I remember a day many years ago when our not-easily-moved-to tears teenage daughter was crying.  We hated to see her in emotional pain after breaking up with her boyfriend.  We were sad that she was sad, but we also were experiencing other emotions simultaneously – relief and hope.  We sympathized, but we felt she had made a good decision and looked forward to seeing who God would bring into her life who would be a better match.  I think God can enter into our present heartache and yet because he sees the big picture, he can also maintain perfect happiness knowing that he will eventually bring us undisturbed happiness.

Do you think of God as being happy?  I have to say that I didn’t.  I thought he was sad because people like me don’t measure up to his perfection.  Added to that, he must be sad about wars, suffering, disease, and poverty here on earth.  God does empathize.  He does enter into our pain.  But he is also in a deep and overflowing way happy. (I also thought the word joy was more spiritual and should always be preferred over the word happy.  Turns out they are synonyms and there isn’t any reason to shun the word happy.  Besides, most modern English speakers understand the word happy and identify with it since every human wants to be happy.  We just have to keep in mind that we are talking about true and lasting happiness from God and not a temporary buzz.  Kind of like the difference between loving pizza and loving your family.)  

“He who is the supremely happy and only Ruler, the king over all kings, and master of all masters … all honor and power to him forever!”  1 Timothy 6:15,16

You know that word translated ‘blessed’ in our English Bibles?  The New Testament Greek word makarios and the Old Testament Hebrew word asher would be better translated in our modern vernacular as happy.  Synonyms would be glad, joyful, rejoicing, delighted, truly happy. The word blessed in the days of the King James translation was understood to mean happy.  But four centuries later, the word has become detached from its earlier common use and has become a word most of us would be hard-pressed to actually define.  Many people now think it means holy.  But that isn’t the meaning of the words in the original languages which are translated blessed.  Happy or truly happy in our modern English much more closely express the idea of the original Hebrew and Greek words.  

Whoa!  Mind-boggling.  Need to shift my thinking.  Can’t wrap my brain around this concept.  A happy God?!  A glad God?  A celebrating God?

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you with his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”  Zepheniah 3:17

 

“I am so happy I found my lost sheep.  Let’s celebrate!”  Luke 15:6

“But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother… was lost, but now has been found.”  Luke 15:32

“Well done, good and faithful servant!  Come and share your master’s happiness!”  Matthew 25:23

“Here is my servant, my chosen one in whom I delight.”  Isaiah 42:1

“This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”  Matthew 3:17  the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism

Does it seem disrespectful to say that God is happy?  It isn’t.  God describes himself in the inspired writings of Scripture as being happy.  Yes, he is also angry, and jealous in a pure way, and has to judge evil.  We know this.  But we don’t think about him being happy.  Yet happiness is also part of his being and it will last beyond his temporary anger and judgment.  He will be happy and will be making us happy long after the old order of things and its evil has passed away.  He will be happy and be making us happy when he has restored the bliss of Eden and combined it with the bliss of Heaven on the New Earth.  He will be happy and be making us happy unendingly long after the memory of death, sorrow, crying, and pain has been erased.

 “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.   And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” ”  Revelation 21:2-5

“Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.  For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.”  Acts 3:20-21

“The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.”  Isaiah 11:6-9

Further Notes

Husband and I are re-reading for the third time (or maybe the fourth) the book, “Happiness” by Randy Alcorn.  It’s taking me a long time to get my brain around the concept of a happy God, but it is transformative.  I highly recommend this scholarly book.  There is an abridged version in a devotional format, as well.  Most of the ideas in this article originated in Randy’s book.

The Greek word makarios in the original New Testament text is best translated happy but is often poorly translated blessed in the English New Testament.

The Hebrew word asher in the original Hebrew Old Testament texts is best translated happy, but is often translated blessed.

The Hebrew word barak in the original Hebrew Old Testament texts is best translated blessed meaning divine favor shown by favorable circumstances.  So not all English uses of the word blessed should be translated happy.  In the Old Testament, there are times when blessed is a good translation because it is a translation of barak which expresses God’s favor.