Psalm 68:3
“But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.”
Do you remember the 80s song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin? I loved that song. It would make me happy just to hear it.
Though everything we hear or see won’t inspire us with happiness, God really does want us to be happy. Though we may be in a season of challenges, or encounter some frustrations over somewhere we’ve fallen short, we have a Father who wants us to be happy.
You may have heard it said that we aren’t put here on earth to be happy, or God doesn’t care about us being happy. However, the Bible says otherwise.
Happy is a wonderful emotion meaning glad, joyful, or merry. The Bible refers to it in various aspects; with Psalm 68:3 above showing the state in which the righteous should exist. Being joyful is key in that joy is a fruit of God’s Holy Spirit. That makes it pretty important.
I would even venture to say that if God happens to discipline or correct us with His scripture verses, we should seek to find happiness in receiving that information as we then experience God’s care for us and the results of gladness it produces when we act upon it.
In Genesis 30:13, in the story of two sisters Leah and Rachel who married Jacob, after Leah saw she had stopped having children and upon her servant bearing a second one with Jacob, she said “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher. In Hebrew, Asher means happy or blessed.
Interestingly, after this incident, Leah conceived two sons, Issachar and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah. Then God blessed Rachel to finally conceive–two sons, Joseph, and later Benjamin. In the end, it was good to see God find a way to make both Leah and Rachel happy.
In Proverbs 15:13, we’re told, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” So here we see the importance of a happy heart, versus heartache. A joyful, positive outlook can be good for our health, while a negative feeling can drain us of the will to get well. We are the light of the world. Our countenance is described in Psalm 34:5: “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”
Blessed is another word used for happy in the bible. In Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, the Greek word translated as “blessed” is “Makarios”, meaning happy, fortunate, enlarged, or lengthy. Its Hebrew word, which most closely translates to “blessed” is “ashrei” (אשרי), which signifies a deep sense of happiness and contentment, implying God’s favor resting upon someone.
So, how can we be truly blessed and not be happy?
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