What are we to make of joyless religion or faith?

We’ve spent quite a bit of time emphasizing that the goal of Christ is love for our neighbor. So what about joy?  What if we find that we don’t know what to make of the words of David when he sings about a kind of life and God that come with a promise of joy and everlasting pleasures (Psalm 16:11)?

This isn’t an easy question. The same Bible talks about how God groans with us in our loss and suffering. You get the sense that David sung many of his songs in a minor key. He was not a stranger to fear, anger, suffering, and recurring days and nights during which he could not understand why God hadn’t shown up.

Yet who can miss that so many of David’s songs end in a major key, or doubt that his faith would some day find fullness of meaning in One who would be known not only by his tears, but for his smile (Psalm 16:10)?

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