So I'm reading David's words, struggling in my head and frustrating my wife, as I try to figure out why we don't feel this way all the time. Why we aren't happy, why we don't sing his praises with joy overflowing all the time? And then she simply asks, "Where does it say anything about your happiness?"
Holy simply profundity, Batman! Her very pointed question caught me sideways. Why doesn't this passage from David's pen, inspired by God, mention anything about David's (any by extension, my) happiness? Nothing about hearts leaping or souls lifted. Nada. Ok, let me read this again...clearly I missed something. I mean this is about praising God, right? And isn't there always happiness involved in that?
David got right to the heart of the matter, but this time by what he did not say.
I often live this life (the life given me, not the one I've earned) from behind my eyes. I'm stuck in here and it's all I know. I can't easily escape the habit of answering all the questions on my own, before I turn the corner and discover the truth. I get stuck inside...stuck on me. And it's not like the messages of this world don't enable, encourage, even incent that mentality.
But what my wife helped me see - what David doesn't mention - is what affected me most after reading this (several times). Praise the Lord for he is worthy. There is no condition, no qualifier. David doesn't say you have to be happy and then it's ok to praise him. David doesn't say when you're sad, there's not as much to praise God for. And here's where Mel's question caught me. You don't have to feel happiness to praise God. After all we change our moods more often than we change our socks. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is ample reason to praise him - for who he is, for his grace and mercy, for his omniscient guidance, forbearance, and love (it's a really, really long list).
God made us and knows we are inclined to failure, inclined to sin. He doesn't expect us to feel happy all the time. But there is always reason to praise him.
Only Disney employees are happy all the time. As Christians, we are under no obligation to feel (or pretend to feel) happy all the time. Our greatest joy, even when things suck, should come from knowing the God we serve. Knowing his love is ever present, his grace is unbounded, his desire for our sanctification is unyielding, and in him there is no shadow of turning.
Praise God.
- submitted by Norm and Melissa Wilson
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