Joy & Pleasure on God’s Ground
A devotional on C. S. Lewis, Psalm 16:11, and our true purpose
C. S. Lewis, writing in The Screwtape Letters, offers a striking reminder about the nature of pleasure:
“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s (God’s) ground… He made the pleasure… All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy (God) has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He (God) has forbidden.”
Lewis’s insight is both bracing and freeing. Pleasure itself is not the problem. God is not suspicious of joy. Joy originates in Him. Pleasure is God’s idea—woven into creation as a good gift. The enemy cannot create pleasure; he can only distort it, detach it from God, and persuade us to seek it on our own terms.
That insight opens Psalm 16:11 in a fresh and clarifying way:
“You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
David does not shy away from the language of pleasure. Instead, he locates it. Fullness of joy is found in God’s presence. Enduring pleasure is found at God’s right hand. Pleasure has a proper home, and that home is communion with the God who made us.
This vision of rightly ordered desire is beautifully echoed by Thomas Traherne, who writes:
“The noble inclination whereby man thirsteth after riches and dominion, is his highest virtue, when rightly guided; and carries him as in a triumphant chariot, to his sovereign happiness. Men are made miserable only by abusing it. Taking a false way to satisfy it, they pursue the wind: nay, labour in the very fire, and after all reap but vanity.”
Traherne helps us see that desire itself is not the enemy. Our deep thirst—for joy, meaning, fulfillment—is a noble inclination. It was given to us by God. When rightly guided, that desire carries us toward our “sovereign happiness.” When misdirected, it exhausts us. We pursue the wind, labor in the fire, and reap only emptiness.
This insight aligns closely with the wisdom of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which opens with its famous question:
What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
That pairing is intentional and deeply biblical. We were not created merely to avoid pleasure, nor to chase pleasure, but to enjoy God. Joy is not incidental to the Christian life; it is bound up with our very purpose. To glorify God and to enjoy Him are not competing goals—they belong together.
This is where the human heart so often drifts. The danger is not enjoying pleasure, but seeking the pleasure rather than the One who gives it. When the gift replaces the Giver, pleasure is asked to carry a weight it was never designed to bear. What was meant to point us toward God becomes something we lean on for comfort, identity, or escape. Desire, once noble, becomes distorted.
Lewis exposes the enemy’s subtle strategy here. Evil does not need to invent new delights; it simply invites us to enjoy God’s good gifts without God—at the wrong time, in the wrong way, or in the wrong measure. Detached from God’s presence, pleasure shrinks. It must be repeated, intensified, and protected. Instead of satisfaction, it produces restlessness. Instead of freedom, it quietly enslaves.
Psalm 16 offers a wiser path—the “path of life.” This path is not joyless restraint but joyful alignment with our created purpose. When God Himself becomes our highest good, desire is healed and pleasure is restored. Joy no longer demands to be chased; it is received. Pleasure no longer rules us; it serves us. It no longer competes with God; it leads us back to Him.
Here is the great irony of the spiritual life: the more directly we chase pleasure, the more elusive it becomes. But when we seek the Lord—when we desire to glorify Him and enjoy Him—pleasures return, not diminished, but deepened. At God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore: joy that does not fade, delight that does not exhaust itself, satisfaction that does not disappoint.
To live on God’s ground is to live according to our true end—to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In His presence, joy is no longer fragile or fleeting. It is full, secure, and everlasting.
Reflection Questions
- How do Lewis and Traherne together reshape the way you think about desire and pleasure?
- Where do you see the difference between rightly guided desire and misdirected desire in your own life?
- How does Psalm 16:11 challenge common cultural assumptions about where happiness is found?
- In what ways can good gifts subtly replace the Giver if we are not attentive?
- How does the Westminster Catechism’s vision of enjoying God forever reorient your daily pursuits?
Prayer
Gracious God,
You are the source of every good desire and every true joy. Forgive us for the times we have taken a false way to satisfy the longings You placed within us. Redirect our desires, that they may be rightly guided toward You. May the pleasures we receive from Your hand lead us back to worship, gratitude, and trust. In Your presence, make our joy full.
Amen.