The Secret of a Happy Man
The happy man pays careful attention to seeking and following God’s way by delighting in and meditating upon God’s Word in all seasons of life.
What is it that makes a man or a woman truly happy? I’m sure everyone has his or her own answer to this question, but in this message we want to look at what God says true happiness represents, and what God says makes a person truly happy. Since this is Father’s Day, we want to direct these words from the psalmist David mainly to men. “Blessed or happy is the man…” If God calls us happy, then we are one happy people indeed, are we not?
Which would we consider to be the age of greatest happiness? Childhood? Our twenties? Our thirties? Actually it’s old age. A Fordham University survey confirms findings first reported by Gail Sheehy, author of Pathfinders. Both show that men generally are happiest in their middle sixties, and women during their seventies. And the unhappiest time? That’s the early fifties for men and late forties for women.
What is truly the secret of a happy man?
BLESSED IS THE MAN… let’s stop!!! This is our focus on Father’s Day from Psalm 1. We’re going to take a look at being “blessed” and the things that signify this state of being. Are we blessed? Are we really? What we do is an indicator of whether we are or not.
If we would ask the average Jesus-follower how he is doing, the response we might receive is “I’m blessed or happy.” It was very popular in some circles recently to respond, “Just blessed, no stress!” This response is usually of the canned variety just as responding “Nothing”, when someone asks us what’s going on with us. Though it may be true, it’s a generalized response that’s totally void of any real insight. In some cases it’s only true from a particular perspective. Let’s look deeper.
The word and connotation of being “blessed” involves two different scenarios. One, the most common, has to do with having something bestowed on someone. For example, if we wake up in the morning, we’ve been blessed to wake up. If a car almost rear ends us, but the driver is able to stop before he smashes into us, we were just blessed. If we get a raise, we’ve been blessed. The second scenario refers to a state of being — a description of someone’s status as the result of what he or she has done or is doing.
Because being “blessed” or “happy” reflects two different ideas, it’s important to understand what someone is saying when they refer to it, especially the aspect of being blessed that we’ll discover from God’s Word. To find God’s secret on how to achieve true happiness, we’re going to look at the instructions from the first Psalm, the New International Version.
Psalm 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
Let’s look at how Eugene Peterson in his translation of The Message says it…
1 How well God must like you— you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.
2-3 Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf,
always in blossom.
Psalm 1 begins with the words; “Blessed is the man” The word “blessed” seems easy enough to understand. Either good things are happening in our lives or bad things. If good things are happening, we’re blessed. If bad things are happening, we’re not. Right? That’s the way we tend to think as all men sin through the weakness of our flesh. God doesn’t see things that way. A good way to see the difference between our idea of blessedness and God’s idea is by looking at Job 5:17: 17 Blessed are those whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Here the same Hebrew word, ‘Esher’, translated “blessed” in Psalm 1 is translated “happy.” But here it is used to describe the state of a person who is in the process of being disciplined, by God. Less we get the wrong idea from the use of the word “happy,” this verse warns us that this is not a fun situation in which to be placed.
The difference between God’s idea of happiness and ours is perspective. God sees farther than we do. God knows the end result of things, while we see no farther than our noses. Happiness from our perspective means having good things happen to us right now.
Happiness from God’s perspective means receiving long term good and benefit, even if that requires pain and discomfort in the short term. God sometimes allows us to go through hard times in the short term so that we can have blessed or happy days in the long term.
We are not BLESSED until certain characteristics apply to us. There are many who consider themselves blessed that embrace ungodly counsel. When the Evil One says something, some react as if E.F. Hutton is speaking (do we remember the old commercial…when EF Hutton speaks, everybody listens?). Some claim to be blessed, but if we watch and listen to them, they don’t appear any different than the folks headed to the club for happy hour. Some claim to be blessed, but operate in selective obedience and resist the things of God, even when his will is proven to them. Some claim to be blessed, but could care less about the Word of God—no embrace, no defense, no sanctification of God’s will in their heart—reflective in their actions.
The Road to Happiness
Psalm 1 is like much of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament in that it draws a sharp contrast between good and evil, right and wrong, godliness and ungodliness. The choice is one or the other; choices today that have long-term perspective and consequences.
Poet Robert Frost wrote of having to choose between two roads that diverged in a yellow wood. Frost wrote that he did well to choose the less frequently traveled road. About 3,000 years ago, the psalmist David wrote something similar as he described two paths on which a person could live life: the way of the ungodly and the way of the righteous. The way we choose makes all the difference.
David expresses happiness first in the negative and then in the positive.
Happiness is: 1) not walking in the counsel of the wicked; 2) not standing in the way of sinners; 3) not sitting in the seat of the mockers. We must notice the degree of unhappiness expressed here by David. We must note that a progression exists: walking, standing, sitting.
Happiness expressed negatively…
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
1. Walking
First, the man who sins begins by walking in the counsel of the wicked. All men sin through the weakness of our flesh (Rom. 3:23). There is ungodly counsel to sin everywhere we turn. Role models set before our eyes call us to satisfy the desires of our flesh. The wicked love company - a company of sinners.
2. Standing
Second, the man who heeds wicked counsel practices sin and therefore is standing in the way of sinners. At this point we begin to habitually practice that which is ungodly—it becomes a lifestyle, not a mistake for which we immediately repent and pray for forgiveness.
3. Sitting
Third, the man who walks in the council of the wicked and stands in the way of sinners eventually sits in the seat of the mockers. He centers down upon sin in his life. Darkness hates the light and therefore ridicules those walking in light. We who have hardened our hearts against God are scornful of the righteous and teach others to live ungodly in this present world.
David now changes from the negative expression of what happiness is not to what is the true essence of happiness. We must also notice the mental state of those who are happy.
Happiness expressed positively…
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Happiness is essentially a state of mind, not primarily a state of affairs nor a station in life. Those who delight in the law of the Lord and mediate in it day and night are like a replanted tree, not a wild tree. This one is chosen of the Lord, a special tree that God cares for, cultivates, fertilizes, prunes, and loves.
Those who are happy delight in the law of the Lord; therefore, they meditate upon it day and night. When we meditate we internalize the Word of God. We don’t merely memorize it. Like a cow chewing its cud, we allow the Word of God to be digested in our lives. We don’t get into the Word as much as the Word gets into us! As we look at our hands, we see five fingers. Moving from the little finger to the thumb we hear, read, study, memorize, and meditate on the Word of God.
How can a child of God delight and then meditate in the law of the Lord while watching others fornicate in a love story on TV or on the movie theater screen? It is impossible. These two are diametrically opposed. The world is being bombarded with ungodly counsel. Some of this counsel is unavoidable, but much of it can be avoided by practicing self-control. We are all human, we all sin. We can all improve in service to God. Each one of us is entertaining a degree of ungodly counsel that could be avoided in our life. Now having confronted ourselves with this harsh reality, will we do something about it? We will be happier as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus and not in the counsel of the ungodly.
Oh boy! Bet we’ve always wanted to be like a tree. A tree is great to climb when we’re young, but to be likened to one as we grow up? What in the world was the psalmist David saying here? To excite us about avoiding sin and pursuing God’s Word, the psalmist used four images to explain what happens to the man God blesses.
1. Permanent
First, this one is happy because he is likened to a tree planted by rivers of water. His roots are deeply embedded in the rich earth and irrigated by the stream. The man who is happy or blessed has a strong foundation built upon godly principles, not the values of the world—possessions, power, and pleasures.
2. Productive
Second, this one is happy because he has an overabundance from which to drink and therefore feed. Season after season he bears the fruit God intended for him to bear. The Lord feeds his children that they may never fail unless they turn their hearts from him to heed ungodly counsel. Therefore, this one grows big and strong—standing strong in this present age against sin; and in age to come, eternal life.
3. Perpetual
Third, this one is happy because he is consistent. Like a tree, when the vegetation around him withers and wilts under the heat of summer sun, he is perpetually healthy. The season for Jesus-followers to bear fruit is everlasting (Gal. 5:16-26). Unless a Jesus-follower heeds the counsel of the ungodly, he continually bears the fruit of the Spirit. His fruit never fades away. His leaf never withers away.
4. Prosperous
Fourth, this one is happy because whatever he does will prosper under God’s good hand. Godly men doing godly things always prosper. Why? Because godly men do not judge themselves according to the prosperity of the flesh. But rather, godly men judge themselves according to spiritual prosperity. Jesus promised his disciples something to eat and something to wear. And with this, godly men count themselves prosperous.
Let’s think back over the past week and ask ourselves what we did when temptation assaulted us. Let’s look over our schedule and ask how much time we spent in the Bible. The psalmist David tells us that the four important outcomes in our life, outlined above, are linked to what we discover by asking these two questions.
Those who are happy do not delight in sin—they delight in the law of the Lord. Therefore Jesus-followers are taught to refrain in their fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; turn away from evil and cling to good; abstain from every form of evil; and avoid evil companions who corrupt good morals. Nor should Jesus-followers have the mind to entertain the thought of evil which is so prevalent in the media today.
So in Psalm 1, David starts by saying “Blessed is the man….” By following this introduction with qualifying criteria, even Peter, through the Holy Spirit, says…“remember, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Let’s know that being blessed or happy in this sense doesn’t happen through osmosis.
The key question is, which path are we taking?
If we find ourselves…
paying more attention to the advice of those who do not believe in God than of those who fear him;
behaving pretty much as unbelievers do; or
making cynical statements about God and the things of God
…then we must beware! We may already far down the path of unrighteousness. If so, then we do whatever it takes to turn back, because the end of the path is destruction.
We must do certain things to aspire to this state of being blessed like a tree planted by streams of water. David stated the secret of a happy man through four characteristics:
Doesn’t embrace or value ungodly/unwise counsel
Doesn’t abide in the realm of sinners from a lifestyle perspective
Doesn’t have a scornful (stubborn, contentious and obstinate) personality
Does prosper by delighting and meditating in the Word of the Lord
For us today, the first step toward happiness is becoming a Jesus-follower. Then happiness is living as a child of God, according to his Word. Happiness is: Being God’s child! Let’s keep the Word as men, and be blessed.
There’s a story of man getting ready to board a plane at an airport when he ‘overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her departure and standing near the security gate, they hugged and he said, “I love you. I wish you enough.” She in turn said, “Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy.” They kissed and she left.
He walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say goodbye to someone knowing it would be forever?” “Yes, I have,” I replied. Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were limited, I took the time to tell him face to face how much he meant to me. So I knew what this man was experiencing.
“Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever goodbye?” I asked. “I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, the next trip back would be for my funeral,” he said. “When you were saying goodbye I heard you say, “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?”
He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” He paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more. “When we said ‘I wish you enough,’ we wanted the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them,” he continued and then turning toward me he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
“I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”
He then began to sob and walked away.
Men, when it comes to happiness, ‘I wish you enough.’ Amen!
