Is Calling God Happy Blasphemous . . . Or At Least Disrespectful?

Is calling God happy blasphemous . . . or at least disrespectful?

You [God] make [David] happy with the joy of your presence.

Psalm 21:6, CEB

Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.

PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S advisers recommended that he include a particular man in his presidential cabinet. When he refused, they asked why.

“I don’t like the man’s face,” Lincoln replied.

Surprised, someone insisted, “But the poor man isn’t responsible for his face.” Lincoln responded, “Every man over forty is responsible for his face.”^a

Lincoln wasn’t talking about a person’s physical beauty; he was saying that the heart’s condition always makes its way to the face. “A happy heart makes the face cheerful” (Proverbs 15:13, NIV). If that’s true of us, isn’t it true of the God whose image we bear?

Typically we associate God’s face with holiness. But doesn’t it also reflect his love, compassion, and happiness?

God says of his people, “Their faces will shine with happiness about all the good things from the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:12, NCV). This suggests that God’s face shines with a happiness so great it spills onto the faces of those who love him. (Certainly an unhappy God wouldn’t make his people’s faces shine with happiness.)

God told Moses what Aaron and the priests were to say to the people: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26, NIV). How do you envision a face that shines on you and is gracious to you and gives you peace? Would such a face be stern and hostile, or pleasant and happy?

Gaining an understanding of God’s happiness is so vital and yet foreign to the thinking of many believers. Charles Spurgeon said of 1 Timothy 1:11, “The Gospel . . . is the Gospel of happiness. It is called, ‘the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.’ A more correct translation would be, ‘the happy God.’ Well, then, adorn the Gospel by being happy!”^b

When writing to Timothy, Paul didn’t simply talk about the gospel; he referred to the good news of the happy God. This good news comes from God and relates to his glory—he is not just any god but the happy God. God’s happiness is included here as part of the gospel’s good news. This corresponds to the gospel being prophesied as the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7), which the angel told the shepherds, in words that mean the same thing, was “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). The degree of happiness in the good news is dependent on the degree of happiness of the originator and sender of that good news—God himself.

Occam’s razor is the philosophical rule that the simplest explanation is most likely true. It argues that the more assumptions required, the more unlikely the account. In 1 Timothy 1:11, the simplest explanation is that, under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, Paul called God happy precisely because God is happy!

When I’ve shared from Scripture the truth of God’s happiness, people who’ve long been Christians are sometimes initially skeptical, assuming this is a modern attempt to twist the Bible’s meaning. But once they see the truth, they’re both surprised and delighted.

Sadly, few churches teach that God is happy—or wants us to be happy. In fact, we’re often taught the opposite. The result is silencing or contradicting the biblical revelation of one of God’s great attributes, at immense loss to the church, families, and individuals.

I’ve heard people say that calling God happy makes them uncomfortable. Others maintain that using the word blessed instead of happy imparts more dignity to God. Should we refuse to call God what he, in his inspired Word, calls himself? Isn’t that censoring God?

In Jesus’ parable, when the prodigal’s father runs across the field to greet his repentant son, commentators point out that it was undignified for men in the ancient Middle East to run.^c But in his overflowing happiness, the father, who represents God, disregards his dignity to shower grace upon his repentant son.

God sees no incompatibility between his dignity and his happiness. Why should we?

As the only infinite being in the universe, God has within himself not only infinite holiness, love, and goodness but also infinite peace, joy, and delight. He truly is the happy God. God’s unhappiness with sin is temporary, because sin itself is a temporary aberration—one dealt with by Christ. Happiness, however, is the underlying nature of the timeless God. His happiness, without beginning, eternally preceded sin’s birth and will forever continue after sin’s death.

My heartfelt belief that God is happy motivates me to love him more and know him better. I like being with happy people—who doesn’t? I’m motivated to spend time with them and look forward to getting to know them better. The idea of spending extended time with someone who is unhappy sounds daunting and disheartening. Yet that’s what “eternal life” means to many people: living forever with an unhappy God.

I’d much rather spend not only eternity but also my present life accompanied by, indwelt by, and empowered by a happy God—one who understands my desire for happiness because he, too, experiences and thoroughly enjoys his happiness.

Of course, that I want something doesn’t make it true. What proves it is true is that God reveals his happiness in his Word. Let’s state it emphatically and believe it with all our hearts: God is happy!

Lord, help us to enjoy and contemplate and praise you for your happiness. And in doing so, help us experience what it means to delight in you daily. Happiness pervades you and radiates from you, and we’re grateful that you wanted to share your happiness with us, who you created in your image. Thank you, our happy God, for going to unimaginable lengths to secure forever our own happiness by entering into your own happiness.