Happiness & Wisdom

Is happiness important to you?  Is there anyone that happiness is not important to?  What could be more American?  A Louis Harris poll showed that 97% of Americans listed happiness as their number one concern.  So, today, we are going to talk about being happy.  Don’t worry, we aren’t going to sing any songs encouraging you to “be happy”, we’re only going to talk about it.  Specifically, we will talk about the pursuit of happiness, the problem, the paradigm, the preciousness, the precepts, and the practical results.

The Pursuit of Happiness

The Declaration of Independence declares that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right.  If it is our right, then let’s roll up our sleeves and get serious about pursuing happiness.

Uh, ok, so how do we pursue happiness?  Why don’t we learn from the lives of others? Let’s look at someone who was really happy, who had happiness down cold.  Here’s a quote from a guy who seemed to be really happy–

I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”

Now, does that sound like someone who’s happy, or what?  In fact, this guy is in the Bible, in Luke 12:19.  He was so happy that, well, let’s read what comes next–

But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you!”

Hmm, well, that story didn’t quite have the ending I think we are looking for. 

The Problem of Happiness

It seems like we have a little problem here with our pursuit of happiness. I guess what we need is godly advice, advice from someone who was very wise but still really pursued happiness with a vengeance, you know, like the Tiger Woods of happiness or something.  Well what about Solomon?  Hey, wisest guy who ever lived, right?  Let’s hear the straight line on happiness from his autobiography here in Ecclesiastes 2:9— 

So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor.

Hey, this is sounding pretty promising, Solomon retains his wisdom, and goes for all the gusto he can get, and he gets it all.  So, Solomon, how did that make you feel?  Let’s read—

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all [was] vanity and grasping for the wind. [There was] no profit under the sun.

Can you hear the pride swelling in Solomon’s heart, and then deflating as flat as a pancake?  I think we are in big trouble here.  Now if Solomon can’t be happy by pursuing it, what chance do you and I have?

Solomon said that all of his seeking of happiness was vanity, like grasping for the wind.  How can you grasp the wind?  You can try, but it always somehow slips through your fingers.  And that is exactly the experience of so many people—they try so hard to obtain happiness in so many different ways, but they find that it is like grasping air or a mirage— what they thought was real, what they thought would make them happy, somehow doesn’t.

Billy Graham once wrote, “Americans have more wealth, more two-car families, more private homes and write more books on how to be happy than any other country.”  There is obviously something wrong with this picture:  people are living their lives thinking they know how to be happy and pursuing it vigorously, but they’re not happy.

The Paradigm of Happiness

Maybe part of our trouble here is our paradigm, how we are viewing what happiness is.  Maybe if we change our view of what happiness is, the solution to this problem will become apparent. Let’s look at how the Bible defines happiness.

In Hebrew, there is actually no word that really corresponds to our English concept of “happiness”.  The usual Hebrew word used in the book of Proverbs that is translated “happy” is “esher”.  However, this word is more often and more precisely translated into English as “blessed”.  It comes from a Hebrew root meaning “to walk straight”.  So, in the Hebrew language, the whole issue of happiness was closely tied to (1) a blessing (put another way, a gift, not something you get on your own efforts) and (2) traveling along a straight path. 

Now, what does Proverbs say about this “esher”, this blessing, of God?  The prime passage that teaches about happiness in Proverbs is Proverbs 3:13-18.  First, let’s consider verse 13.  It says, “Happy(Blessed) [is] the man [who] finds wisdom, And the man [who] gains understanding.” A companion passage is Proverbs 8:32, where God, speaking as wisdom personified states,  “Now therefore, listen to me, [my] children, For blessed [are those who] keep(or obey) my ways.”  God is saying that the esher(happiness, blessing) of God comes from gaining God’s wisdom and obeying it.

Biblically, happiness, or the blessing of God, is the fruit of God’s wisdom, the fruit of walking straight in God’s paths.  This is the paradigm that will result in a true and lasting happiness in our lives.  Biblically, happiness is not a giddy emotion nor a result of pursuing any set of goals or things—happiness is a gift of God that comes from walking straight in God’s paths and in his wisdom.   God’s happiness, God’s blessing, comes directly from the action of God’s wisdom in our lives.

The Preciousness of Wisdom

After setting the proper paradigm for God’s happiness, Solomon next reinforces just how precious godly wisdom is in our lives.  In Proverbs 3:14-15 Solomon says, “Wisdom’s proceeds [are] better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. She [is] more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.”

The words proceeds, profits, and gain all are literally about investment and trading in the Hebrew.  God is saying, “If you want the best return on your investment, invest in godly wisdom and then happiness, blessing, will be the return on your investment.”  In fact, God so vividly wants to make the point about how precious wisdom is to us that he repeats Himself in Proverbs 8:10, 8:11, 8:19, 16:16.  In Psalm 119:72 he says “The law of Your mouth [is] better to me than thousands of [coins of] gold and silver.”

The Precepts of Wisdom

Now that we have the right paradigm and the proper regard for the preciousness of God’s wisdom, let’s look deeper into Proverbs for some specific precepts that are tied to God’s blessing in our lives.  There are five places in Proverbs where Solomon specifically links righteous actions with God’s blessing:

1.  Listening to God
First is Proverbs 8:34:   “Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.”   This one is obvious, but key to all that follow.  Daily listening to God in prayer and Bible study, daily watching, daily waiting, brings blessing.  See also Psalm 84:10 and Luke 11:28.

2.  Fearing God
After He has our attention, God next wants to deal with our attitude toward Him.  In Proverbs 28:14 he instructs,  “Happy(blessed) [is] the man who is always reverent, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”  Look at the contrast here, blessing on the man who is reverent—this reverence actually in Hebrew is a very strong word for fear, strong fear, overwhelming fear and dread.  We must fear God.  Our alternative is to harden our hearts against God, and along with a parallel passage in Proverbs 29:1 God warns that this hardening will result in sudden destruction.  This is the same word used of Pharaoh when his heart was hardened against God.

3. Trusting God
After we have listened, and after we have a God-honoring fear, next we must trust God, as Solomon says in Proverbs 16:20: “Whoever trusts in the LORD, happy [is] he”.  Five times, here and in Jeremiah 17:7, Psalm 2:12, 34:8, 40:4, and 84:12 God explicitly declares that we are blessed, we are happy, if we will trust in Him.

4. Obeying God
The next blessing in Proverbs we need to consider is found in Proverbs 29:18: “Where [there is] no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy(blessed) [is] he who keeps(obeys) the law.”  This verse again speaks for itself:  by obeying God’s moral law we keep ourselves within the path, within the boundaries that God has prescribed, and receive blessing.    James 1:25 instructs, “He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues [in it], and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”  Otherwise, if we do not hear & obey God’s revelation, we will cast off the restraints that God has lovingly designed for our good and suffer the consequences.

5. Showing the Mercy of God
After our relationship with God is secure and our obedience is assured, our last precept is in Proverbs 14:21, “He who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy [is] he.”  God wants us to be agents of His mercy to our neighbors and the poor.  This is emphasized over and over again, dozens of times in Scripture, probably because it so so diametrically opposed to what our human nature sees as the way to happiness.  See also Proverbs 14:31, 11:24-5, 19:17, 28:27.

The Practical Results of God’s Blessing

Finally, Solomon describes the practical results of the esher in Proverbs 8:16-18–

Length of days [is] in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor.
Her ways [are] ways of pleasantness, And all her paths [are] peace.
She [is] a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy [are all] who retain her.

In verse 16 we have a word picture of abundance, with wisdom showing both hands full of abundant blessing.  First is length of days—wise living will keep the wise person out of many situations and lifestyles which could result in a premature death.

But to add to simple longevity, wisdom offers riches and honor.  In Proverbs 8:18 we find that this is a special type of riches when it says, “Riches and honor [are] with me, enduring riches and righteousness.”  The word “enduring” in the Hebrew specifically refers to something that endures through thick and thin and that can be passed down to the next generation.  As we learned from the rich man in Luke, riches without God can be destroyed in a moment, but what God gives endures, and for the believer will endure for eternity.

In verse 17 we read about the pleasantness and peace associated with the way of wisdom.  Even in the midst of storm and trial, we can have peace if we are walking in Christ’s footsteps, for He will be before us and behind us and at our side.  The straight and smooth path that the Hebrew word esher implies is realized in our lives if we choose the path of God’s wisdom.

Finally, in verse 18 we find that wisdom is a tree of life if we will only take hold of it.  The parallel passage that amplifies this is Psalm 1:1-3:

Blessed [is] the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,that brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

In God’s wisdom we have a tree of life that can truly bring the happiness we seek.  In closing, can you say that God’s esher, God’s happiness, God’s blessing, rests on your life?  Have you taken hold of God’s wisdom?  Do you see it as precious?  Are you following its precepts?  If so, then you shall be like a tree of life, bearing fruit and prospering, and you will experience God’s happiness in your life.