God my exceeding joy: the gladness of my rejoicing

God my exceeding joy is a name for God found in Psalm 43:4. It was spoken by a temple singer who was a long way from the temple and crying most of the time. Even so, he looked ahead and called God the source of all his gladness. In Hebrew it is El simchat gili, which means "God, the gladness of my rejoicing," a joy on top of a joy.

A singer stuck far from home

Psalms 42 and 43 belong together. They share the same repeated chorus, and Psalm 43 has no title of its own, which is unusual in that part of the book. Many old Hebrew manuscripts copy them as a single poem. The heading on Psalm 42 links it to the sons of Korah, a family from the tribe of Levi who led music at the house of God.

So the writer was most likely one of the temple singers. He remembers leading crowds up to God's house to celebrate. Now he was cut off from all of it. He mentions the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites (Psalm 42:6), the far north of Israel near Mount Hermon, a long walk from Jerusalem. The Bible does not tell us how he ended up there.

What it does tell us is how he felt. People around him kept mocking him with the same question, day after day: Where is thy God? (Psalm 42:3), and he says it again in Psalm 42:10. And he could not stop remembering better days:

When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

Psalm 42:4

"Kept holyday" means the crowds were celebrating a feast. He used to walk up to Jerusalem in a happy, singing crowd. Now he was alone, and the memory hurt.

The prayer that turned toward joy

In Psalm 43 he stops looking back and starts asking for a way home. He wants God's light and truth to act like guides who take him by the hand.

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Psalm 43:3

The holy hill is Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and the tabernacles are the places where God was worshiped. Then, before anything in his life has actually changed, he sees himself arriving:

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

Psalm 43:4

Look at where his joy is. He does not say he will go to the altar to find joy there. He says he is going to God, and God is the joy. The altar is just the meeting place. He also picks up his harp in his imagination, an instrument the temple singers played, and says O God my God. The mockers kept asking where his God was. His answer is that God is still his.

Two Hebrew words for gladness, joined

Hebrew has many words for happiness. This singer reached for two of them at once.

• Simchah is gladness, the kind that shows on a face. Strong's dictionary describes it as glee, especially the glee of a religious festival. It is the word for a feast day when the whole town is smiling.
• Gil, with "my" added (gili), is rejoicing. Lexicons connect this word with circling or going around, so many teachers picture joy that moves, like a child spinning in place because she cannot hold still.
• El is the short Hebrew word for God.

Put together, the phrase is "God, the gladness of my rejoicing." English cannot stack the words the way Hebrew can, so the King James translators said "exceeding joy," joy that goes past the normal limit.

Joy was not a side issue for Israel. God built celebration into their calendar. At the yearly feasts He told them thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God (Deuteronomy 16:11), and the command reached sons, daughters, servants, strangers, orphans and widows. Nobody was supposed to be left out of the party. That is part of what made it so painful for this singer to be far away.

More King James verses on joy in God

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Psalm 16:11

David says that real fullness of joy is found near God. That matches Psalm 43 exactly: the singer is not chasing a feeling, he is trying to get back to a Person.

Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

Nehemiah 8:10

Years later, a crowd in Jerusalem wept when they heard God's law read aloud. Nehemiah and the other leaders told them to stop crying, have a feast, share food with the poor, and remember that joy in the LORD would hold them up.

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk 3:18

The prophet Habakkuk said this while picturing empty fields and empty stalls. His joy was a choice made before the harvest came back, the same kind of joy Psalm 43 shows.

Finding your exceeding joy

Ask a friend what makes them happiest and you will hear about people, places, food, games or music. Those are good gifts. The trouble is that every one of them can be taken away by a move, a breakup, an illness or just time. The singer of Psalm 43 had lost his community, his routine and his job. What he discovered was that God was still there, and that God had been the real joy under all the others the whole time.

This name does not ask you to fake a smile. The man who wrote it was in tears. It asks you to know where your joy lives, so you can head toward it even on a gray day.

• Ask yourself honestly: when did I last enjoy God, not just obey Him or serve Him?
• Think back to a time you felt close to God. What were you doing? Do one of those things again this week.
• If you are in a dry season, pray Psalm 43:3 and ask God to lead you back with His light and truth.
• Notice someone who has gone quiet at church or school and invite them back into the crowd.

God My Exceeding Joy is name 63 of the 70 in the book. The next name, the lifter of my head, comes from a king running for his life. These same two psalms also give us a title written for people who feel low, The Health of My Countenance, and you can browse all the names of God in the Bible.