Thinking about happiness

Psalm 1:1

How happy is the one who does not

walk in the advice of the wicked

or stand in the pathway with sinners

or sit in the company of mockers!

Most of us view happiness as something inserted into our daily lives and emotional well-being through what we possess or at least what we control or advance to some degree. Psalm 1 challenges us to consider that the source of happiness is often discovered in what we do not do, or do not accomplish, or possess.

In one obvious sense, a person’s activities reveal a lot about their character. Our inner person processes the events that happen around us and those we anticipate might happen. It’s sort of like throwing a bunch of different fruits, a glob of yogurt, and a sprinkling of supplements in a blender and drinking the stuff for our health, no matter how foul it might appear or taste.

The Hebrew word most often translated as “happy” denotes a contented state of being that arises from living a directed life. If that is true, then it is a life that is moving with intention in a particular direction.  The first verse of the Psalm indicates a person who is moving in a self-determined direction. He or she has progressed on their journey that can be characterized by three progressive stages of character development, from the walking wicked to the standing sinner, finally and ultimately becoming a sitting mocker.

It is helpful to note here that the Psalm is written by a Jew for Jews. He is talking about God’s chosen people. While the results of directional choices are wisdom for all humans, the Jews had a unique opportunity to refine their humanity by listening to and responding to God’s revelation to them, i.e., the Law.

Another way of stating the first verse is, “Unhappy people walk in … stand in … sit in…” All unhappy people are unhappy because of the direction they live in, which simultaneously emanates from and builds their character. Our character is the outward display of our inward condition.

I tend to find that unhappy people are often antagonistic, judgmental, and divisive in their environment. They feel that those who disagree with them are trying to force them to adjust to an agenda they do not agree with. The result is that unhappy people are never satisfied with anything less than their preferred outcome. Even if they get what their group fought for, friends in their noble fight for the “right” will become obstacles to be overcome to reach a better version of what they deem as the best.

My unhappiness is caused by the ignorant people around me or by the fickle movement of chance, outside my influence. In short, my unhappiness is not my fault. “You are the reason I can’t be happy!” Psalm 1 slaps the babbling whiner in the face, saying, “Get a hold of yourself, dude!”

Happiness does not begin with an idea. It begins in the Ideal. And the idea cannot be found internally, no matter how well-read, experienced, or intelligent a person may be. The fact that each human has an idea of what makes the purest happiness sets the happy seeker at odds with other happy seekers. This results in each “ideaer” (I may have just invented a new word, people who develop their own ideas), their thinking humanly, is different from all other “ideaers.” We should conclude, therefore, that the ideal cannot be found in the vast array of ideas espoused by humans. The Ideal can only be found outside of human computation. Well on the way to finding sustainable happiness is the person who has discovered the Ideal is the God who revealed Himself in the Bible, that is, Yahweh!

Happiness is an aura that settles on our person, emanating from the radiance of the Son of God into our lives. Happiness begins when we realize what we are, then who we are, and then what we do.

This Psalm for post-Old Testament believers can serve as a means of diagnosing why we do not feel satisfied or fulfilled and happy in our current circumstances. Happiness will be found by those of us who are willing to put in the effort to find the dark place within themselves where life starts to reek of rotten tomatoes. This is not easy. There is a lot of accumulated junk hiding in that unpleasant source of the “do-ist.”

In a Lincoln-Douglas debate in Ottawa, Illinois, on August 27, 1858, Abraham Lincoln made one of his most famous statements: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” It may be safe to say, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can fool yourself all the time.”

Blessed are those who do not expect happiness to come from anywhere other than submission to the person of God through Jesus, who is the Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit. Be careful what you think because that is what you will become.

Photo – One of my boxes. Maple, Oak, Brazilian Cherry, and American Cherry woods.