Everyday Joy!

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

The last few years have not been years I want to repeat, nor continue to live in. I have had loss, I have had grief upon grief. I have had some really difficult circumstances thrown my way. This season has been a hard one. I am afraid my face has shown it, my demeanor has shown it and at times, my mood has shown it. I hope not too bad, but I am afraid it has. But I can also say that through the times that have been hard, I have learned a desperation for Jesus in my life that I hadn’t known before. I have had to cling to him and ask Him to sustain me. I have also grabbed hold of Him and begged Him to bless me. 

Yesterday I was thinking of these passages we have been studying this week on joy. And while this has been a hard season of life, that I really do not want to relive, by clinging and learning what it’s like for my heart and soul to be desperate for Jesus, I truly do not want to lose THAT part of this season. I want my heart and soul to be desperate for Him just as much in the good times as in the bad times. Many times we will turn to Jesus when life is hard but when life gets better we tend to put Him on a shelf until Sunday morning. Maybe occasionally taking Him off that shelf to attend weekly bible study. I don’t want to turn back anymore. I want to be just as desperate for Him when life is going my way as I have been when I had sorrows and troubles to lay at His feet. 

This Psalm says that to me. David wrote this Psalm and it is believed that he my have written it in tough times. If you study the life of David you realize that he was anointed King of Israel then he had to flee from King Saul for around fifteen years before he ever took the throne. David didn’t always have it easy. Then when he became king, he still didn’t always do things right, he sinned with Bathsheba, had her husband killed, then he married her because she was pregnant with his child. Then later this child died. He loved Bathsheba though he had many wives. He had family issues, his children did not always act like they should. One son tried to take over the throne, then that child was killed in battle. I think all of this is one reason I love David so much. He was real, yet he knew God and was considered a man after God’s own heart. It is believed that this Psalm was written in a time of crisis. Yet there is a quiet confidence in the entire Psalm in who his God is and how God would sustain him, and not just sustain him but that David would know joy by walking with Him. 

David learned and sometimes had to relearn that God would show him the path of life. He learned that when he was walking the path with God that there was a fullness of joy and that the pleasures and blessings of life were his to enjoy. He learned that even when you are in crisis you can have joy if you know how to remain in His presence. I love that it is believed that he wrote this Psalm in a crisis. 

Take the time to read this short Psalm today and let it speak to your heart. I want to stay on the path with Jesus. I want to know the fullness of His joy and the pleasures of walking with Him every day. I want to share the good times of life with Him as well as the tough times of life. My heart is desperate for Him every day and I pray that I never turn back so I can know the fullness of His joy!