Meditation of Psalm 1 - Pursuit of Happiness

Meditation of Psalm 1 - Pursuit of Happiness (Psalm 1:1-3)

Tony Tan. December 3, 2016

 

Introduction

All of life is one grand pursuit for happiness - don't we do almost everything with the hope of a fairy-tale ending "and they lived happily ever after"? However, the reality seems closer to a Shakespearean tragedy ….

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.  (McBeth)

Science & technology have helped us live longer with more creature comforts, but do we live happier? John Maynard Keynes (1930) - 3-HR work shifts & 15 HR work weeks. 

Business insider article: 

"Google CFO Patrick Pichette’s resignation letter — in which he recounts “30 years of nearly non-stop work” — raises a really interesting question about tech, productivity, and free time:

Why is it that a man who works at Google — the most technologically advanced company on the planet, a company that offers a vast range of productivity apps to help you work faster and do more with less — has so little time off?

All that tech should have made him so efficient, saved him so much time, that he could have worked less. But it did not.

Pichette says he spent those three decades working at “a frenetic pace for about 1500 weeks.” He didn’t even spend much time with his wife, he says. “Tamar and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary. When our kids are asked by their friends about the success of the longevity of our marriage, they simply joke that Tamar and I have spent so little time together that ‘it’s really too early to tell’ if our marriage will in fact succeed.” 

We have more living but do we have more life. More days, heartbeats, opportunities vs more love, contentment, peace, joy. Through the ebb & flow of life, Question to ponder: Is lasting happiness possible?

4 types of people:

1. Happiness is natural - Young, naive, inexperience, idealistic

2. Happiness is achievable -  chase after it: school, uni, job, marry, house, $1M

3. Happiness is impossible - Jaded, disappointed, cynical, wounded, skeptic

4. Happiness is available/accessible

Psalm 1:

1. Happiness is possible.

·         "Blessed is the man". 

·         Expounded in Matt 5 (beatitudes) - blessed, happy

2. Happiness is internal.

·         Most derive happiness from external events. Circumstantial. Emotional roller-coaster, schizophrenia, emotional exhaustion.

·         Tree planted by the stream. Planted there, exposed to seasons & elements.  Tree draws from a deeper source. The more hostile the environment the deeper and further the root grows. Inside-out. Leaves don't wither & continually fruitful.

3. Happiness is a by-product.

·         Walk (expose), stand (habit), sit (integration). Wicked pursue personal happiness & advantage above all else. Selfishness, compromise integrity, hurt others. Self indulgence.

·         Matt 6:33 But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Context: anxiety about life) "these things" - food, drink, body, clothes (material things)

·         Aim for heaven and you get earth thrown in. Aim for earth, and you get neither.

·         If we seek after happiness, we will surely not find it. e.g. Marriage - "make this moment last"; end up poisoning marriage; serve, support, give - love will last.

·         Trials, difficulties, hurts can co-exist with happiness & joy. 1Pet4:12-14 - not surprised by fiery trials, rejoice in suffering. Jesus - man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he weeps. As Christians, we become more sensitive & burdened, but we also become more joyful & peaceful. We a not crushed by suffering, but we are not numb either. We allow the fire to fully burn, shape us and mould us into more of the likeness of Christ. We still cling to the cross and rejoice in the finished work.

4. Happiness is built on relationship 

·         Delight in God word & communion with him

·         The word shaped our values & attitudes, tutors & teaches us to navigate life, strengthen & encourages us, sensitive us to leading of the Holy Spirit, empower supernaturally 

·         Primarily relationship to God, horizontal relationship with fellow men.

Conclusion:

Can't pursue happiness. Happiness is the resulting benefit of pursuing God, His Kingdom, His Righteousness.

Live Life with Purpose & Passion

“In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair...the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.” (Dorothy Sayers)

John 1:1

“Word” – Logos

·         philosophically loaded

·         “reason for life”, design, reason for existence, reach potential

·         Not abstract philosophy, not money, beauty, power, success

·         A Person

  

We are God’s Divine Work of Art

We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. Here again we come up against what I have called the “intolerable compliment.” Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life—the work which he loves … —he will take endless trouble—and would doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and re-commenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumb-nail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less.

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain