Chances are that you've heard Pharrell Williams' song "Happy." It was named the best-selling song of 2014---worldwide. It has over a billion online streams. It went triple-platinum in the UK and was recognized as the most-played song of the 2010s.
It's a fun song, of course. But sometimes when I hear it, I wonder: Why is he so happy? Whatever is fueling that happiness, wouldn't you like a bit of it?
If the writer of Psalm 128 had written the song, we’d know where to start: “Happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways.”
Fear might sound like a strange starting point for happiness. Here, though, it describes reverence for God that shapes how we live. God matters enough that we pay attention and adjust our steps to God's way.
Then the psalm's happiness gets practical.
There’s work that puts food on the table. There are people gathered around it. The vine and olive shoots picture a household flourishing. Writing within the family structure of ancient Israel, the psalmist sees God’s blessing in everyday life. God cares about what happens around the kitchen table.
Of course, faithful people also sit at tables with empty chairs. We lose jobs, grieve children, and wonder how we'll make it. Please don't turn the psalmist’s sense of blessing into a formula that makes your suffering evidence of a lack of faith.
But do notice that Psalm 128 begins with happiness in one household and ends with a prayer for peace for an entire nation. The blessing reaches beyond one table. That makes me wonder. When we ask God for a good life, how much room does that prayer leave for our neighbors?
“Thank you, God, for what I have” is a good place to start. “Who can I share it with?” keeps the happiness moving.
Stay blessed...john
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