Fear and Freedom

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Pete

Growth strategies. That’s been part of the modern church’s lexicon for as long as I’ve been a believer. So we ask ourselves, what do we need to do as a body of believers to become a bigger body of believers? Everything from visitor experience to member ministries is programmed so that people come and people stay. 80% full, if only 20% fully committed. (80% because more than that, so went the prevailing wisdom, and you’re going to lose people because there’s “nowhere” to sit — so make sure you’re building is always expanding too).

Not wanting to be overly simplistic. Not wanting to be critical either. After all, going and making disciples implies growing even as we’re equipping disciples. But something I read this morning in Acts caught my eye, and my attention, as it relates to growing churches. All our strategies, all our programming, really won’t amount to a hill of beans (or our targeted mountain of beings) if they are not sown in the context of some authentic spiritual dynamics. This morning, I’m chewing on fear and freedom.

So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

(Acts 9:31 CSB)

The early church grew. It’s “strategy”? Fear the Lord and foster freedom for the Spirit.

Sure, they were doing a lot of stuff. A lot of spiritual stuff like gathering together, learning together, and praying together. And they were doing a lot of practical stuff too, like sharing what they had with one another and caring equitably for the widows in their midst. But that wasn’t part of their strategy in order to meet their targets. It wasn’t part of their “plan” in order to promote their “brand.” It wasn’t a means towards an end. Growing in the things of God while loving the people of God was the end. And it happened as they feared and as there was freedom. They feared the Lord and there was freedom for the Spirit to work.

The fear they knew wasn’t some somber, holy dread of stepping out of line. Rather, as Michael Reeves explains in his book, Rejoice and Tremble, the fear of the Lord they lived in was more of “an ecstasy of love and joy that senses how overwhelmingly kind and magnificent, good and true God is, and that therefore leans on him in staggered praise and faith” (p. 67). It wasn’t the fear experienced by the people at the foot of Sinai, where the Law was given, which caused them to flee. Rather, it was the fear they experienced at the foot of the cross, where they heard afresh the words of Christ, “Come to Me” which drew them to respond boldly by approaching heaven’s throne of grace. As Reeves quotes John Bunyan, “Godly fear flows from a sense of the love and kindness of God. Nothing can lay a stronger obligation upon the heart of God than a sense of, or hope in, mercy” (p. 50). The early church grew because there was in their midst a prevailing fear of God — they were so captivated by the love of God that they wholly submitted themselves to living for God.

But more than just a fear factor in their midst, there was also a freedom factor. They were encouraged by the Holy Spirit. They were called, exhorted, admonished, and persuaded by the One Jesus sent to live in them as individuals and bind them together as a body. Far from quenching the Spirit, they fostered the Spirit. They opened the Scriptures, giving the Spirit “material” with which to transform them by the renewing of their minds. They closed the door on unconfessed, un-dealt with sin, as they repented of their sin and forgave each other as God in Christ had forgiven them. They knew it was not by their might, nor their power that Jesus’s church would grow, but by the Spirit’s active work within them.

Fear of the Lord, freedom for the Spirit. And the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened and increased in numbers.

How’s that for a growth strategy?

By His grace. For His glory.

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Treasure Management

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Pete

This morning, I’m hovering over a few verses from Jesus’ sermon on the mount, and it seems to me there might well be a fine line between good stewardship and guileful slavery.

“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . . No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” ~ Jesus

(Matthew 6:19-21, 24 CSB)

As a rich person in a rich land (in relation to most people on this planet), when I encounter these verses each year I often pause, consider, and try to calibrate. What is my treasure handling indicating about my heart condition? And, it seems to me, it’s not necessarily a quick check. Not necessarily an easy answer. Because I’m thinking the evidence of faithful stewardship may not be a lot different than the evidence of fettered slavery.

If I think about it for a minute, I’m most often inclined to think about these verses in terms of how I spend my money. But isn’t storing up treasure about not spending? Maybe I should be thinking more about why I save my money. Less about why I open my wallet and more about why I don’t.

If the reasons I’m “careful with my money” tend towards ensuring my secure future rather than investing in a coming kingdom, then perhaps I’m not serving God as much as I like to think I am. If my frugalness is really driven by wanting to make sure that I’m always able to “give me this day my daily bread”, then maybe mammon is really my Jehovah-Jireh (the LORD my Provider).

If the reason I keep the $5 in my pocket rather than bless the guy on the street, or keep the $50 in my wallet rather than give it to the church, or keep the $500 in my bank account rather than enjoy God’s good provision with my family, or keep the $5,000 in the market rather than sacrificially support some ministry — if the reason I do any of that is more because of watching out for me than wanting to live for the kingdom, then my thriftiness might just be a form of bondage.

Not saying we shouldn’t be careful with the funds we’ve been entrusted with. Not saying we don’t plan for the future. Not saying we don’t save to be able to experience the wonder and joy of the world God has provided through the means God has provided. But I am saying I think Jesus is saying that why we save may be an indicator of who or what we’re really serving.

Worth chewing on, I think.

Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.

(1Timothy 6:17-19 CSB)

Treasure management. This too, by His grace. This too, for His glory.

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A Limp for a Lifetime

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Pete

I think it was with Jesus. I think Jacob spent all night in toe-to-toe, hand-to-hand combat with the pre-incarnate manifestation of the the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God (Gen. 32:24).

That the King of heaven had determined to go easy on this mere man is evident. How else could the One who made all things still find Himself in a hammerlock after an all night wrestling match with one of His creation? How is it possible that “He could not defeat him” (32:25)?

But morning had dawned and it was time for this mere mortal to see the light.

But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
“What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob!” he replied.
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

(Genesis 32:26b-28 CSB)

“Okay, it’s time to get real,” says the Christ who was willing to get up close and personal with this image-bearer. “Time to come clean. Time to own who you are. So tell Me, what’s your name?”

“I am the deceiver,” confesses Christ’s wrestling partner. “Always have been, always will be. Unless You intervene. Unless You make me a new creation. Unless you give me a new name. Unless You bless me, I will never be anything more than Jacob.”

And intervene Jesus does. A new name. A new identity. A new beginning. “Old things have passed away, and look, new things have come” (2Cor. 5:17).

Happy ending, right? Sunshine and roses you’d think. But the new identity came with lifelong injury.

When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob’s hip as they wrestled and dislocated his hip socket.

(Genesis 32:25 CSB)

A limp for a lifetime, that’s the price Jacob paid for struggling with God and “prevailing.” A weakness wherever he went, that’s what he walked away with after having “seen God face to face” (32:30). A future-altering encounter of the divine kind experienced, the holiness of God’s presence survived, and yet he’s humbled forever. Self-sufficiency left on the mat for the prize of being sanctified. Jacob would walk with God, but he would walk with difficulty. Being hobbled came with being set apart for God’s purposes.

If I’m honest with myself, I’m okay struggling with God but I really want it to result in me walking away whole. I want the victory without any vestiges of a battle. I want the crown with little or no evidence of collateral damage. But as I chew on Jacob’s all-nighter, it seems that’s not the way “face to face” encounters with God turn out.

Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ in the desert for a night and ended up with a limp for a lifetime. Paul was tutored one-on-one by the risen Christ in paradise and walked away with a thorn in the flesh (2Cor. 12:1-7). I’m thinking the reason it turned out that way for both of them, and the reminder as it turns out for me, is the same.

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

(2Corinthians 12:9-10 CSB)

A limp for a lifetime. Who knew that was the prize for prevailing?

By His grace. For His glory.

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Stuff

Posted on January 6, 2023 by Pete

This new CSB continues to upset the apple cart (mildly) this morning. This time by taking a word that I barely thought was a word and all of a sudden making it a biblical word. The word in question? Stuff!

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, exhausted. He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.

(Genesis 25:29-30 CSB)

Cruising through a pretty familiar story this morning and then hit the brakes when I encountered a pretty unfamiliar word for holy text, stuff. Only used here in the CSB. Never used in the ESV.

In the original, apparently, it just says, “Let me eat some of this red”, obviously referring to the stew, which is how the ESV translates it. But it doesn’t actually include the word stew. And so, the CSB translators (and it would seem the NASB translators) go with a non-descript term to convey the non-descript nature of the original text. And I as I chew on it (pun kind of intended) it can make a difference as to how you process the rest of the story.

He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.
Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”
Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to Jacob and sold his birthright to him. Then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate, drank, got up, and went away. So Esau despised his birthright.

(Genesis 25:30-34 CSB)

As I noodle on it this morning, it makes a difference in the impact of the story that Esau sold his birthright for stuff generally rather than for stew specifically. He despised who he was for what he wanted — stuff.

Apart from sovereign determination that the older would serve the younger and upset the birthright norm (25:23), it would seem there was, nevertheless, individual accountability. And given that these things were, at least in part, written as examples for our instruction (1Cor. 10:11), I’m thinking there’s a warning here. That the cravings of the flesh are inclined to tempt us to sell out the things of the Spirit. Often, just for stuff.

In Esau’s case, it was selling out who he was for what would fill his belly because he was exhausted and famished (“I’m about to die”, I think, was being a bit over dramatic). But I can’t help but ask myself, what fleshly, sensual, physical, pleasurable, or prideful stuff am I tempted to sell my birthright in Christ for? What stuff draws me to despise my union with Christ for the sake of the world? Did I mention I think this is worth chewing on? Hmm . . .

Oh, that God would protect me from the allure of stuff. Stew or otherwise. Red or whatever color. But that I would hold fast to being born of God (1Jn. 5:1), birthed by the Spirit (Jn. 3:6), and adopted into the brotherhood of Christ (Eph. 1:5).

By His grace. For His glory.

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No Choice in the Matter

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Pete

Yesterday I confessed I’m struggling with patience. This morning it’s before me that I’m struggling also with silence, as in the need to be so. Yesterday the story concerned a promised son, this morning it’s about his promised bride.

Genesis 24 is the stuff Hallmark movies are made of (not really). Rich, old man wants to make sure handsome, young son, heir to everything he owns, has a wife. But not just any wife, a wife from his homeland, from his own people. So the old man has his faithful servant place his hand under the old man’s thigh (weird) and promise to go and get his son a wife from his people. And so, the servant goes. He goes with no app to use, no blind dates to set up, and without even a groom to weigh in on his future lifelong partner. Instead, the servant heads out on his own with just ten camels loaded “with all kinds of his master’s goods in hand” (24:10).

The servant makes a plan, sends up a prayer, casts a fleece-like net, and finds “the one” on his first try (24:10-27). Next stop, her home. Next encounter, her brother.

And what grabs me this morning is the response of the brother to the old man’s servant after the servant relays to the girl’s family the details of how God’s hand has been in this anything but romantic proposal (24:45-49). Will the brother, speaking on behalf of the family, consent to the servant’s request to take his sister to a foreign land to marry an unknown stranger just because she gave the old man’s servant and his camels a drink of water? (Did I mention it’s the stuff Hallmark movies are made of?)

Here’s how the brother responds:

“This is from the LORD; we have no choice in the matter. Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her be a wife for your master’s son, just as the LORD has spoken.”

(Genesis 24:50-51 CSB)

We have no choice in the matter. That’s the phrase that caught my attention. Pretty clear, says the brother. Not some random coincidence but obviously a divine confluence. So what choice do we have but to submit to what the LORD has spoken?

No choice. Don’t recall ever reading that before. That’s because the ESV uses the more literal rendering referenced in the CSB margin, “we cannot say to you anything bad or good.” If this is of God, and apparently it is, then what’s left to be said? God has spoken so we will not. We have no choice in the matter.

Oh, if I were only more like the brother. Recognizing the hand of the sovereign God in the situation and then realizing that, if God has so moved, I have no choice but to submit. That if God has made apparent that He is working according to sovereign purposes, then I might be wise to respond with silenced pondering. I might not get what is happening, but I can know Who is allowing it to happen. The storyline might not make sense, but I can trust the outcome to Him. So, I have no choice in the matter.

No choice. We aren’t a people who like having no choice. Our culture is not one that encourages submitting and ceding control. We like to debate and argue and make our case and have our way. Sometimes though, maybe more often than we like, there’s really nothing to say. It’s time to be silent. We have no choice in the matter.

Only by God’s grace. Always for God’s glory.

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As He Had Said, What He Had Promised

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Pete

Wrote on it three years ago. And seven years ago. And eleven years ago. Given my current season, maybe it’s not surprising that the Spirit knows I need a reminder because I still struggle with resting in the reality.

Hovering over the opening verses of Genesis 21 this morning. It’s been twenty-five years since Abraham and Sarah received the promise of offspring (Gen. 12:1-4). Given that Abraham was an old man back then and was married to a barren wife whose “biological clock” had already stopped ticking, you might think that if God was going to do what God said He was going to do, He would have done it quickly. Apparently not.

Twenty-five years pass. A lot of road traveled. A “plan B” son growing up in the house. Faltering hope morphing into snickering cynicism. And then, you read these words:

The LORD came to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.

(Genesis 21:1 ESV)

As He had said . . . what He had promised. I know this is how my God rolls. But twenty-five years! Really? Yup, really.

I’m struggling with patience these days. You think I’d have harvested enough of this fruit of the Spirit over 45 years that I’d have some reserves to pull from. Not really. Maybe the fruit of the Spirit is kind of like manna. There’s enough for today but you’re gonna have to trust God and go back to the well to draw on what’s needed for tomorrow.

But back to my need for patience . . . It’s been months wondering how things could possibly get worse, months wanting there to be a nice, tidy resolution. Nope. Instead, just more waiting for whatever God’s going to do to be done. And in the midst of the waiting, this morning a still small voice whispers through the Scriptures (again), God’s purposes will be accomplished — as He had said, what He had promised.

It might be cliché, but it seems to me it’s worth noting, and needful to cling to, that the LORD coming to Abraham as He had said and the LORD doing for Sarah what He had promised was according to the LORD’s timing as He had determined. And so, for twenty-five years Abraham and Sarah had to wait.

Wait on the Lord. He is faithful. What He has said, what He has promised, what He has purposed, He will do. In His time. So, wait on the Lord.

Easier typed than tackled. Nevertheless, true.

As He has said, what He has promised, according to His time. So, be patient. Wait on the Lord. Trust in the Lord. And through His enabling, rest in the Lord.

By His grace. For His glory.

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Easy To Get Used To

Posted on January 2, 2023 by Pete

Continuing to venture into my reading plan with a new translation this year. And this morning the CSB puts before me another change that I’ll need to get used to.

But I enter Your house
by the abundance of Your faithful love;
I bow down toward Your holy temple
in reverential awe of You.

(Psalm 5:7 CSB)

Your faithful love. That’s new. The ESV I’ve read for years renders it, Your steadfast love. Before that, the NKJV used Your mercies or Your lovingkindness. The NIV often translates it Your unfailing love.

Shouldn’t be surprising that translators scramble to find just the right words to define the undefinable. To express the inexpressible. To encapsulate the uncontainable. God is love. He is it. It is Him. He perfectly, eternally, effectually defines love. Capture God in a phrase and you’ll be able nail down His love. But trying to do that, as one of my favorite songs from years ago puts it, is like “trying to fit the ocean in a cup” (3 Minute Song by Josh Wilson).

So, seems the CSB translators are going to go with Your faithful love. I can work with that.

Faithful to Himself. Always in line with His nature and His purposes. Always informing what He does and why He does it. Without changing. Reliable. Some might even say “steadfast”, as do the ESV translators. God’s love is faithful, faithful to Himself and thus unfailing, maybe that’s what the NIV translators were thinking.

So, because love is who God is, and because He is faithful to Himself, His faithful love can be counted on by those to whom He has chosen to love. Faithful to me. Not because I deserve it, but because He is faithful to what He has determined — and that is to love His own.

Ever loving. Always loving. Whether in blessing or discipline, kindness or anger, God never acts apart from His faithful love.

And so, David could sing that even when he did what God invited Him to do (enter Your house), even when he worshiped God as God commanded Him to worship (in reverential awe), that it was by the abundance of Your faithful love.

Faithful love sourced in the abundance of a God who is without limit. A God who is not bound by time and space. Thus, a God who is always loving without limit, unbound by time and space. Isn’t that the wellspring of grace, the abundance of His faithful love? I’m thinking.

Your faithful love. Will need to get used it. Easy! Bring it on!

Let’s get used to it as if for the first time all over again.

By Your grace, Lord. For Your glory.

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Weird Conversations

Posted on December 30, 2022 by Pete

Several weeks ago my brother-in-law phoned me. He wanted to talk to me about his funeral. He has been battling cancer for the past couple of years and his body had been indicating quite clearly that the fight would soon be over. So, he phoned me and we talked about some details of how he’d like things to go when we gather to remember him. And we talked about his hope. And we talked about the calmness of his soul. And then we said goodbye . . . as in, “Goodbye!” Kind of a weird conversation, perhaps.

A couple of days ago I was on the phone with another brother-in-the-Lord. He too would seem to be nearing the end of his battle with cancer. We talked about how sweet his Christmas had been as his entire family was at home and they had had time to prepare and say goodbye, as well. And we talked about his hope, and he said it was well with his soul. Don’t know if that will be our last goodbye, but some might argue that this conversation was also a little weird.

But something I read in Acts 2 this morning reminds me of why these weird conversations aren’t really all that weird. Reminded me of why they can be so natural and almost matter of fact.

“Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know. Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him. God raised Him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by death.”

(Acts 2:22-24 CSB)

God raised Him up, ending the pains of death. That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

Context: Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. Subject: Jesus. Truth to accept: He is both Lord and Messiah. Proofs which intersect: Signs, scriptures, and an empty tomb. Implication upon which to reflect: The pains of death have ended.

Not that it’s not painful. God has wired us for life, death is an affront to what we were wired for. What’s more, God has made us for relationships, death puts asunder what God has made us for. Death hurts. It’s ache remains even after its final act. And that’s why my two conversations seem so weird.

But while it hurts, it’s not the last word. Because Jesus conquered death, death is not binding. What some regard as the final bondage has, for those in Christ, given way to transport and transition. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2Cor. 5:8). To walk through the valley of the shadow of death is to eventually dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Ps. 23:4, 6).

God raised Jesus up after He offered Himself for our sins on the cross and it has ended the pains of death. It has loosed the chains of death. It reverses the gains of death. And thus, in the twilight hour, it reduces the strains of death. Even to the point of having weird conversations.

When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place:

Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, death, is your victory?
Where, death, is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

(1Corinthians 15:54-57 CSB)

Weird conversations. The reality of His amazing grace. The reason to give Him all-deserving glory.

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Belief, Behavior, and Barricades

Posted on December 29, 2022 by Pete

“Walked with God.” The phrase is found only three times in the Old Testament. This morning, I encountered all three occurrences.

Twice in Genesis 5 it’s recorded that “Enoch walked with God” and it worked out pretty well for him. He evaded death because “God took him” (Gen. 5:24). He “was taken away so that he did not experience death, and he was not to be found because God took him away” (Heb. 11:5a).

So, when I read in Genesis 6 that “Noah walked with God” (v.9), I’m guessing that the foreshadowing of Enoch’s experience bodes well for Noah in a time when God had “decided to put an end to every creature” because all the earth was “corrupt” and “filled with wickedness” (vv. 11-13). Guessing that Noah too is going to evade death.

But unlike Enoch who was removed from the earth, Noah will remain. While Enoch’s witness of God’s power would be through his sudden absence from earth, Noah’s testimony to God’s promises would be through remaining. And as I chew on that I take note of three things — belief, behavior, and barricades.

That God would reveal to Noah what He was intent on doing is one thing, but only a helpful thing if Noah believed it. And he did. We know he believed in the need for an ark because repeatedly we’re told “he entered the ark.” Six times in Genesis 7 we’re told Noah got in the boat. He fully committed to God’s rescue plan. Belief was essential for evading death.

But faith without works is useless (James 2:20). Believing in the need for an ark wouldn’t be helpful if there was no building of an ark. Twice it’s recorded that “Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him” (Gen. 6:22, 7:5). Right behavior was the result of right belief. A way of escape was possible because a way of escape was pursued. Noah couldn’t save himself from death on his own, but God had determined that Noah wouldn’t be saved apart from his participation. He believed and he behaved in a manner consistent with one who “walked with God” and he was delivered from destruction.

But while Noah could believe what God had said, and while he could behave in a manner consistent with his belief, apart from being barricaded we would have gone the way of all those who perished in the flood.

On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his three sons’ wives entered the ark with him. They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that crawls on the earth according to its kind, all birds, every fowl, and everything with wings according to their kinds. Two of all flesh that has the breath of life in it entered the ark with Noah. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the LORD shut him in.

(Genesis 7:13-16 CSB)

They believed and they behaved according to their belief, so they entered just as God had commanded. But then the LORD shut him in. God sealed the deal, literally. He closed the door. He barricaded these believers. And Noah & Co. evaded death and would live to testify of God’s power to rescue and redeem.

Me too. Death, where is your sting? It has been numbed, if not erased, as God gives us the victory through our ark, the Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor. 15:56-57). We have believed, we have behaved in accordance with that belief, and now we are barricaded in Him. Shut in with Christ. Sealed by His Spirit as a “the down payment” guaranteeing our redemption (Eph. 1:13-14). We’re ready for the storm. Prepared for the flood. Confident of our deliverance. Because He has shut us in.

We believe, we behave, He barricades. Amen?

By His grace. For His glory.

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Happy

Posted on December 28, 2022 by Pete

Okay . . . like I said yesterday, I’m reading this year in a different version of the bible than I have for the past several years . . . and here’s the first CSB-ness that I’m gonna have to get used to. Evidently, I’m not blessed. Instead, I’m happy.

All who take refuge in Him are happy.

(Psalm 2:12b CSB)

Second encounter of happy in my two readings in the Psalms. Second time it surprises me a bit because I’m used to being blessed, as in “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked” (Ps. 1:1 ESV) and “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Ps. 2:12b ESV).

Maybe it’s because my default picture of happy tends towards Pharrell Williams Happy. You know, that emotional, sunshine and roses, not-a-care-in-the-world type of happy. That put a smile on your face and a contented warmth in your belly happy. So what is this CSB happy I read of?

Well, I don’t think it’s mutually exclusive of doing a Snoopy happy dance, but it would seem to be something far more substantive.

Doing a bit of digging, it comes from a root word which means “to go straight” or “to advance” or “to make progress”. The idea of being on the right path, of being led in the right way, thus, of being blessed or made happy.

That lines up with the two happy verses I’ve encountered so far in Psalms. Not walking in the way of the wicked, or standing in the pathway of sinners, or sitting in the company of mockers, is to “advance” and “go straight.” To take refuge in the Lord, to trust in Him, is to head down the right path; it’s to make progress. And when that’s my reality, then I am blessed. When that’s how I want to walk as I enter my day, then that in itself is reason to be happy.

How often am I looking for something else in order to be happy? How often am I wanting to feel toe-tapping happy rather than to know solid-rock happy?

Being led by the King who will one day be installed on Zion, God’s holy hill (Ps. 2:6), being advanced by the Sovereign who is “enthroned in heaven” (2:4), that is more than enough reason for me to be happy.

Serving the LORD with fear, even as I rejoice and tremble (2:11), should define our happiness. Paying homage to the Son of the Most High God (2:12a), that is more than enough reason to be elated. Because God, by His grace, has called me out of the way of the wicked, the sinners, and the mockers. Because God, in His undeserved love through His unmerited provision, has led me to the Rock who is my unfailing refuge, and has given me a heart that, at the end of the day (and at its beginning), trusts in Him.

So yes, I’m blessed. Yes, I’m happy.

By His grace. For His glory.

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