Is God Happy?

Is God happy?

God . . . in eternal felicity alone holds sway. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. 1 Timothy 6:15, NEB

Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the soul of God shouting for joy. WILLIAM BLAKE

WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR Christians not experiencing the happiness and joy the Bible so often speaks of? I’m convinced a central reason—perhaps the central reason—is that many people who believe in God do not believe that God himself is happy. And how could anyone expect that knowing and serving an unhappy God would bring us happiness?

In the movie Chariots of Fire, Olympic hopeful and eventual gold medalist Eric Liddell is challenged by his sister, Jennie, about his decision to train for the Olympics. He plans to leave for the mission field but delays so he can attempt to qualify in the 400-meter race. In doing so, Jennie thinks he’s putting God second. But Eric sees things differently. He explains, “God . . . made me fast, and when I run I feel his pleasure.”^a

Eric and Jennie believe in the same God . . . yet they don’t. Both fear and love God. Both are committed to serving Christ. But Eric, who smiles warmly and signs autographs while his sister looks on disapprovingly, has something she lacks: a relaxed, heartfelt awareness of God’s happiness—in his creation, in his people, and in all of life, including sports and competition.

Eric wants to serve God as much as his sister does, but he senses God’s delight and purpose in making him a fast runner. If God finds pleasure in the majesty of a horse (see Job 39:19-25), surely he finds even greater pleasure in Eric’s running for the pure joy of it. Because of the God-centered joy this gift brings him, Eric tells Jennie that giving up running “would be to hold [God] in contempt.”^b

Both Eric and his sister want to reach the world with the gospel. But Eric’s good news is far better news. Why? Because it’s about more than deliverance from Hell—he understands that God’s mind and heart are delightfully engaged in all he has created, not just church and ministry. Liddell’s belief in a happy God makes his life profoundly attractive.

When we think of God as happy, we see how his happiness overflows in all he does. If your grumpy neighbor asks, “What are you up to?” you’ll see it as a suspicious, condemning question. But if your cheerful neighbor asks the same thing, you’ll smile and talk about your plans. We interpret people’s words according to how we perceive their character and outlook. So it is with our view of God.

If we think God is unhappy, we will interpret his words in Scripture accordingly. When he tells us not to do certain things, we’ll think he’s trying to keep us from happiness. But if we know God to be happy, we will understand that he tells us to avoid things because, like a loving parent who tells a child to stay away from the highway, he wants us to be safe and happy.

To be godly is to resemble God. If God is unhappy, we’d need to pursue unhappiness, which is as likely as developing an appetite for gravel. If following Jesus means having to turn away from happiness, and we’re wired to want happiness, then we can only fail as Christians. The wonderful news is that when we look at Scripture carefully, we find a happy God who desires us to draw happiness from him. Yet how many Christians have ever heard a sermon, read a book, had a discussion about, or meditated on God’s happiness?

You may be thinking, But does the Bible really say God is happy? The answer is yes—it does! Many times Scripture states that God experiences delight and pleasure. Other times when it affirms God’s happiness, readers of English Bibles don’t understand what the original language was communicating.

The apostle Paul wrote of “the gospel of the glory of the blessed [makarios] God with which I have been entrusted” (1 Timothy 1:11). Later in the same book, he refers to God as “he who is the blessed [makarios] and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (6:15). In 1611, when King James translators chose the word blessed in verses like these, it meant “happy”! In fact, the 1828 edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary still defined blessed as, “Made happy or prosperous; extolled; pronounced happy. . . . Happy . . . enjoying spiritual happiness and the favor of God; enjoying heavenly felicity.”^c

Likewise, Webster defined blessedly as “happily” and blessedness as “happiness.” So, two hundred years after the KJV was translated, people still understood blessed to mean “happy.”

In contrast, a poll I did of more than one thousand people, mostly Christians, indicated that only 12 percent of them associate blessed with happy. Most others think of blessed not as a happiness word but as a holiness word. Hence, while “blessed” was a good translation four hundred years ago and still good two hundred years ago, it is no longer a good translation, because it fails to convey the happiness connotations of the original word. The fact is that 1 Timothy 1:11 and 6:15 actually speak of the gospel of the “happy God” and the God “who is the happy and only Sovereign.”

I’m convinced that in the new universe—called in Scripture the New Heaven and the New Earth—the attribute of God’s happiness will be apparent everywhere. Upon their deaths, Christ-followers won’t hear, “Go and submit to your master’s harshness” but “Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21, NIV). Anticipating those amazing words can sustain us through every heartbreak and challenge in our present lives.

Father, thank you that you have revealed yourself to us in your Word as the happy God. Jesus, thank you for being our example of God’s triune happiness. You loved and laughed and lived—and still do—as the Son with whom the Father is well pleased. Help us grow up to be just like you!