Salem Lutheran Church
Pastor Jon Enter SalemLutheran.org
Theme: God’s Formula for Happiness
Text: Psalm 1

Have you ever heard the song by Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry; Be Happy”? The song has a sweet island sound and feel to it as if McFerrin is from Jamaica; he’s actually from Queens. That song was constantly played on the morning radio show program we listened to on our bus ride to grade school. When it came on the radio, all of us kids flipped out and started dancing groovy, carefree like and we’d sing along. “Here’s a little song I wrote, You might want to sing it note for note but don’t worry; be happy…In every life we have some trouble but when you worry you make it double. Don’t worry; be happy… Ain’t got no place to lay your head, somebody came and took your bed. But don’t worry; be happy… The landlord say your rent is late, he may have to litigate. But don’t worry; be happy.”
If only it was that easy to make things better. All you have to do is don’t worry, just be happy. But there is so much on you; so many pressures crushing you that happiness seems so far away as if it is something only attainable in a fun song but not in real life, not in your life. But God says it is possible. It is not only possible; it is probable; it can even be permanent in your life. All it takes is following God’s Formula For Happiness.
Today we are studying Psalm 1. It contains God’s Three-Part Formula for Joy. The writer of this psalm, David, uses the word “Blessed”. A good translation of the Hebrew word, blessed, is “Happy”. This isn’t the kind of happiness you had as a little kid when you were giddy with excitement over getting presents. That happiness fades too quickly; it’s deeper than that. It’s not the kind of happiness you get when you ride a rollercoaster as you leave your stomach on the first big drop and pick it up at baggage claim at the end of the ride. That happiness is intense but it’s over in a few minutes; the happiness described in Psalm 1 lasts longer than that.
God tells us in Psalm 1 that lasting happiness and fulfilling joy are found only in one place. And even though the first and most important part of God’s Formula For Happiness is given to everyone, not everyone has it. This means there are two different types of people. No, it’s not the same as Volkswagen commercials which say, “On the road of life there are passengers and there are drivers…Drivers Wanted.” God’s breakdown is different. Verse six explains. “For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” God tells us the two different kinds of people in this world are the righteous and the wicked. The righteous are described in verse three as being “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.”
This is a vivid picture that would’ve been striking to the Israelite nation. The land they lived in was a dry, arid land that had little to no water. It is the complete opposite of where we live. For miles and miles, there is nothing but brown dead, desolate earth. Green grass and tall trees cannot survive in its dry conditions. But wherever there is a stream, there you’ll find lush green trees rising tall and strong because they sink their roots down. They draw up the water and it nourishes them and keeps their leaves green and it keeps them strong. The Bible says that’s a righteous person. In the desolate world in which we live, all of the problems, all the scorching sun of worries, all the whipping high winds of difficulties—the righteous are like trees planted by streams of water. His leaf does not whither. He is strong.
But God continues, “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff…” What’s chaff? Chaff is the outer hull that surrounds the grain; it’s the leftover waste of the harvest after it is threshed. The harvesters took the grain collected from the fields and broke apart the grain from that outer husk or chaff. Then they would take a winnowing fork (a huge, primitive pitchfork) and throw the piles of grain and chaff into the air and the strong winds at harvest time would blow the chaff away. Why? Chaff has no substance. It has no weight. There is nothing really there. It has no worth.
God says in this psalm there are two kinds of people: the righteous and the wicked. And He points to different kinds of outcomes for those two different types of people, two different destinies. Prosper or perish. Looking at Psalm 1, the righteous are called trees planted by streams of water and they prosper but the wicked are called chaff that has no substance and they perish. The picture of chaff brings to mind the prophecy John the Baptist made of Jesus as he said of our Lord, “His winnowing fork is in His hand…to gather the wheat (the righteous) into His barn but He will burn up the chaff (the wicked) with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:17). The chaff, the unrighteous who do not believe in God, will be gathered and bundled together and sent to the unquenchable fires of hell.
If you’re like me, you’re thinking, “Um, sign me up for the righteous! I want to be gathered with Jesus; I want heaven!” How? How do you become part of the righteous? How do you gain eternal happiness? Too many people think you become part of the righteous by being righteous yourself. Too many churches teach their people, “If you want God to call you righteous, YOU have to earn it!” That false thinking, that false teaching will not lead to happiness. It will lead to despair and worry. “Have I done enough?”
Our Lord answers the question: how do we become righteous? The answer is found, of course, in God’s Holy Word. And God’s answer gives us the first of the three parts to God’s Formula for Happiness. “No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law.” (Romans 3:20) You cannot earn God’s favor by observing the law. Following God’s law does not make us right with God because we can never do enough to be holy, righteous and perfect in His sight. Just one sin breaks our ability to be righteous before God. Two verses later, God tells us where our righteousness comes from. “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:22)
The first part of God’s Formula for Happiness is to have Jesus in our lives. (Jesus +______+______=JOY) And you have that! You have Christ in your heart and in your soul! You have faith…saving faith in God. “Why then, Pastor Jon, do I not have full happiness in my life? Why do I worry?”
There’s a good reason for that. Although the faith implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit brings us into a saving relationship with God, our unrighteous acts place a severe strain on that relationship. The guilt we have over our unfaithfulness diminishes our happiness and replaces it with worry.
How happy are you with yourself when you cave in to peer pressure and walk in the counsel of the wicked, when you do something you know is wrong? You feel guilty and it causes worry. “What if someone finds out what I did?” When you follow God’s Formula for Happiness you will not worry about that and you’ll be happier. How happy are you with yourself when you stand alongside of way of sinners who are doing something you know is just plain wrong and you say and do nothing to stop it? You feel guilty and it causes worry. “Why am I so weak in my faith? Why didn’t I say something?” When you follow God’s Formula for Happiness you will not worry about that and you’ll be happier. How happy are you with yourself when you sit in the seat of mockers and you joined others in mocking someone about their looks, their boring personality or the fact that they just can’t get their act together? You probably don’t even realize how often you slip into gossip about others. When you do, you feel guilty and it causes you to worry. “What if what I said got back to them?” When you follow God’s Formula for Happiness you will not worry about that and you’ll be happier.
So far in God’s Formula for Happiness we start with having Jesus in our lives. The reason why we need Jesus is because we need His mercy and love. We cannot remove the guilt of our sins. We can’t. Those sins won’t budge and they cause us despair and worry. We need Jesus. We need our Savior who takes away our unrighteous acts to make us righteous in God’s sight by removing the guilt of our sins. “Then I acknowledged my sin to You…and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5) The first and most important part of God’s Formula for Happiness is to have Jesus in our lives. Then next part is we need to add in Obedience so that our unfaithfulness to God doesn’t diminish our joy through worry. (Jesus + Obedience +______=JOY)
This Psalm continues and explains what our obedience to God looks like. “Blessed is the one whose… delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on His law day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2) In order to follow God’s Word, we need to know and understand God’s Word. The Hebrew word for meditate has the idea of deeply pondering something so that you understand its meaning. There is a big difference between reading something and understanding what it says.
I found this out the hard way. When Debbi and I were first married, we took some money we received at Christmas and we bought a foosball table. I love foosball and I played a lot of it in college. I tore into that box. I grabbed the directions and read them over. “Assemble as
quickly as possible so you can play it already.” That’s what the directions said to me! Well, I didn’t read those directions very carefully. I didn’t ponder on them and so I really didn’t understand how to put it together. I did it wrong. I assembled it backwards so you shot at the goal with your left hand, your weak hand. Rows of the little soccer guys were backwards. Some of the little soccer guys didn’t reach all the way to the ends so the ball would get stuck and no one could kick it out. And the worst part is the handles had this space-aged glue that prevented me from taking it apart. I ruined the fun of playing on that foosball table because I didn’t read the directions.
We can only have full obedience to God when we read His directions carefully in the Bible. When we follow God’s warnings, we avoid placing ourselves into situations that cause guilt and destroy happiness. “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” (Psalm 1:1) This is obedience to God’s Word and it brings happiness.
There’s just one part left to God’s Formula For Happiness. That missing part is You! God wants you; all of you! He wants your full attention, your full belief, your full commitment, your full devotion to Him. Anything less and you rob yourself. You cheat yourself of the full joy that is freely and fully given by your merciful Lord. Anything you hold back from God isn’t touched by Him; it isn’t blessed by Him. If you want fulfilling happiness and uncontainable joy in your life, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
Psalm 1 contains God’s Formula For Happiness—a formula that destroys guilt and worry. Jesus+Obedience+You=J.O.Y.! Do you know the Israelites used to sing the Psalms? This Psalm is God’s song to you, Here’s a little Psalm I wrote; when worry floods your life it’ll make you float. So don’t worry! Be happy! Amen.