Where does joy come into worship? When we come before the Lord broken and humbled before Him, and willingly take up our cross, ironically this becomes the path to true joy. Psalm 40:16 says, "But may all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You." The scripture is full of passages that refer to the glorious joy of the Lord. It is made obvious in God's Word that we can be humble and broken and yet joy in Him at the same time.
Pleasing God in worship by the humbling of ourselves before Him leads us into joy that passes all human understanding. In 2 Corinthians 6:10 Paul refers to this, "Our hearts ache, but we always have joy." When we sacrifice ourselves before Him, He is continually recreating us in His image. When it is our desire to please Him, He will respond by fulfilling the needs of our hearts. "Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). The very pursuit of God's pleasure results in a deep abiding joy in us. In fact this joy can be so deeply abiding in us that we are able to rejoice even in the midst of difficult, bad, or hard circumstances because we know that He is working out His plan. True abiding joy can't be touched by circumstances.
When we join together for worship, the real question is: Have I come for the pursuit of my own self gratification or is my focus on pursuing Him? Are we focused on being pleased, or are we focused on pleasing Him? How we approach worship will determine our worship joy! And, because all of our life should be worship, then our lives will be full of abiding joy! mjm
