Perhaps this time, the tone of that analysis will be different. After all, some of the politicians set out to campaign with joy. However, once the “honeymoon” period was over and the campaign trail became more challenging, the rhetoric became hostile and deeply personal. There has been very little demonstration of joy on either side as this election cycle ground towards a conclusion.
It probably didn’t surprise many that that joy so quickly drained away. Experience of life shows us that, so often, “journeys” that begin with joy end in disappointment.
The truth is that there is only one way for joy to be deep-seated enough that it remains despite the trials of opposition, rejection, and loss, and that way is not rooted in ourselves, humanity, or political parties or systems. God and God alone is sufficient to sustain a joy that is permanent.
In Psalm 16:11, the psalmist simply writes, "in Your presence is fullness of joy". David had his fair share of difficulties during his life, but in this statement he shares with us where lasting and full joy can be found. Not in circumstance or chance, but in a relationship with the eternal God, the one in whom David put his trust (v.1).
Verse 2 tells us that this relationship is personal: "You are my Lord" and that his own "goodness is nothing apart from You." David had come to realise that joy comes through living in the experience of God's salvation. Have you been saved? Do you understand that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world to be the Saviour that we need? Our sin has separated us from God and we are therefore divided from the one person who can give us that lasting joy we desire. It is no wonder that the angel who announced the birth of the Saviour said, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people" (Luke 2:10). Great joy because, at last, there would be the opportunity to "be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20) “through the death of His Son (Romans 5:10).
Throughout the psalm, David’s focus is on the Lord. He sees the Lord as his inheritance and the one who maintains his position (v.5); the one who gave him counsel (v.7); the one who is always before him and at his right hand (v.8); the one who will be with him even through death and who will raise him to life again (v.10); the one who shows him the path of life (v.11). It is because of this relationship and these experiences with God that he can say, "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope" (v.9). He has proved through experience that "in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (v.11).
For the believer, joy through even the darkest trial is possible because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Joy – cheerfulness and calm delight – is part of the fruit that comes as we allow the Holy Spirit control of our lives (Galatians 5:22). God is unmoved by the circumstances and happenings of this world because there is nothing that can rock His purpose. The Holy Spirit is God and therefore brings such serenity and joy to the believer who walks in fellowship with Him.
For the God of the Bible is a God of hope. Listen to the prayer of the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:13: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." It is as we believe the promises of God, that we can be sustained by joy, peace, and hope by the power of the Holy Spirit; it is as the Spirit fills us, that joy will also fill us (Acts 13:52). This is the kind of power that enabled a follower of the Lord Jesus, who faced death every day as he served God, to say that "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). Paul could face death knowing that to enter into death would simply be to enter "the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24).
Closely linked to the indwelling Holy Spirit are the Lord's words in John 15:11: "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." Jeremiah could say, “Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). Fellowship with God comes through dwelling on, and obedience to, God's Word. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to apply the Word of God to our lives as we meditate on it, and then to empower us to live it. John adds his testimony to this truth in his first letter, "these things we write to you that your joy may be full" (1 John 1:4), because this flows from the fellowship that is "with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" (v.3).
It is a remarkable truth that, while for us fullness of joy lies in being in the presence of God, our presence with God also brings joy to Him! Luke 15:10 says "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Even more wonderful, perhaps, is that it was the prospect of those who would be saved that sustained the Lord Jesus through the darkness of the cross: "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). As the hymn says:
He who in His hour of sorrow
Bore the curse alone;
I who through the lonely desert
Trod where He had gone;
He and I, in that bright glory,
One deep joy shall share—
Mine, to be forever with Him;
His, that I am there.[1]
Let us not look to our politicians or celebrities to gain joy. It is impossible for true, lasting joy to be found in any such person or political system. Let us seek it where it can be found, in the reciprocated enjoyment of the person and presence of God.
[1] Gerhardt Tersteegen, ’Midst the darkness, storm, and sorrow.
