If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. . .

A diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party—a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals.... From Carl Trueman

One of the great strengths of the hymnody which begins with the Psalms and to which are added the great and study hymns of old is that they are not shallow, not addicted to pleasure, and not unrealistic about the challenges of Christian life.  If we cannot lament, we cannot sing for joy.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  Indeed, joy begins with the lament of the the things that are against the will of God and are reflections of our sinfulness and our unholiness.  It just does not end there.  It continues with, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story..."

It is an impossible journey to be happy and upbeat all the time.  Joy and lament always walk together and that is why joy is not impossible.  Joy flows from God's gracious declaration, from His rich and unmerited gift of grace, and from His presence among us even when we have forsaken Him.  Lament does not disown joy but puts it in perspective.  Our joy is not in the moment or of the moment but in Christ alone.  So, as St. Paul used to say, the closer we are to Christ and His holiness, the greater we are aware of our own sinfulness... AND therefore, with greater awe and thanksgiving we acknowledge what His mercy has done for us...

The Psalms do not shy away from the language of lament, from the sorrow of confession, and from the regret of the contrite heart... but they do not end there.  It amazes me how you can read such heart wrenching lament (Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord) only to find in the latter verses the joy restored by the faithful God whose forgiveness, grace, and mercy have delivered the sinner once again...  I wonder if we have not become ashamed and embarrassed by the words of the Psalms -- they do not fit our unrealistic expectations of happiness!  But if we are ashamed and embarrassed by the lament of the Psalmist, we are probably ashamed and embarrassed by the Cross as well.

Preach to pain and you will always have plenty of hearers....  That word of wisdom was told me as a very young man seeking ordination.  I have found many hearers when I preach to pain.  The lament of our sin, the regret of our sin-filled lives, and the lack of progress to holiness are part of that pain, to be sure.  But as we preach to pain, we do not leave people with their pain.  We address that pain with the one healing word that renews repentance, restores joy, and rekindles hope -- the word of the Cross.

We live amid a world convinced that pain is bad and needs to disappear, that happiness is the same as joy, and that suffering is always an affliction form which we should be released.  Such a world will not find much hope in a cross.  The Spirit leads us past our preoccupation with the moment and what we are feeling.  The Spirit leads us to the suffering that has given birth to hope, that born the fruit of redemption, and that healed our souls with holy joy. 

If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands....  Sadly, I am sometimes too busy wringing my hands to clap in happiness.  In those moments, I need more than a happy song.  I need a Savior conversant with pain, sorrow, and loss.  I need one who has suffered and whose suffering has born the good fruit of redemption.  Then I can learn joy in the midst of my pain... as surely did our Lord, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross...

I love joyful people but sometimes happy people make me uncomfortable...  It reminds me of a great line from a movie... "I am not happy but I am not unhappy about it..."  The Lord has done more than make us optimists.  He has redeemed us by His blood, saved us by His suffering, cleansed us by His blood, and planted in us the holy joy of a heart that acknowledges such grace with faith and hope...