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Sep 26 - Oct 2, 2021
by Pastor Danny Fitelson, M.Div.
⬆️ Sermon begins at 35:31 ⬆️
Day 1: Joy in the Old Testament
Day 1: Joy in the Old Testament
There are several Hebrew words for joy found in the Old Testament.
SUS can refer to an inward gladness. "I delight greatly (SUS) in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God" (Isa. 61:10).
RINAH is a vocal expression of joy. "Weeping may stay the night, but joy (RINAH) comes in the morning" (Psa 30:5). "May we shout for joy (RINAH) when we hear of your victory" (Psa 20:5). Rinah is a common Hebrew name – in fact, one of our teachers at Treehouse Preschool is named Rina!
GIL is an unbridled enthusiasm. The word has the connotation of spinning around in circles. "But be glad and rejoice forever (GIL) in what I will create" (Isa. 65:18).
There are at least ten other Hebrew words to describe joy, gladness, and rejoicing. As we will see tomorrow, the cause of this joy in Scripture is usually God and his Word. “Joy is a quality, not just an emotion, grounded upon God and derived from God”[1]. Nehemiah 8:10 says of a faithful believer: "the joy of the Lord is your strength." 1 Chronicles 16:27 uses the word joy to describe the very presence of God: "strength and joy fill his (God’s) dwelling." The Old Testament describes both people and God with the word “joy”.
Reflection
What do you think – is joy a quality or an emotion?
When is a time you experienced SUS? RINAH? GIL?
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[1] New Bible Dictionary, 464
Day 2: Joy in the Psalms
Day 2: Joy in the Psalms
In the Psalms, joy is a response to God’s blessing. There are over 80 mentions of joy/rejoicing in the Book of Psalms.
God’s word is a source of joy – “The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart” (Psa. 19:8). While we might sometimes feel like God’s rules are a drag, the Israelites were ecstatic that their God cared about them enough to show them “the path of life.”
God’s presence fills a person with joy – “Let the light of your face shine on us. Fill my heart with joy” (Psalm 4:7). “You will fill me with joy in your presence” (Psa. 16:11).
Joy is the appropriate response to being saved: “restore to me the joy of your salvation” (Psa. 51:12).
C. S. Lewis called joy “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.”[1] He was careful to differentiate joy from happiness and pleasure.
Last night my kids made homemade ice cream for the first time. They poured half and half, sugar, and vanilla extract into a Ziploc, sealed it, and then put it into a larger bag containing ice and rock salt. The result? Pure joy. Here’s the thing: my kids love ice cream, but I don’t think this was just happiness about getting a sweet treat. They had CREATED something of worth. They were pleased. They saw and tasted, and it was good.
Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but happiness over being handed an ice cream cone is different than the joy of experiencing something for the first time, of creating, and of being pleased with your creation.
As we saw yesterday Isaiah 65 describes joy in God’s creating: “But be glad and rejoice forever (GIL) in what I will create” (Isa. 65:18).
Perhaps, as beings created in God’s image, we feel joy when we do the things that also give God joy?
Reflection
Can you relate to feeling joy over God’s Word? Presence? Salvation?
Is joy ONLY found through God? Or can it be found in other ways?
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[1] Lewis, Surprised By Joy, 17-18.
Day 3: Joy in Psalm 23
Day 3: Joy in Psalm 23
Paul Sailhamer says: “Joy is that deep settled confidence that God is in control of every area of my life.”
Psalm 23 puts the reader in the position of a sheep and God as the shepherd. With God as our good shepherd, we lack nothing. He guides us, he leads us, he restores our soul. We have confidence that God takes care of us because he loves us.
Oil can represent joy in the Old Testament, and in this psalm, God anoints our head with oil, resulting in our cup overflowing. This relates to the first verse of Psalm 23 – we lack nothing and shall not want because God is providing everything that we need. So much so that our cup is running over!
There is a joy in knowing that God will take care of us. That he will guide us and provide for us and so we don’t need to worry.
Joy is not found when it is sought as an end in itself. Joy is a by-product of life with God[1]. Maybe we ought not to think of joy as something that is produced when something good happens, but as something that exists in us when we are trusting God. If we ever find ourselves thinking: “I won’t feel joyful unless this or that happens,” then perhaps it is not joy that we are seeking.
Reflection
How does joy relate to faith? Can there be joy without hope?
Do you agree that joy is not found when it is pursued above all else?
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[1] New Bible Dictionary, 464.
Day 4: Joy in the Gospels
Day 4: Joy in the Gospels
The New Testament has the same view of joy as the Old Testament. There is a Greek word for a loud shout of worship (agalliao) and another word for communal joy (euphraino). We find joy mentioned over 40 times in the gospels, with chara being most common (this may be where the names Cara/Kara come from).
Joy surrounds the birth of the Messiah in the Gospels. Upon drawing near his cousin Jesus, John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:44). Soon after, the angels proclaim “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10) at the birth of the Christ child.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus often explains the reason for his actions is to deliver a total supply of joy:
Jn 15:10-11: “I have told you this so my joy may be in you and your joy made complete.”
Jn 16:24: “Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.”
Jn 17:13: “But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
A Greek word that is common to joy (chara) is grace (charis). While these words have distinct connotations, they seem to share a cognate. I had never thought about the relationship between joy and grace before, but perhaps they are not too far off. Charis also means ‘gift,’ and we think of Jesus as being a gift and extending us grace. A natural response to being given a gift and being extended grace is joy.
Reflection
Can you think of a time when a gift you were given resulted in joy?
Can you think of a time when you were extended grace and it resulted in joy?
Day 5: Joy in Acts
Day 5: Joy in Acts
The Book of Acts contains two of my favorite depictions of joy in Scripture.
Post-Pentecost Communion
After Pentecost, we read that "the disciples broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad (agalliao) and sincere hearts" (Acts 2:46). I love having people over to eat, and it appears that the apostles did too. Ecclesiastes 9:7 says: "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do." Though our stoic Swedish ancestors may disagree, eating, drinking, and being merry is OK (Ecclesiastes 8:15). This is a picture of biblical joy!
Paul and Silas in Prison
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are imprisoned in Philippi. They are stripped naked, beaten with rods, and flogged. Then they’re taken to an inner cell (they didn’t even get a room with a view), and their feet are fastened in the stocks. However, the very next verse, Acts 16:25, says:
"About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them."
This is not the response we would expect after hearing about Paul and Silas's suffering! It has been said that joy is not dependent on circumstances - God’s joy can fill us and be our strength no matter what else is going on in our lives. Joy can be a choice we make, as well as something we cannot control.
I love the contrast that these two images from Scripture provide. Joy is not limited to super-spiritual occasions, nor is it dependent upon us having had a good day.
Reflection
When you think of joy, do you think more of the scene in Acts 2 or the one in Acts 16?
What is one of your favorite depictions of joy from Scripture?
Day 6: Joy in the Epistles
Day 6: Joy in the Epistles
As the early Christians began to discover the type of life that God was calling them to, they wrote hundreds of letters back and forth to individuals and to churches. Some of these letters found their way into our Bible as epistles. There is frequent mention of joy in the New Testament epistles, especially joy amidst trials.
In 2 Corinthians 6:10, as people challenged his authority as an apostle, Paul writes, “we know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable.” In 7:4 he says, “in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.”
Christians are going to have trouble, and when we do, it is OK to grieve. We are permitted to feel sorrow when hardship comes. But even during difficult circumstances, God’s work in us can produce a joy that cannot be expressed or extinguished. The word happiness comes from the word ‘happening.’ Happiness results from something happening to us. It is circumstantial. It is a feeling. Joy, however, is an attitude that is independent of circumstances. It is a choice. “Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional.”[1]
The epistles make it a point to say that not only can we have joy in the midst of trials, but we can rejoice that these difficult occasions make us more like Jesus.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).
Joy is produced in suffering. It is God-given, not of ourselves, and stems from the realization that we “get to” suffer as Jesus did.
Lewis Smedes once said: “You and I were created for joy, and if we miss it, we miss the reason for our existence… If our joy is honest joy, it must somehow be congruous with human tragedy. This is the test of joy’s integrity: is it compatible with pain? Only the heart that hurts has a right to joy.”
I heard a news story that in Spring 2020, when COVID-19 cases were at their peak in New York City, subway workers began bringing with them small bottles of the dish soap, Joy, to display next to their work stations for passersby to see. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, in May 2020, started Project Joy, a new initiative to spread joy to first responders and front-line workers with donations of ice cream. Amid terrible loss and tragedy, we cling to joy and feel compelled to spread it to others.
I could say more about this, but all next week will be about joy and suffering.
Reflection
Have you ever felt joy during a time of suffering?
How can suffering make us more like Jesus?
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[1] You Gotta Keep Dancin’, Tim Hansel, 54-55.
Day 7: Conclusion
Day 7: Conclusion
Tim Hansel says there are two reasons why people miss joy:
They have preconceived notions of what joy is supposed to be:
They try to cling to some experiences to keep and preserve them – a “we should never have left Egypt” mentality[1]
Hopefully, this study is helping you understand what joy is and what joy is not.
I am learning that it is hard to differentiate joy from love. Love is listed first in the fruits of the spirit, but joy is second (Gal. 5:22). These are attributes of God that the Holy Spirit brings out in us when we put our trust in Him. And the third fruit mentioned is peace. Someone once said that joy holds love and peace together.
We usually think of ‘love’ when we consider others we are fond of, but the Apostle Paul describes people, particularly those he has seen grow in the Lord, as “our joy”:
“For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20).
Our joy can be people. That is biblical. The people of Thessalonica brought joy to Paul. Maybe it’s a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, or a child who brings you joy.
The point of all of this is joy. Life, death, God, people, earth, heaven…flip to the end of the book, and you find that it all ends in a joyful banquet, a celebration!
“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:1-4).
If there is one thing the Bible is clear about when it comes to joy, it is always possible for God to do a new work in us. He is willing and able to change our hearts and “turn our mourning into dancing again” (Psa. 30:11).
“Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice” (Psa. 51:8).
Reflection
How are love and joy similar?
Who is “your joy”?
When is a time when you actively refused joy? What changed?
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[1] Hansel, 136.
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