It's Okay to Be Happy!

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

This is the only psalm with the title "For giving praise".  What you see here is that worshipping the Lord is something that can make us joyful and happy.  Sometimes Christians look anything but happy. Or somehow we think being happy is not from God.  We look dour or depressed, as if serving the Lord is a burden, and we wish we could be doing something else.  But the psalmist is anything but cerebral and stoic.  His joy and excitement to be in God's house and presence leaps off the page.  

And why should we be so happy as those who believe in the One God, who created and made us?  Because he made us and we are His people that He delights in. Charles Spurgeon, famous Scottish preacher has said this about this subject,

For our part, we find it far more easy to believe that the Lord made us than that we were developed by a long chain of natural selections from floating atoms which fashioned themselves.” (Spurgeon)

Not only has he made us, but He calls us the "sheep of His pasture".  As a Good Shepherd watches over us and cares for us.  He does not let us out of His sight.  And He is good to us and His love endures forever.  God can never love you more or less than how He loves you right now!  There is nothing you can do to take God's love and faithfulness away from you!  

Are you happy today?  I understand there are all kinds of ways in which this world can make us unhappy.  Being unfairly treated or criticized.  A friend stabs you in the back.  Or maybe you are unhappy with yourself.  But today take your eyes off of yourself and your circumstances and give thanks to the One who made you and has and will be faithful to love you forever.  Yes its okay to be happy!!!



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