doesn’t he intervene to change my circumstances?

Memories of better days—

Seeing God as a failure, he didn’t act quickly on your behalf, or in the way you desired. Feeling of ‘being forsaken”.

Attacks from ungodly, deceitful, and wicked persons (43:1). The second of these two psalms brings in another cause of depression. It is attacks by unscrupulous and deceitful enemies. this connects to item 2. It is mentioned in Ps. 43.1. Most of us can relate to this too, since it is not unusual for those who try to live for God to be unjustly accused, attacked, and slandered. Jesus said, “You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.… If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:19–20). It is an unusual person who will not be occasionally depressed by malicious and hurtful treatment.

Cures for and the Restoration of Joy- seek joy, not happiness. Seek a Reality over circumstance.

The world turns to many false cures.THE SEEKING OF HAPPY, not JOY.

Some people try to escape the depressing realities of their lives through divorce, excessive entertainment, or frequent vacations. Some pop pills. Some are on habit-forming drugs. There must be millions who echo the thoughts of the young character Mallory of the television program Family Ties, who said, “When I get depressed I go shopping.

the author of this psalm is that he does not give in to depression or self-pity but rather takes himself in hand and wrestles through it. He reminds himself of what he really knows and finds that “no reasons for being cast down are so strong as those for elation and calm hope.”

Fight for it; He challenges himself to do what should be done; He reminds himself of a great certainty: GOD!

It is a case of the mind speaking to the emotions rather than the emotions dictating to the mind: “You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’—what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’—instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way.”

. The second step in the battle against depression follows from the act of addressing oneself in this manner.

To “hope in God” leads to the final step in the crusade against depression, the reminder, based on the character of the God we trust, that “I will yet praise him.” This is a great certainty. God has not changed. Therefore, his purposes for me have not changed.

Reflection Song: “why am I downcast?” will you allow God to search your heart? Will you permit yourself to know real Joy?