In the next post I will share some verses for the depressed. But looking at what the Bible says about joy is surely a good place to start. I am convinced, to use a title of a sermon that I preached a while back, God wants you to be really happy. The gospel is intended to produce joy in us. This is not to deny the fact however that Christians can get depressed. We must hold in tension that God promises us joy, with the fact that we don’t always fully receive it. As I explained in another prior post, however, it is possible for the Christian to have a complex emotional state where they receive joy without their depression entirely disappearing. These verses are to be considered as promises from God to us that we can take back to him and remind him of.
“the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10.)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).
Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! (Psalm 126:5).
Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:5).
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10).
You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (John 16:20–22).
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).
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
(Psalm 13:1–6).