Biblical joy isn’t pretending everything is okay.

Psalm 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love your name boast about you. 

There was a point in my life (and, honestly, I still struggle with this, sometimes), that I thought I was genuinely depressed. Not social media depressed, but depressed in the way in which the days couldn’t go by fast enough, everything in the world had a gray tinge to it, and I was numb. Numb to everything — the good and the bad. I recently had a mini-bout of depression, and it was my first one as a Christian. Before Christ, I was able to wallow without any conviction or pressure to be happy. I was allowed to be sad to my friends, to the world, and to myself, without my inner thoughts commanding me to be joyous in a bleak season. This past season, I felt the conviction pressing into my soul: You can be sad, but don’t forget who I am. Be joyful in me. It sounded like a contradiction. Lord, how can I be joyful when all I want to do is be sad? And that was the moment I learned that joy has nothing to do with how I feel and everything to do with who the Lord is and how deeply He has loved me. 

I think the greatest and most notable example of biblical joy is an apostle named Paul. He was imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked, rejected, and lived with constant uncertainty about what would happen next. Yet from a prison cell, he wrote to the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4 NIV). Paul wasn’t asking others to do something he had never practiced himself. His joy was never rooted in comfort or freedom; it was rooted in Christ. And it’s not that he was necessarily happy with the situations that he found himself in. He writes in 2 Corinthians 6:10 that he was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (NIV). This demonstrates that Paul’s joy was not dependent on his circumstances but on Christ Himself. The prison walls around him could not imprison the hope within him. 

Biblical joy doesn’t always match my circumstances, and that confuses me more than I want to admit. It is not the same as happiness because it does not depend on things going well—just like Paul finding himself in prison. I am learning that joy is something rooted deeper than what is happening around me. It is the quiet confidence that God is still good, even when life isn’t. That is why Scripture can command us to rejoice—not because suffering isn’t real, but because God’s character doesn’t change when our circumstances do. 

David doesn’t say, “Let everyone with an easy life rejoice.” He says, “Let all who take refuge in You rejoice.” Our refuge—not our circumstances—is the source of our joy.

reflection questions

• Where do you think the Lord wants to meet some of your sorrow with joy?
• What is one piece of wisdom that reminds you that happiness is a feeling and joy is a mindset?