The Bible is full of joy! The term ‘joy’ has hundreds of mentions! But it often talks about joy in unexpected ways, and these make all the difference. As C.S. Lewis put it, in his Letters to Malcolm, ‘Joy is the serious business of heaven.’
Starting with joy
The creation account is permeated with joy, even though the term is not used explicitly. As God speaks creation into being, forming the cosmos and then filling it, we find the repeated refrain ‘And God saw that it was good.’ There is a powerful sense of God rejoicing in what he has made, and it is a joy he invites us to share. When the first human sees the partner God has made from him and for him, he bursts forth in a song of joyful recognition – a joy that is to mark all human relationships.
In the psalms, we find the creation rejoicing in God – and God in his creation [Psalm 104:31]. And within that, his people rejoice in both his care and his power, and two great psalms of rejoicing [Psalms 95 and 100] have formed the backbone of Anglican worship for centuries.
Joy in the Lord
But what is striking here is that joy comes primarily, not from the world in its own terms, but from the world as the creation of God. More specifically, it is the action of God in the world that brings joy – ‘the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for me … therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices’ [Psalm 16:6 and 9]. In fact, joy springs from relationship with God and being in God’s presence:
In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. [Psalm 16:11]
