The Happy God
By Tom Day, 07 Apr 2022
The Happy God
A number of us recently enjoyed reading ‘Truth on Fire’ by Adam Ramsey.[1] We also had 2 Sunday teaching times[2] reflecting on two chapters from the book.[3] Ramsay gets us thinking deeply about God (theology) while also helping us love him more, two things that should never be separated.
Theology is something that is for all-Christians, and it is to be enjoyed and loved. Paul prays in Ephesians 1 that God would give ‘the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better’ (Ephesians 1:17). In other words, Paul saw growing in the knowledge of God as essential to the Christian life.[4]
A.W. Tozer once said, ‘What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.’[5] What we believe about God affects everything. And it is the importance of seeing God rightly where Ramsay begins his chapter[6] on God’s happiness.
‘How you picture God when he speaks to you through the scriptures profoundly matters.’ (142)
If you picture God as harsh and overbearing, a disappointed taskmaster, you will always read his words with an element of fear and nervousness of failing him. Like the servant who went and hid his money (Matthew 25:24-26). But if you know him as – the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6), our gentle and lowly saviour in the person of Jesus (Mathew 11:28-30), and a God who is full of joy - then you will have confidence to enjoy relationship with him. It is so important to get out thinking about God right both for accurate description and the honouring of God, and our appropriate response to him.
Is God really happy?
God’s happiness isn’t something that is spoken about much, and some people might even be suspicious of the idea – perhaps you are wondering if this is the right way to describe our glorious God!
God has created things that make us happy. The smell and taste of good food, the embrace of a spouse, the melody of a piece of well-crafted music, and the glorious views of the Lake District fells we get to see across Morecambe Bay![7] James tells us these all come to us as gifts from our creator God, ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down to us from the Father of the heavenly lights…’ (James 1:17). Would a God who is not happy create things for our enjoyment, and create us with capacity to enjoy them in the first place?
But we don’t need to just infer what he is like from the gifts he gives us. God has also revealed himself to us in his Word as a happy God, a God who is happy in creation, happy in himself, and happy in salvation.
God’s happiness in creation
In Proverbs 8 we get a backstage pass to see behind the scenes as God creates the world. In verse 23 we meet Wisdom who is described as a person, ultimately this is the Son of God, ‘appointed from eternity’ always being the Son. And the rest of the chapter begins to show what he was doing at the creation of the world. In verses 30-31 he says
‘Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.’ (Proverbs 8:30-31)
As God goes about the work of creation, we see Wisdom (the Son) ‘rejoicing in his world and delighting in mankind’ (Proverbs 8:31). From the very beginning God delights in his good creation, and in the people, he makes in his own image.
God’s happiness in himself
Not only does the Son delight in the work of creation, but even before that he delights to be the craftsman at the Fathers side, ‘filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence’ (Proverbs 8:30). God creates out of the eternal and unchanging joy he has in triune relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit.[8] God’s infinite happiness in himself overflows to create a beautiful universe.
We see more clearly in the gospels a display of God’s happiness in himself as Jesus is baptised.
‘As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)[9]
At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he is anointed by the Spirit and declared to be the Son of the Father. But not just the Son, the Son in whom the Father is ‘well pleased’. These are the same words repeated at Jesus’ transfiguration, and both events display on earth the eternal delight of God in himself as Trinity. Jonathan Edwards says, ‘God undoubtedly infinitely loves and delights in himself and is infinitely happy in the understanding and view of his own glorious essence…’ and that is particularly displayed in the gospel as ‘…The infinite happiness of the Father consists in the enjoyment of his Son.’[10]
Maybe this sounds a bit self-centred and egotistical of God to you? But in some sense, this is not strictly true. As Trinity this is other-person centred happiness, each person delighting in the other, while it is still God delighting in himself. It is a self-centred happiness, but one that is right and good in God for 2 reasons:
Firstly, since God is the greatest being in the universe, as the creator of all things, for him to find happiness in anything other than himself would be idolatry as he would be ‘worshipping created things rather than the Creator’ (Romans 1:25). To do so would suggest that there was a greater source of happiness outside himself, denying his own infinite happiness and status as God and creator of all things.
Secondly, God’s happiness in himself is actually wonderful news for us! It is only God’s happiness in himself, specifically the Father’s happiness in the Son, that gives us any grounds for his happiness in us as those who are ‘in’ the Son and made ‘sons’ by adoption.
God’s happiness in salvation
In Luke 15 Jesus gives two parables where we see the joy in heaven over the repentance and salvation of a sinner likened to finding a lost sheep or a lost coin. In verse 10 especially we are told, ‘there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God’ (Luke 15:10). Ramsay asks the question who is in the presence of the angels? The answer, God himself!
It is God the Father who celebrates the hardest and rejoice the loudest in salvation! God is far happier than we ever realised.’ (143)
It is not just the action of saving, but the people who God saves that he delights in. We see this foretold in Zephaniah,
‘The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love
he will rejoice over you with singing’ (Zephaniah 3:17)
God’s happiness then is in creation, in himself, and in salvation!
‘Happy’?
You might be thinking, yes, God delights in these things, but can we really use the word ‘happy’? Is it not irreverent? Ramsay again helps us as he takes us to the translation of the word ‘blessed’ in Psalms 1 and 2.[11] In both cases the word can just as accurately be translated ‘happy’.
Either word is an appropriate translation, but only if our understanding of the word “blessedness” includes happiness explicitly within its definition!’ (144)
And the same is true in 1 Timothy 1:11. ‘The glorious gospel of the blessed God’ where the translation could equally be ‘The glorious gospel of the happy God.’[12] God really is happy!
The happiest man in the universe
We see that happiness of God displayed even more clearly in the person of the Lord Jesus who is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1:15). As Ramsay says,
‘Jesus is the happiest person in the universe’ (145)
That might seem at odds with other descriptions that come to mind, Jesus ‘a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering’ (Isaiah 53:3). This is true; however, it is not the full account of Jesus’ life. Although his life was marked by suffering and pain, as the divine Son he is also the blessed ‘happy God’ enjoying that eternal divine happiness in the Trinity.[13]
In the gospels, we see examples of Jesus at feasts and celebrations, usually pretty happy occasions! Ramsay says,
‘If Jesus was constantly being invited to feasts and weddings and parties, surely it wasn’t because he was known as a constant killjoy? No, it was because to be in his presence was to experience life as we were meant to know it.’ (145-146)
But even more so, in John’s gospel Jesus sets the expectation of his ministry as one which will bring abundant wine and feasting. In John 2 at the wedding at Cana, when the wine runs out and the wedding hosts are in danger of being deeply embarrassed, rather than shut the party down early, Jesus steps in to provide more wine from water. And not just any, but the best vintage, wine that was better than even before! And it’s all a picture of the never-ending banquet to come, when the bridegroom to whom all other bridegrooms point comes to lay a feast for his bride the church.[14] Jesus is the one who has come to bring life as we were meant to know it, new life, and full life.
God really is happy! And that is great news for us, as we will see in the second part of this blog post.
[1] Quotes followed by page numbers in the body of text are from Adam Ramsey, Truth on Fire: Gazing at God until Your Heart Sings (Epsom: The Good Book Company, 2021).
[2] You can find out more about how we meet together on Sunday mornings, including these teaching times here.
[3] Ben's teaching time on God's otherness can be found here , and my teaching time on God's happiness can be found here.
[4] Jesus himself equated knowing God with what it means to have eternal life (John 17:3). And it’s why Peter encourages us to ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 3:18).
[5] A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 1.
[6] Chapter 11 on page 141 in Adam Ramsey, Truth on Fire: Gazing at God until Your Heart Sings (Epsom: The Good Book Company, 2021).
[7] Perhaps I am biased, but I’m not sure there are many more beautiful views to get to see so regularly!
[8] Although the Spirit is not mentioned by name here the rest of Scripture testifies to the Spirit’s presence and active participation in the work of creation (See Genesis 1, Job 26:13, Job 33:4, Ps. 33:6) The doctrine of inseparable operations of the Trinity also makes this clear – all members of the trinity always act together even if one person is most visible in an action (appropriations).
[9] The account of Jesus’ baptism is found in all 3 synoptic gospels. (Matthew 3:16-17, Mark 1:10-11, Luke 3:21-22).
[10] Jonathan Edwards, Writings on the Trinity, Grace, and Faith. (United Kingdom, Yale University Press, 2003), 118.
[11] The word ‘blessed’ bookends Psalm 1 and 2 and is found in Psalm 1:1 and Psalm 2:12
[12] Commonly attributed to Spurgeon, however plenty of writers and preachers have come to the same conclusion.
[13] ‘Jesus Christ is the happiest being in the universe. His gladness is greater than all the angelic gladness of heaven. He mirrors perfectly the infinite, holy, indomitable mirth of his Father.’ John Piper cited Truth on Fire, 145.
[14] You can see that picked up in Amos which I think the sign at the wedding is pointing to. ‘” The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains And flow from the hills.’ (Amos 9:13)