New Salem Baptist Church

God is Happy

March 19, 2023

Read Psalm 45:7-8 (New Century Version)

This morning I wish to reveal something about the nature of God that you seldom hear about. You have been taught true character qualities of our great God. You have learned that he is:

· Self-existent

· Eternal

· Infinite

· All-powerful

· All--knowing

· Always present

· Changeless

· Love

· Wrath

· Grace

· Mercy

· Holy

· Righteous

· Truth

· Wise

· Good

· Generous

He possesses all these attributes (and more) and they are wonderful, are they not? They are! Each one!

Today, I will prove one more that I hope will encourage you. God is happy!

He is! God is happy. I do not mean that he is only happy now and then, as if he is only happy when things go just right in the world (and that would be rarely, wouldn’t it?). I mean that he is happy all the time. Happiness is his constant disposition.[1]

As we consider what God has revealed about himself, keep in mind that the Bible uses more than one word to describe God’s happiness. There are synonyms for happiness. Some of these words are:

· Joy or joyfulness

· Enjoyment

· Glad or gladness

· Delight

· Pleasure

Some Christian teachers have tried to make a distinction between happiness and joy. But these words really mean the same thing in English. Of course, gladness is also just another synonym for happiness. When we come to the word “delight,” there is a change in meaning. Because delight is an extreme form of happiness. According to dictionary.com, delight is:

“a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment.”

Pleasure, too, has a slightly different meaning. Yet, common sense and our own familiarity with pleasure, tells us that when we experience pleasure we, at the same time, experience happiness.

Thus, whenever the Scriptures use any of these words, happiness is being referred.

Let us begin by looking at Psalm 45 again:

You love right and hate evil, So God has chosen you from among your friends; he has set you apart with much joy. Your clothes smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. From palaces of ivory music comes to make you happy.[2]

This is a prophetic passage about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father set our Lord apart “with much joy!” Verse 7 says that the Father has much joy. Then, in verse 8, when the Messiah will hear music in the palaces of ivory, he will be happy. This, of course, is music honoring and praising God. So, both the Father and the Son are happy!

I tell you, this is my experience. When I listen to good music in general I feel happy. One of my favorite pieces of music is Pachelbel Canon. It is an instrumental piece that is one of the most beautiful melodies I have ever heard. I never grow tired of it and I can listen to it over and over with great pleasure. [play]

I especially enjoy beautiful music when combined with Scripture as lyrics. I purchased a five-CD set of music entitled the Psalms Project. Someone put the first 50 Psalms to music and they are so so good! I listen to these when I’m driving in my car and every time I am filled with happiness when I do. The music is good and the lyrics are just the psalms! They make me happy!

Remember the parable of the talents. When the faithful slaves show what they have gained, their Lord says:

²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’^[3]

Our Master has joy. And he wishes for us to enter into it.

Let us consider three things which bring God the Father much happiness.

[1] God has pleasure in the Son.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights; ^[4]

Isaiah records God’s actions and feelings towards Jesus. God has chosen him. He upholds him. God delights in Jesus. Since Jesus has always been and will always be, this means that God is in a continual state of delight. Do you see how this must be true? If he delights in the Son and the Son is with him (as he always is) then God is always in delight. What a wonderful condition to be in! We are unaccustomed to it because our delights are passing and even fleeting. But not so with God.

Remember, too, what was heard at the baptism of Jesus.

¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” ^[5]J

God is not only pleased with the Son, he is well pleased!

God’s pleasure in the Son reveals something more.

Why does God have so much pleasure in the Son? It is because he reflects the life of God!

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and ^bupholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,^[6]

Christ is the radiance of God’s glory! He is the exact representation of God’s nature! God delights in the Son because the Son reflects the perfect and marvelous qualities of God.

Therefore, we can say:

[2] God is happy in Himself. As John Piper has well said:

“We may conclude that the pleasure of God in his Son is pleasure in himself. Since the Son is the image of God and the radiance of God and the form of God, equal with God, and indeed is God, therefore, God’s delight in his Son is delight in himself.”[7]

Although it would be vanity for a mere human being to take so much pleasure in themselves, it is not only right for God to do so, but it would be so wrong if God did not, because he possesses the most beauty and perfection in the universe. It is right to take pleasure in true beauty and goodness. It would be wrong to do otherwise.

“God must love and delight in his own beauty and perfection above all things. For us to do this in front of the mirror is the essence of vanity, for God to do it in front of his Son is the essence of righteousness.”[8]

[3] Thirdly, God takes pleasure in all he does.

For I know that Yahweh is great

And that our Lord is greater than all gods.

6 Whatever Yahweh pleases, He does,

In heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps.^[9]

Whatever God pleases…that is what he does! This means that his pleasure is continually being expressed in what he does.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

² Why should the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

³ Our God is in the heavens;

he does all that he pleases. ^[10]

This is a familiar theme in Scripture. God does what he pleases! And it is all to his glory (vs. 1)! God will accomplish his pleasure (Isaiah 46:10)!

This all has to do with the sovereignty of God. He rules over all and there is not one molecule in the universe that is not under his control. This sovereignty is so that his pleasure will be a reality…and it is!

God is pleased in what he does and he is always actively involved in the world. Therefore, he is always happy!

We must see that God is happy and he is happy for more than one reason.

The most marvelous thing is this: he invites us to share in his happiness. Put another way, happiness is an attribute of God that he shares with his creatures. God is happy and he wants us to be happy. But, we have to be careful. We must be careful because we may think that certain things in life will make us happy and, since God wants us to be happy, he also wants us to have certain things in life. This is a big mistake.

It is a mistake because happiness is found in relationship, not in circumstances or things.

However, we do need to see that the Lord desires to share his happiness with us:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ^[11]

See how the Lord Jesus shares his joy with us. You can experience his joy by:

• Knowing that he loves you (vs. 9)
• Abiding in his love (vs.9), that is, living in the sense of his love for you.
• Keeping his commandments (vs. 10), as an expression of our love to him

If we do these simple things, then not only will the happiness of Christ be in us, but it will be full!

We can not only be happy, we can be fully happy! The more we consider the Lord’s love and favor upon us, the more we experience his love and favor, the more we follow his commands, the more happy we will be.

We can be like God by being happy!

God is happy!