You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (Psalm 30:11-12 ESV)

It is easy to let our emotions overwhelm us especially the negative emotions. Fear. Worry. Shame. We can be paralyzed by them. And when we talk about emotions at all, we tend to focus on trying to avoid these negative emotions. But this Sunday we want to look at joy. How do we foster joy? Where does it come from? Or even more basic: what is joy? And is it different then just happiness?

We will be examining this emotion through the lens of Psalm 30. It’s a story of deliverance, thanksgiving, and joy. I want to encourage you to read it through before coming together this week.