More than Happiness

The first word of the Book of Psalms in our English translations is not to be hurried over. The term "blessed" is a key word in the larger scope of Scripture, and is a way of expressing the highest goal of human aspiration.

Not infrequently it is paraphrased as "happy" - "Happy is the man..." While that expresses the pleasantness of the blessed state, it hardly does full justice to the idea intended. "Blessing" and "blessed" are words that appear early in our Bibles. After creating the birds and fish and other sea creature, God "blessed" them and appointed them to increase in number and fill the water in the seas (Genesis 1:22). After creating man in his own image, male and female, he similarly "blessed them..." and told them to be fruitful, increase in number, and rule over the zoological creation (1:28). The seventh (sabbath) day is also blessed (2:3).

The theme continues through patriarchal history and on into the life of the nation Israel. Those who fear God and walk in his ways are "blessed", while to the contrary, those who forsake him and rebel against his rule are "cursed." Jesus spoke of the "blessedness" of the poor in spirit and so on in what we call The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), and the Book of Revelation presents us with its own cluster of them as well ("blessed" are those who die in the Lord, "blessed" are those who participate in the marriage feast of the Lamb etc. - Rev. 14:13; 19:9). In all these cases, the state referred to is the result of God's experienced favour. Blessing is not simply a condition of the mind and heart on its own. It is a state that flows from receiving the grace of God.

The Aaronic blessing - the blessing with which priests in Israel were to dismiss the worshipping congregation  - offers help here. The different lines the priests were to recite are an example of Hebrew parallelism. "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace" (Numb. 6:24-26). Here the idea of the Lord "blessing" his people is enriched by the images of God making his "face shine" upon them, and "turning his face" toward them." It implies the ideas of the Lord "keeping" us, being "gracious" to us, and giving us his "peace." These are all distinct actions and fruits of actions. In short, "blessedness" is a state that follows God's out-poured love and grace upon us.

Back to the psalm. In beginning, "Blessed is the man" we are introduced to the conditions associated with experiencing God's favour and the blessing that results from that. That's what makes this Psalm such a fitting beginning tot he collection as a whole. It pinpoints the true goal of human aspiration  - to be "blessed" by God - and defines the way to experiencing it. 

The Bible is not concerned so much with our being "happy" or "fulfilled" viewed as mere human experiences. Rather, it is concerned with our being "blessed" - being in a state in which we enjoy the face of God shining upon us. In that state we will be truly happy.

Windows to Life

Back in 1993 I found myself facing the challenge of teaching the Book of Psalms as part of a first year course in Biblical Theology. I had read and loved the Psalms for many years from a devotional point of view, but teaching them as part of a theological college course was another thing.

For a number of weeks I immersed myself in the study of this great collection of spiritual songs and prayers. As I did so I came to appreciate them as never before - as an expression of the faith and heart longings of the people of God in the myriad of their life experiences. The individual psalms were like so many windows allowing us to peer into the souls of men and women of faith in the old covenant era.

I came to see there were many angles from which the Psalms could be studied. From one point of view they offered a summary of covenantal theology as lived and confessed by godly Israelites. From another, they offered a directory for God-centred worship. From another still, they offered peerless insight into the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect or ideal Israelite. All of these perspectives were included in the course I eventually put together and taught.

The particular aspect of the Psalms that has continued to grip me is their portrayal of true spirituality - or life in relation to God. In the prayers, praises, laments and historical recitations of the Psalms we see how men and women are meant to live with God. True, as written in their historical setting they reflect spiritual life prior to the coming of Christ. In that sense they do not develop fully the richness of the life we enjoy in the Spirit today. Nevertheless, the fundamental dynamics of spiritual interaction with God remain the same. And it is these dynamics that enthrall me and provide such help in my own life of faith.

In this blog site I want to identify and reflect on aspects of relationship with God as they emerge in individual psalms.Given the nature of the Book of Psalms, there is a great deal of repetition. I'm not intending to expound every psalm, or every verse of individual psalms - only, to identify key dynamics that help us understand what it means to walk with God today in Christ through the Spirit.

These reflections are integrally related to those that I'm recording in other blog sites. In many senses these are designed to feed into the others and provide biblical parameters for more practical applications in areas of preaching and Christian ministry.