Kirk Franklin - Joy Lyrics

"Joy" is a gospel song naming joy as something rooted specifically in salvation rather than circumstance, framed early on as "soul saving joy" rather than a passing emotion. The first verse pictures an early morning routine of asking to be made whole, crediting steady divine holding and keeping as the source of that joy. A second verse admits weakness and the sense that hope itself has run out, then answers that admission not with self-effort but with prayer in the middle of the night, describing joy as something given in response to that conversation rather than manufactured. A later verse shifts the song's horizon toward death, describing going home to glory to sing and shout, treating joy as something that continues rather than something that ends. The closing vamp lists a string of titles for God, from Alpha and Omega to Lily of the Valley, attaching the same repeated word "joy" to each one, so that even a description of lack, no food on the table, is answered immediately by the same confident refrain of joy.