The God-Happy Way of Life

October 21, 2014

Initial sermon draft for this Sunday (I’ll be preaching in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is now complete.

Sermon text: Psalm 1.

Title: “The God-Happy Way of Life.”

Kidner suggests that the term usually translated “blessed” is better translated “happy”—there is, after all, another Hebrew term for “blessed.” Beyond that, “blessed” is a very mushy term in our Christian culture. (Especially down here in the South, but it’s a general affliction, I think.) Kidner suggests that “happy” is a better translation.

At the same time, we need to be clear that the Psalm is not just talking about any happiness. The “happy” in verse 1 is looking forward to the rest of the Psalm. Not least: “Yahweh knows the way of the righteous.”

There is nothing wrong with desiring to be happy. But we must define happiness, and we also must orient ourselves toward the proper sort of happiness. When our delight is in the Word of the Lord, it is the Lord who determines and defines the nature of happiness.

Thus, the Psalm is not merely about “how to be happy” in some generic sense. It is the portrait of the God-happy way of life.