Joy - An Advent Reflection

 

Joy is a word that shows up repeatedly in Advent and Christmas. Some think it’s simply happiness. Others assume it means pleasure. A few might even consider it to imply amusement. But real joy seems to come from a deeper place than peppy surface emotions. As one of the Psalm writers describes it, “to God my exceeding joy” (Psalm 43:4). And that writer didn’t scribble those words flippantly. He was in a very dark place, a distant land, a far-off spot longing for “God my exceeding joy.”[1]

 

Augustine gets at the same point in his Confessions. I have pondered these words during dismal and dreary times, as well as happier seasons. I have quoted them in numerous sermons at Heritage over the last 13 years, and will likely do so until the end of my days. And as we move through Advent to Christmas, it just seems fitting to hear from Augustine about joy, once more:


“There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love you for your own sake, whose joy you yourself are. And this is the happy life, to rejoice in you, of you, for you; this is true joy, and there is no other” (Augustine, Confessions, Book 10 Chapter 22). 


Make this Advent season a time of returning “to God my exceeding joy” (Psalm 43:4) who is real joy, in and of himself. And he who is real joy is the One who emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant. Who came to be born in a backwoods town, laid in a manger, thus accessible to those of even the lowest condition. “God my exceeding joy.”

 

Pastor Mike

 


[1] When my friend and Old Testament Professor, Dale Ralph Davis, was teaching a room full of future ministers on this verse in 2000, I was struck how those words “to God my exceeding joy” stopped him in his tracks, and he got very personal with us expressing how deep those words touched him. As he says in his commentary, “That statement both thrills me and condemns me. Far above places and circumstances and troubles, God Himself is my exceeding joy, my only prize. And yet how seldom do I think like that!” (Dale Ralph Davis, “My Exceeding Joy: Psalms 38-51,” pg.69).


Comments

Anonymous said…
Joy joy joy … in Christ deep & wide! Amen and a very amen!
December 3, 2025 at 9:47 AM
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