Cultivating Heavenwardness — The Presence of God

February 10th, 2007

This is part of a series. You can read the introduction first or view all the posts together.

This is often mentioned as “the” reason we should want to go the Heaven. And yet it’s also a reason that is completely meaningless to the lost person and also to our sinful “flesh.” I think it’s a fair observation that most people, given the choice between streets of gold or being with God, would get more excited about the former, albeit in ignorance. And frankly, even though I “know” which of the two is the real reward, the fact is still that the idea of being in the presence of God for eternity doesn’t always excite me as much as it should.

So in this entry, my aim is to cultivate excitement in my heart about the idea of being with God forever.

In Psalm 16:8-11 (an absolutely beautiful psalm, by the way), David (or, prophetically speaking, Christ) writes of his experience in the presence of God. The last line bears repeating–”in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures evermore.” That is the simple reality of the presence of God.

Fullness here is a Hebrew word which means literally “satisfaction.” In God’s presence there is a satisfaction of joy. I think that’s a worthwhile distinction to make; telling someone that there’s a banquet in the next room that’s full of food is very different from telling someone that there’s a banquet that will completely and perfectly satisfy their hunger. Inasmuch as we can understand the concept of “joy,” we should understand that God’s presence represents the absolute ultimate in the experience–in God’s presence, our joy skyrockets to become so immeasurably full that we can’t even think of wanting any more. It makes me think of those moments when, humanly speaking, I think I’m perfectly satisfied and “all is right with the world,” and yet if I dwell on that thought long enough, I can always think of something that could be a little more perfect. But in God’s presence, joy itself is complete and lacking nothing.

Joy itself can be a recondite concept. In various Hebrew-English dictionaries, the word used in this passage is defined as blithesomeness, glee, mirth, gaiety, gladness, making merry, and pleasure. It occurs ninety-three times in the Old Testament. It’s used in Judges 16:23 to describe the way the Philistines rejoiced to find Samson delivered into their hand; in 1 Samuel 18:6, the way the women of the cities came out singing, dancing, and playing music to rejoice in the defeat of the Philistines; in 1 Kings 1:40, the reaction of the people to the crowning of King Solomon; in Ezra 3:12, the way the old men who had seen the first temple rejoiced when the foundation of the new one was laid; in Proverbs 15:21, “folly is joy” to the unwise man; in Proverbs 21:17, the one who loves pleasure shall be poor; and in Song of Solomon 3:11, Solomon’s wedding day is called “the day of the gladness of his heart.” I’m going into all of these examples because the distinction between “joy” and “happiness” is a tricky one, and perhaps over-emphasized. I find it easy to start thinking of “joy” in somewhat dreary terms, as something that doesn’t necessarily feel good, but rather is a sort of resignation and acceptance that God is sovereign and good and that He knows what’s going on, and the idea that that is sufficient. And there’s a sense, I think, in which that’s true (minus the dreariness!)–our joy in Christ certainly isn’t founded in the moment, but in eternity. And the joy we are called to have in the midst of suffering surely cannot mean that we must be all laughter and no tears.

But I think that to completely disassociate “joy” from emotions and, yes, happiness, is a mistake. In the passages above, Scripture uses the word to refer to very momentary things. Sometimes we see non-believers experiencing joy, as in the case of the Philistines; sometimes we see joy being used sinfully, as to the unwise man in Proverbs. In other words, at least in the way this specific word is used in the Old Testament, it seems to mean, in a primary sense, an emotion. So, when we learn in Psalms 16 that in God’s presence there is satisfaction of joy, it means more than just that we’ll be perfect and so we’re going to be “joyful in God’s plan.” It means that as the Israelites felt joy in victory over their enemies, as Solomon felt joy on his wedding day, as people felt joy as their beloved temple from their childhood was rebuilt, and as the fool takes joy in his folly, in God’s presence there is joy! Joy that makes you dance and sing and be merry, joy that makes our hearts light–this is not a boring or obligatory joy, but a real and present emotive joy!

Pleasures evermore is a somewhat misleading translation, I think; the word means more “delight” or “pleasant” than “pleasures,” and the words carry very different connotations, at least in my mind. The word seems most often to refer to people, situations, or music being pleasant, as in 2 Samuel 1:23 Samuel 23:1, Psalm 81:2, Psalm 133:1, Proverbs 24:4, and Song of Solomon 1:16. I can’t read Hebrew, obviously, but I don’t believe that this means that God’s presence is surrounded with “pleasures” so much as it means that God’s presence is eminently sweet, pleasant, and delightful. (I’m somewhat confused, because the word seems to be an adjective, but the translation clearly makes it into a noun, which really changes the sense altogether. Notably it’s also translated as a noun in Job 36:11, but it seems to be adjectival nearly everywhere else.) The word for “evermore” can be translated as eminence, perpetuity, strength, victory, enduring, and everlastingness.

So, in addition to containing the satisfaction of felt joy, God’s presence is also enduringly sweet. I find that very comforting, in view of the fact that I think being in God’s presence would also be a little scary. It’s like that oft-quoted passage from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, when the children ask “is He safe?” and the beavers respond, “no, but He’s good!” Yet even though He is the God of the universe, almighty and omnipotent, and although He does as He pleases and created the world in a breath–even though if there was anyone Who is intimidatingly great and awesome, it is surely God–His presence is pleasant. His presence is sweet. His presence is delightful. It’s a wonderful thing to be in the presence of God!

And so, just from this one verse from David’s pen, the presence of God is so unbelievably enticing that I’d like to pack my bags right now! God is so gracious.