Happiness

“Protect me, God, for I take refuge in You. I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides You’…For You will not abandon me to Sheol; You will not allow Your faithful one to see decay. You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; at Your right hand are eternal pleasures.” – Psalm 16:1

David’s prayer in Psalm 16 begins with a cry of desperation and ends with a declaration of radical hope. I do mean radical. Before the resurrection of Jesus, David’s prayer has cultivated a faith in the power of God to preserve his life in the face of death. How did he get there?

Note well that David was not only looking to the Lord to be his refuge but also his “good.” Put another way, the highest happiness that David had discovered was in his connection to the Lord through prayer. What is your highest happiness? What experience, relationship, or item would cause all other happiness to seem insignificant. Is it family, work, sports?

In our culture, sex is assumed to be that pinnacle of happiness that if denied makes all other experiences of happiness insignificant. That, in part, explains the passionate and sometimes angry defense of sexual identity by so many. The logic is simple…if sexual expression is the highest happiness available to humanity, then it would be unjust to deprive someone of that happiness.

The Bible speaks of a different source of the highest happiness, one that is far more durable and lasting than any other human experience. For what highest happiness are you cultivating longing deep in your soul? Today, pray with David, “I have nothing good besides You. Lord, without You, all other happiness becomes insignificant. With You, all other happiness finds its fullest expression.”