Joy - The joy of God

How would you complete the sentence:

My greatest joys are...

In the next few weeks we want to explore Christian joy. We have finished a series on praise and worship. We can teach about some of the commands of God, to “todah” Him or “hallal” Him or “tehillah” Him, and if we look at the context we see they are not suggestions, they are commands, “this is what you are to do when you praise God!” It is difficult to enter in to such worship unless God is the object of our joy. What got me thinking about this was a title of a book, “The happiest people on earth” and we should be the happiest people on earth. We should be happy because God is joyful and wants us caught up in the His joy. The staggering thing about Jesus is this: He was going to the cross which was the most barbaric form of torture known to man, he was going to experience the full weight of human sin placed upon him, for the first time in his life he was going to be separated from the Father and that relationship of love would be broken as sin separated Jesus from the Father. The staggering thing is this. The Bible describes all this as joy. It says, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross.” Midst the human horror and tragedy of the cross was joy. What is this joy that causes such a transcending of depravity that it utterly transforms life? If we can but grasp something of our inheritance as the people of God we will be the happiest people on earth. I want to begin by looking this morning at the joy of God. Three things I think we need to reflect on: The sovereignty of God; The glory of God; The praise of God.

The sovereignty of God

I want to begin by looking at the sovereignty of God. Some people view God as a grumpy old man. Some view him with fear as though he were an angry God waiting to catch them out. I want to suggest that the correct way of viewing God is as the most joyful being alive. I don’t mean like some fat and jovial Father Christmas, but a God who is utterly joyful because he is sovereign. We have to understand the sovereignty of God to begin to comprehend the joy of God. I should warn you I could preach myself very happy because the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is so wonderful and magnificent that as you grasp it you feel joy rising up within your soul.

Those of you who follow football will have been amused on Monday night because the Manchester United Manager lost his composure. Used to winning his side were beaten by their noisy neighbours and he lost the point. Imagine for a minute that whatever you did there was no chance of losing. Every time your team went out you knew they would win. Every time you took a test you knew you would get a 100%. If you were knitting you would never drop a stitch, DIY never make a mistake, learning a language it would come to you instantly. That would be fantastic. This helps us understand the sovereignty of God. The Psalmist writes, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” (Psalm 115:3) God has the power and the right to do whatever pleases him. If he is sovereign and nothing he wants to happen can be frustrated, he has to be the happiest of all beings. If God experienced frustration he would not be God, there would be something with greater power and sovereignty that caused that frustration. Think about it for a minute. If God was frustrated he would be glum, depressed, gloomy, despondent. Would any of us want to be caught up with such a god? He is none of these things because he is sovereign and does whatever he pleases. In his sovereignty he is the personification of joy. And because there is no frustration and he is so full of joy the Psalmist can say, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirst for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

The Biblical basis for God’s joy is that his purposes cannot be frustrated. Isaiah says, “My purpose will stand, and I will do what I please...What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.” (Isaiah 46:10-11). This is at the heart of Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony from our reading. God does what he pleases. For many the greatest struggle they have is over suffering. How can God be sovereign and allow such pain in the world. I think it is helpful to look at things from two levels. The first is the micro level or close up. God feels our pain, is outraged when we are sinned against, has compassion when we hurt. He sees all our brokenness and wants to heal all our diseases. The second is at the macro level or big picture. God is always happy because everything is going to work out as he determines. There is no frustration, only joy. This is at the heart of Jesus’ joy. At a micro level what he endured was hard, the betrayal of Judas, the abdication of responsibility of Pilate, the perversion of the religious authorities, the gullibility of the baying crowd, yet it was joy because God was going to win. God could not be frustrated and Jesus was happy. God always wins. He is utterly sovereign and always full of joy.

The glory of God

The second thing I would like us to consider is the glory of God. Most of us here this morning are English and we all know the height of civilization is a decent cup of tea. Yet opinions differ as to what constitutes a decent cup of tea. Some of you have it black which is alright, others know a proper cup is strong and dark with only a small amount of milk, others flash the tea bag in the cup and have it milky and you could be drinking dishwater for all we know but would still consider it a decent cup. What constitutes the perfect cup of tea is a matter of personal taste – so we need to ask ourselves what brings God joy? Why is he the happiest person alive? God delights in three things.

God delights in his own glory. It is hard to define glory. Perhaps the best is the beauty of that which is perfect. Perfection has nothing to do with taste. Its qualities are absolutes. They are qualities of greatness and worth. God’s ultimate goal is that his glory, all that is perfect, be displayed. All his other goals serve this ultimate goal and are subordinate to it. At first reading, God delighting in his own glory seems a little vain. Certainly, if individuals revelled in what they perceived to be their own glory, we would think it very vain. But glory is to do with that which is perfect. For us to revel in our glory is vain. We are not perfect. For God to want his glory on display is not vain because he is perfect. It would be an act of unrighteousness if God valued anything other than his glory because he would value something less than perfect. God’s glory, all his perfections, he delights in and wants us to take delight in. It is not vain because he is supremely glorious.

God also delights in the glory of his Son. This is what we affirm when we affirm the divinity of His Son. The Godhead may be a mystery, it can be perplexing but John 1:1 says, “the Word was God.” And in Colossians 2:9 it goes on to say, “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”  The Father’s glory was perfectly present in His Son. If he enjoys his glory he delights in his son who perfectly reflects his glory. Isaiah writes, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight.” (Isaiah 42:1) When the Father contemplates the Son he is well pleased. He is glorious.

God also delights in the glory of his work. When God created he went public. There is an expansive quality to the glory of God. The glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit overflows and wants to share itself. The creation of the world was not because of some inadequacy but an outpouring of the glory of the Godhead. It would be easy to think that if God is so enamoured with his own glory there is no room for love. Indeed, Corinthians says that love is not self-seeking. However, if God were self-centred he would not be open. If God were not pursuing his own glory he would not be interested in that which is perfect. He would settle for less than the best for us. As God revels in his glory in creation he revels in what is glorious for creation. He wants what is glorious for us. God is so utterly glorious to us in his goodness.

The praise of God

The last thing I would like us to think about is the praise of God. Praise is the natural outpouring in response to the presence of that which is glorious. When we are given something beautiful we praise it. It might be babies, a fantastic human endeavour, a great book, film, wine, a collection, a job promotion or a car. Our enjoyment flows into praise. In the presence of the sovereignty and glory of God we have to praise.

The Bible commands us to praise God. This is the ultimate goal. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 says, “on the day he comes to be glorified.” And Ephesians 1 talks about the praise of His glory and grace. All the ways that God can display his glory reach their culmination in the praise of the people he has saved. God governs the world with glory so that he can be marvelled, adored and exalted. The climax of happiness is the joy he finds in the praise of his people. We tend not to like people that are enamoured with themselves and the Bible teaches people not to be like that. It tends to indicate a weakness and deficiency. God is not deficient in anything so God’s zeal to seek his own glory and to be praised cannot be about compensating for some deficiency. It has to be explained in some other way.

How can God be so loving yet utterly devoted to seeking his own glory? How can God be for us if he is so utterly for himself? God is unique in that he alone is all-glorious, totally perfect being. He must be for himself if he is to be for us. The rules that apply to the creature do not apply to the creator. If God turns away from himself as all sufficient joy he would cease to be God. He would deny his infinite worth and glory. It would imply that there is something more valuable. Where, then can we if he ceases to be supremely valuable. God is love precisely because he pursues the praise of his name in the hearts of his people because he truly is glorious.

Delight is not complete until it expresses itself.  If God loves us he has to give something that has to demonstrate that love. The most excellent thing is himself – if he withholds himself he is not loving. We recognise that the world is full of praise and the most balanced minds praise the most, those that are crooked and depraved praise least. When our minds are right we spontaneously praise and encourage others to praise what we value. We want help in doing what we value. Praise not merely expresses the enjoyment but completes the enjoyment. If we cannot speak about what we value and celebrate what we love and praise what we admire, our joy will not be full. Lovers keep on telling each other that they love one another. It fulfils their enjoyment. God not only has to give us himself as an act of love but he must also win the praise of our hearts – not because he needs to shore up some fragile ego or compensate for some deficiency but because he loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can only be found in knowing and praising him, the most magnificent of beings.

God is the only being in the universe for whom self-seeking his own praise is the ultimate loving act. For him, self-exaltation is the highest value. When he offers us himself praise is the one and only thing that satisfies our existing. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.