Go Happy. Psalm 34:1-8

Go Happy


I don’t remember much from when I was in kindergarten. The only two things I remember are a big rug we all had to sit on and my teacher’s name was Ms. Spivey, but there was a song that came out that year that will forever be in my memory banks…and as soon as I mention it, it might get stuck in your head for the rest of the day…I apologize.

The song was released in 1988, after a guy named Bobbie McFerrin saw a poster of an Indian guru named Meher Baba that simply showed his smiling face with the words, Don’t Worry, be Happy. And this song went on to become the only a capella song that ever cracked the top ten in the charts. This startling philosophy, along with a catchy tune, shows in stark detail how happiness had become a choice. And, as soon as happiness became a choice, it became marketable.

It used to be subtle…If you buy this car, or this product, or eat at this restaurant, you will have this better life and beautiful girlfriend was the subtle message you heard in advertising. But now it seems that happiness is everywhere, nothing subtle about it.

CS Lewis wrote a book about heaven. It was called The Great Divorce. At the beginning of the story people are milling around a bus stop. The bus comes and whisks them away to heaven. But heaven is not what they expect it to be. It is hard to walk, and it is hard to see. The blades of grass hurt to step onto.

An angel who is there to help them decide on whether to stay or to go back home tells them that they are struggling because they have never experienced “real” before. Everything they experience in heaven is “more real” than it is on earth. But the angel promises them that they will figure it out, and the more real life is, the better it is. Some people choose to enter heaven, and some people choose to get back on the bus and decide to open, buy, or eat their happiness rather than truly rest in God’s arms.

Compare that scene with advertisements you may have seen recently:

Coca-cola: Open Happiness

Best Buy: You. Happier.

Wal-Mart: Life’s Better, with Wal-Mart.

IHOP: Come Hungry, leave happy.

Howard Johnson: Go Happy.

It’s the same message each time. Life got you down? Buy this, and it will be better.

And so, it is no surprise that “stuff” has been equated with joy. This attitude filters into every part of our lives. The bigger the better; more is always better than what you have; never be satisfied.

It filters into everything, until we read Psalm 34. Psalm 34 flips this attitude on its head.

This “Revolutionary” response is: everything we have is from God. God hears us. God enters into our lives with us. We ask, and God answers. We praise because of who God is, not because of what God can do for us, but because of what God has already done for us in the beautiful creation of life, and in the saving us by grace.

To truly be in heaven, we need to instead take refuge in God, and stop groping after fruitless things that we are told will make us happy.

We are invited by God to do so, every second of every day.

Here is what God’s “real” looks like, and here is where I am going to steal a line from Coke, We can open happiness, but it doesn’t mean that we reach for a bottle or magic lamp. We open happiness when we open our minds.

Open our minds to the hopes and possibility in God’s world. The possibility of our church. We can open our minds to the fact that poverty in the world CAN be eliminated. We can open our minds to the possibility of what our church can do to help make the elimination of poverty and loneliness a reality. And, when we open our minds we imagine all of the possibilities of who God is calling us to be.

We can open happiness when we open our hearts. When we take the focus off of ourselves and focus on God and others. Strive not for our own needs, because of our faith that God will provide. Open our hearts to the friend and the stranger. Forgive as well as be forgiven. Give, as well as receive.

When I was driving into work on the first Monday after my family leave for the birth of Georgia, it was a day when my heart was wide open. I’ll confess, that I had been in a routine for a while. Work at the church was just that, work. I went, I did what needed to be done, and I used it to support myself. But in holding that little girl in my arms, and after tearing myself away from the house, I drove to work with a new purpose. I am so happy that my job makes such a positive impact on the world. And that it is what I am called to do. Make the world a better place for her, and for all of God’s children. My work became my praise. Open happiness by opening our hearts.

We can open happiness when we open our doors. Invite people to come into our lives. Welcome and embrace each other. Hollman Hunt is probably the one person who singlehandedly has created an image of Jesus in our minds. He was the first artist to paint the picture of Jesus with the beard, and blond hair. You’ve seen it in every church everywhere. One of his paintings is one I’m sure you have seen before. It is a take on “Behold, I stand at the door and knock!” It shows Jesus knocking on a door with no handle because it can only be opened from the inside. I truly believe that if we didn’t have so many closed doors in our lives, Jesus wouldn’t have to keep standing there knocking, but would be living in our hearts. We need to open happiness by opening our doors, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sharing what we have, giving.

Heaven, for CS Lewis was the “really real.”

For the writer of Psalm 34, God was so real, he could taste it. See God and hear God. Touch God, and smell God. The Psalmist met Jesus.

Yet there are those who still say, no, thank-you, and open their coke that continue to search for happiness elsewhere.

Because it’s not easy. It’s not easy to look with love at a hurting world. We are in the middle of Stewardship Sundays. It’s not easy to give away our money. Its not easy to give away our time and volunteer. It’s not easy to praise God.

When it becomes easy to take refuge in God, and become truly happy, then we have met Jesus, just as the Psalmist did. When we taste the “really real,” God’s praise will continually be in our mouth.

The chaplain of Wofford College was named Talmadge Skinner. I worked for him, which basically meant that I made copies for the religion department and took naps on the couch in his office. It always makes me feel good that there is a plaque above that couch that reads, and this is how I know I made an impression at Wofford College, the plaque reads, The Nap Couch, in honor of Jordan Thrasher.

We had a communion service every week on Tuesday nights, and Rev. Skinner used candles, real wine, and incense. The room was intimate, and the people going were regular. Those communion services meant so much to me because they were so vivid. The taste of the wine. The smell of the incense, the light of the candles. I could taste and see that the Lord is good.

Somehow, we have gotten away from tasting God. We love to hear about God, we love to listen to someone else talk about God. We love to sing songs to God. But to actually listen, see, touch, and taste God, that is where we run into some trouble. And its one of the reasons we came to worship out here. To get out from behind walls, and get out into God’s world. So you can feel God in the wind on your face, the heat you feel, and hear God all around you.

The Israelites had this same problem of not wanting to taste God. When God invited them to Mt. Sinai to converse with God, they didn’t want to go.

Let’s just send Moses. He has formal training in speaking with God, let’s just send him on our behalf. When Moses came down, his face was radiant and shone like the sun, so much that he had to put a veil on his face. Now why wouldn’t the Israelites want this? Because they were afraid of the change that would take place in their lives. They were afraid to meet God.

We try to do so many things for our own happiness. We get to know people so we can figure out what they can do for us. We put our self-worth in things and possessions and judge people accordingly. We exploit God’s creation for our own gain. All in the name of Happiness.

But Psalm 34 shouts to us, Happiness and Joy is in God. Taste God in the food that God has given you. Touch God in a warm handshake and embrace. See God in the work that is going on around you, with neighbors caring for one another, and the good that is going on in your lives. Hear God in the voices witnessing to everything God has done for them. This is our redemption when, as Mark Twain says, we meet the Author face to face. Our faces will shine like Moses’. And people will wonder, what in the world is going on with them? And we can boldly say, “I tasted God, and know what true happiness is.”

It is my prayer, that every moment in our lives is a praise to God. That it is “really real.” That I breathe clean air and thank God for every gasp. That I am happy with what I have, and what I give. That I know all things come from God, and God hears the prayers that I didn’t even know existed.

And for our church, it is my prayer that you find happiness in giving. We have been talking a lot about giving recently, with the new building, and we are about to begin budget talks again, as well as all of our ministries cranking back up once again. And a lot has been and will be asked of you. I hope you find joy in it. That you find joy in your worship. Too often, I hear grumbling about “having” to do ministry. Caring for our church, giving to our church. I hope you find joy in your giving.

Happiness isn’t found at a Howard Johnson, or at an IHOP, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or even in a Coke bottle. Happiness is found in God.