The Best Source of 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

God has not hidden His plans for my life. He has not made some mysterious riddle that I have to solve in order to determine what He wants me to do with my life. He has given me His Word which guides me in decisions that I need to make. As I choose to walk in obedience to what I know is the right thing, the decisions which will come will be easier to make.

Bottom line: if I know God's Word, I'll know God's Will. The better I know God's Word, the better I will discern God's Will.

But it's interesting that the next two lines of this verse talk about joy and pleasures.

Knowing God's Will and joy? Isn't that an odd combination?

I think it's interesting that they are put together, because of what the Psalmist tells us is the source of joy.

"In Your presence there is fullness of joy." It's not the job I choose. It's not the wife I marry. It's not the happy family gathered for the holidays.

It's the presence of God that gives me joy.

So often we look for joy in our circumstances. If I choose this job, I'll be happy. If I could only get married, I'd be happy. If I had children, I'd be happy. If I had enough saved up for retirement, I'd be happy.

Those things are not necessarily wrong, but they aren't the source of joy.

The time that I spend in the presence of God, studying His Word, meditating on His character, communicating with Him through prayer - that's what gives me joy.

"At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." The family, job, house and retirement may give us a good time - for a short period of time. The family may crumble. The dream job may end. The house may burn down. Retirement may be spent in a care facility dealing with a debilitating disease. 

All of those things can very easily not meet up to our standards of providing pleasure for very long.

But at God's right hand, in fellowship with our Creator, we will be satisfied for all eternity.

So, as we go about trying to determine God's will for the big and little decisions that we make each day, we need to keep in mind that our joy and pleasure will not be found in a new job, a new house, a new spouse - or a new haircut.

Those are circumstances, not sources.

God is the only source of joy and pleasure. Nothing else will satisfy like He does.