Adonai, what you do makes me happy.

 

Thursday, August 10, 2023


Psalms 92, 93

2 Samuel 15:24-16:4

John 11:55-12:11


Observance: Laurence, deacon at Rome, martyr (d. 258)


Adonai, what you do makes me happy.


Scholars of human emotion tell us that to be emotionally literate we need to have at least thirty different words to describe different emotional states; us mere laypeople usually only have four. To be “happy” is thought of as one of those four base emotions, but until only recently, this was not the case. To philosophers, from the ancients through to the founders of the United States and on, “happiness” encompassed far more than some benign, general, positive feeling. Happiness is, in classical terms, what one feels when they have triumphed over the existential crisis: when the question of life, the universe, and everything is finally solved.


It is a sense of rest. When one is truly happy, they no longer feel that sense of discomfort from being a rational being existing in a seemingly irrational universe. Everything locks into place and makes sense, and the soul can truly be at ease, knowing that all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. Psalm 92 was, according to Jewish tradition, the first Psalm ever written: where your Bible probably titles it as “A Song for the Sabbath Day”, the Targum has it as the song written on the first ever Sabbath day, with Adam as its author.


While this raises questions about “evildoers” (v. 7) existing before the Curse, we can still imagine Adam and Eve on that first day of rest, admiring all that God had made, and made for them. Their purpose in life had been clearly set out for them, and not only that, it was a very good and noble purpose. These days, we don’t have a Sabbath, we have the Lord’s Day: Sunday, when we worship in church with the fellowship of believers. But God’s original design for us as humans to take at least one day a week off just to rest, be with God, and marvel at how good it is to be a human being who is loved by God still stands. It doesn’t need to be limited to one day, either. How good is it to just stop, take a moment, look up, breathe, and say “Lord, what you do makes me happy”.

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