The Pursuit of Happiness

It’s right there in the Declaration of Independence… All those wonderful Founding Fathers said we have the right to pursue happiness, and do we ever!

Everybody wants to be happy. When my wife cooks her world-famous sticky-toffee pudding, I’m happy. When my team wins, I’m happy. When that tax-refund hits my bank account, you bet I’m happy. Lots of things happ-en that can make any of us happ-y. That’s the catch, though - Happiness depends on what’s happening.

So what do we do when things aren’t going so well? When there’s a serious illness, or someone we love turns his or her back on us, or there’s no money left for that stack of bills, happiness can get a lot harder to come by.

When tough times come, we’re going to need something more enduring than a feel-good response that’s only available when we like the things we’re experiencing. That something is joy, and it doesn’t depend even slightly on things that may or may not happen. Joy doesn’t happen by chance, joy happens by choice! David wrote this psalm when, as was often the case, he was in real trouble. His enemies wanted him dead, but nothing in this psalm sounds like a man who was defeated or deflated. What was his secret?

This verse says we can find fullness of joy, and the place we’ll find it is in His presence. But you and I know that whenever we read God’s Word, or worship, or try to call on God in the middle of our ever-more-hectic lives, it’s like all hell lets loose and pulls us towards anything else but being in His presence. But if we want the joy that only comes when we’re intimately connected to Him, rather than taking a chance on some fleeting moment of happiness somewhere else, we need to find our way into His presence at all costs.

This psalm is a “Miktam,” one of six given this name. Charles Spurgeon described a Miktam as, “The psalm of the precious secret.” You and I might use the phrase, “hidden treasure.” We need to dig our way through all the clutter and all the distractions until we find Him. Joy is found in His presence, because He is the joy. Revel in His presence every moment you can, because that’s where you go far beyond mere happiness, and discover fullness of joy!