What makes you happy?  Think about it for a moment.  In church circles we talk more about what fulfills us or gives us joy.  We’re skeptical of happiness as being too dependent on fleeting, momentary things.  Not for Psalm 84 where happiness unashamedly rules the roost.

Reading verses 5 and 12 we note (at least in my translation) the word ‘blessed’.  In the original Hebrew one word for ‘blessed’ is often used.  But here we have a different one, which means flat out happiness.  Raucous cackling which explodes in cloud nine, rolling in the aisles, gut-busting laughter!

Really?  Why?  At the end of the day when we’re in heaven, at the foot of Jesus who’s at the right hand of the Father, surrounded by angels, the Holy Spirit and countless saints from all ages, who wouldn’t burst out in laughter?  Not some quiet little unassuming tee-hee, but a bursting out roaring guffaw.  We’re here!  We’ve made it!  Just take a gander!

Psalm 84: 1-2–‘How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.’  See?  We crave and hunger to be right next to our Lord.  Shoulder to shoulder intimacy.  Privileged beyond our fondest dreams.

Here’s something to remember–that ‘dwelling place’ of the Lord in Psalm 84 is most likely Solomon’s Temple, which resides this side of heaven.  Right here on planet earth is where we can be so close to God that happiness warms up the cockles of our hearts and souls.  Happy?  Why not?  Party-poopers fizzle out.  Naysayers say no more.

I’m happy in Jesus, hanging out with Psalm 84, refusing to drag my feet in the mud.  Happy as a lark.  Floating on air.  Doing backflips and handstands!  At age 73?  Well, ‘staying on the sunny side, always on the sunny side’!

Just what the doctor ordered.  Dr. Jesus, that is!  Happy?

Thank you, Jesus, for best days ahead forever.  Amen.