==psalm 16:8:
==psalm 16:11:
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
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![]() Jesus came to bring about the fullness of joy in man. Often we see Christians who are not exhibiting a lifestyle of joy, and therefore we assume God is not a happy God. We see all the darkness that surrounds us and assume that God is most often angry or sad. But in John 17:13 (ESV), Jesus prayed to the Father: “But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” Jesus’s prayer in John 17:13 demonstrates two important, life-changing truths for you and me today. First, Jesus had joy. We could not have His joy fulfilled in us if He doesn’t have joy to start with. And the whole of Scripture supports the truth that within God dwells the fullness of joy. Psalm 16:11 (ESV) says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” And Galatians 5:22 tells us that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. The God whom you have been filled with at salvation longs to produce the fruit of joy in your life. He longs to make you a joyful person from the inside out so that your joy wouldn’t be based on circumstances or the fleeting whims of the world. Second, John 17 tells us that we can have the joy of Jesus for ourselves. The God of joy longs to fill you to overflowing with satisfaction and hope. He longs to make your joy abundant and transcendent of the good or bad around you. God is joyful because it’s a part of His nature. And He longs for it to be the same with you. -Craig Denison; The Joy of The Lord; Sports Spectrum; 12.21.21
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January 16, 2025: John Piper said: Here’s the key verse so everybody knows what we are talking about. David, the king in the Old Testament, speaking by the guidance of the Spirit of God (as Jesus said about the Psalms), says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence” — in God’s presence — “there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” That’s Psalm 16:11. The Bible promises on God’s authority that when we are in the gracious presence of God — in part now and fully in the age to come — our joy, our happiness will be as full as it can possibly be (“fullness of joy”), and it will last as long as it can possibly last — namely, forever. In other words, there is nothing, absolutely nothing in the universe better than the gracious presence of God, because in the presence of God, he proves to be the greatest possible happiness and the longest possible happiness. That’s what Psalm 16:11 holds out to us. No greater pleasure, no longer pleasure can be conceived. |