When Joy Feels Illusive…
God’s Word speaks thoroughly and abundantly into every season of the heart. As we study His Word, we learn that within its pages are found the ultimate source of comfort and peace for the sufferer. In this series, we will seek to carefully and compassionately apply these ancient, scriptural truths to feelings and experiences that are common in grief.
Something was stirring in my heart, an unexpected joy and hope that seemed to grow deeper by the day. Kevin and I would read a Psalm each night and briefly share something that stuck out to us in the chapter before we prayed and fell asleep. One night we were reading Psalm 30. It was many months after losing our second daughter, and the grief was thick and deep. But something new was starting to rise in my heart, something I hadn’t felt in years. It was a kind of joy and hope that was beginning to part the clouds of pain and loss. The Psalm 30:11, 12 says, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever” (NASB).
With tears in my eyes, my heart leapt as I read those words. This was what the Lord was doing for me. I could hardly believe it. I had read that passage many times before, praying fervently that this would become true of my life. Yet, if I was honest, in the dark night of the soul, it was hard to imagine a day coming this side of heaven where the ache for the two daughters I had lost would give way to new hope and joy.
I held on to those words in that valley of despair. They gave me hope that a day would come when God would turn my mourning into dancing just as He had for David, the one speaking in the Psalm. David penned these words at the end of his life as a testimony of all that God had done for him. And this was the prayer of my heart in the middle of my own pain: that I would be able to testify to all that God had done in and through my losses, grief, and pain. But, perhaps the most stunning part of this passage to me is David’s conclusion in verse 12: “That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”
Why is it that God turns our mourning into dancing? David sums it up in those final words: so that we might praise God’s name.
God is worthy of all praise, when we feel like it and when we don’t. Surely we can see reasons in David’s life where it would have been natural for him to put the praise on pause. Surely David had reason to think that God was not for him or with him in his own circumstances of betrayal and loss. And yet, at the end of David’s life, he was able to see a picture of God working in his life that led him to the great joy of praising God’s name.
Our God is the same today as He was in David’s time—the same God who met David in the darkness, turned his mourning into joy, and helped him conclude that praising God’s name is better than anything else he could do. This same God wants to do that for us in our own lives. David declares in Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” The circumstances of David’s life are obviously quite different then ours, but He served the same God we do. As we look in Scripture at how God meets His people, we can see examples of how He wants to meet with us.
Perhaps today, you are in the thick of the pain of loss. I want you to know, my friend, that God sees you, and He can turn your mourning into dancing. He will bring gladness where there has only been angst. I can’t promise when that will be. For me, it began to happen in subtle ways with subtle and surprising shifts in my heart. Oh! I pray that God would begin to surprise you with joy in your journey. It’s a joy that can only come from Him, a joy in the pain and not apart from it, joy that lifts your heart in praise and thankfulness and reminds you that He sees you and is with you.
- Lindsey
Hope Mom to Sophie and Dasah
Hi! I’m Lindsey. I live in Orlando, Florida with my stud of a husband Kevin. We have 3 incredible children, Sophie and Dasah who now live with Jesus and Jaden who came into our lives through adoption. We have a very energetic golden retriever and love living in the sunshine state. I get to spend my days loving on my son, investing my life in college students here through a non-profit organization we’re a part of and when I have time, writing on my blog about the hope that doesn’t disappoint!
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