In His Presence is Fullness of Joy
I came across my new favorite verse last week. The picture you see at the left is also framed and sitting on a table at home, and I have put it to music. So I plan to remember it for a long time. Let’s rehearse it: Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Ps 16:11)
I just finished reading the book I Dared to Call Him Father by Bilquis Sheikh. It’s the story of a Muslim woman in Pakistan who turned to Christ and how her life changed (drawing persecution from her culture). From the moment she accepted Christ, she experienced God’s unmistakable presence in her life, and she was full of joy. I could testify to that when I accepted Christ. But in her life, after salvation, whenever she would knowingly sin, as in telling a little white lie, God’s discernable presence and that joy would leave her. She recognized right away that God’s sweet fellowship was ruptured by her sin, and she would pray outloud and ask Him to forgive her for the specific sin, submitting to Him again, and that presence and joy would return.
For some people, this dance with spiritual reality would die down, but not with her. Though it’s not the main theme of her book, God’s noticeable presence is a sub-theme. Her life, because she wrote about it, is a “movie for my mind” of my new favorite verse.
When David said in Ps. 16:11, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life,” I don’t think he meant anything terribly mystical. God does show the path of life in His word. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Ps. 119:105 I just need to be sure I’m sitting in front of it and looking for His direction, with plans to follow it.
The next part is a bit more mystical. “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.” I would tend to think that as long as I’m reading my Bible and praying, I’m in His presence. But why can’t we experience His presence all day long—along with the resulting joy? I might not have had that thought except for the author of the book. All I can say is that when we walk in fellowship with God, keeping short accounts and not allowing any sin to nest in our lives, we will know what it is to live in His presence by His Spirit, and we will have joy. Perhaps when we are missing joy, we should check our lives. It would be a good daily habit to develop.
What kind of sins could bubble up that would keep us and God at arm’s length? Holding grudges, being self-centered, greedy, angry, prayerless, oblivious to God, etc. We live in an age of all that.
We’re living in the Laodicean church age (Rev. 3:14-22). That in itself is a study, but if we read that and see ourselves, we know where to start in our confession to God. In summary, the typical Christian in this age is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. We think we are rich and have need of nothing and don’t realize that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Obviously, living in God’s presence isn’t part of that. It’s not common in our age because we are spiritually unconscious. Pretty sad.
I encourage you to think on Ps. 16:11 and take the challenge with me of living in His presence.
Jody