Posts Tagged: Psalm 118:24
“Happy If and When?”
“This is the day that the LORD has made.
We will be glad and rejoice in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
Happinessisnowhere.
The story is told of a businessman who was driving between cities on a business call out in Arizona. He had car trouble. The engine was running really rough. However, he was able to cripple into a little town that had one garage. As the mechanic was trying to diagnose and cure his car’s illness, the businessman fell into a conversation with a thirty-something-looking Native American who was sitting whitling under the only shade tree in the area.
The businessman was a pretty keen judge of human beings. He very quickly realized that the Indian was very, very smart. Yet, there he sat in very old and disheveled clothes whittling on a piece of wood.
“You know,” said the businessman, “You strike me as a very intelligent and well-spoken man.”
The Indian nodded his thanks for the kind words.
The businessman continued, “I think you could really go places.”
The Indian smiled and said, “Oh?” in a way that invited a fuller explanation.
And now, the high-powered businessman began to get excited and wax eloquent. “You could go to work for me. I could start you off at a pretty good rate. I think you would move up the ladder in no time at all.”
“Yes, and then what?” replied the Indian.
The businessman was a bit puzzled. He hadn’t really thought very much about what happened after you had climbed the ladder. He was too busy climbing the ladder to think of much else. He paused, and a thoughtful frown furrowed his head. “Well, you would make a lot of money. You’d have a lot of nice stuff and invest some of your money in stocks and bonds and have a nice retirement.”
“And then?” the Indian asked.
The businessman looked out across the desert that stretched way beyond the lone shade tree. He felt more than a little lost in the conversation. He was in very uncharted territory.
“Well,” he finally said, “Then you could retire comfortably and be happy.”
At this point, the Indian broke into a broad smile and said, “But I’m happy right now, whittling and talking with you.”
I have no idea about the factuality of this story, but I have no doubt at all about the truth of it. And the truth of it is this: Happiness is here and now, or it is nowhere at all. Perhaps the verse that led off this post is part of a psalm that was written for a special festival day. But in reality, it works for any day.
The line that follows the verse from Psalm 118 contains the following jumble of letters: Happinessisnowhere. Obviously, this is a misprint. Actually, it is an intentional misprint. It can be read in two very different ways.
Happiness is nowhere.
Happiness is now here.
You choose!
“Whenism”
“This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,
I’ve discovered that I have a terrible disease. Now that I have become aware of it, I realize that I’ve probably had it for years. In fact, when I delve deeply into my memory bank, I realize that I’ve had this chronic condition since I was little. Perhaps it was a birth defect. I need to read up on it in that repository of all wisdom—the Internet.
The disease goes by many names, but I prefer the name “whenism.” The condition is characterized by restlessness, unhappiness, and finding fault with everything and everyone.
The symptoms are many, but they can be subsumed under the beginning word “when.” Here are some manifestations of the disease:
- When I grow up, they won’t pick on me anymore.
- When I can drive a car, I’ll be independent.
- When I graduate from high school, I won’t have to read any more of these confounded books!
- When I get a job, I’ll be happy.
- When I get a different job, I’ll be happy.
- When I get a girlfriend, I won’t be lonely.
- When I get rid of this girlfriend, I’ll be so much happier.
- When I get married, I won’t struggle with sexual temptation anymore.
- When we have children, I’ll become less selfish, because I’ll have the little ones to think of.
- When the kids are potty trained, then life can get back to normal.
- When the kids are all in school, then life can get back to normal.
- When the kids graduate from high school, my wife and I can reconnect.
- When I get divorced, I’ll be happy.
- When I get remarried, I’ll be happy.
- When my second wife stops acting like my first wife, I’ll be happy.
- When I retire I’ll be happy.
- When I . . .
Well, I think you get the picture. Not all these things are true for me personally. (For example, I’ve only been married once.) However, there are many other symptoms of whenism that I have not listed that do apply to me. But I am not going to post them on the internet, thank you very much!
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are times when sadness, sorrow, and grief are the order of the day, or the order for many days. The loss of a loved one, a serious illness, and many other things are warrants for all sorts feelings. I am not advocating being sunshine every day. The pain needs to be taken seriously.
However, genuine sorrow and grief can easily deepen into whenism, and whenism is a serious disease. Postponed happiness is just another name for misery. For the most part, if I don’t choose to be happy today, right now, I will never be happy.
I conclude with the words from an old Ed Ames song:
“And so, in this moment, with sunlight above,
My cup runneth over with love.”
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
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“A HAPPY NEW DAY!”
DTEB, “A HAPPY NEW DAY!”
Have you ever thought about how arbitrary some of our transitional times are? And perhaps we are biting off more than anyone can chew when we start thinking and talking about a year.
Here is my journal entry for today.
Monday, December 31, 2018
“Finish each day and be done with it. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well.”
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
The last day of the year. I wonder if we don’t make too much of these transitions. They are artificial, and perhaps not all that helpful or important.
“This is the day that the LORD has made” (Psalm 118:24) may be said of any day. Perhaps the morning and night are the real transitions.
Paul speaks of daily transformation in 2 Corinthians 4:16: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
In 3:18—just a few verses before the “day by day” of 4:16—Paul notes that “. . . we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
I found the comments of Colin G. Kruse so helpful that I copied and pasted them below, even though I generally hate long quotes.
“And we all … are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. It is important to note that the changing into his likeness takes place not at one point of time, but as an extended process. The verb metamorphoumetha (‘we are being changed’) is in the present tense, indicating the continuous nature of the change, while the words from one degree of glory to another stress its progressive nature. The verb metamorphoō is found in three other places only in the New Testament. It is used to describe Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2, and Paul uses it in Romans 12:2 to denote moral transformation (‘Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind’).
Paul speaks often of the transformation of believers in other passages, though words other than metamorphoō are employed. In some cases he has in mind the future transformation of believers’ bodies to be like Christ’s glorious body (1 Cor. 15:51–52; Phil. 3:21). In other cases it is clearly a present moral transformation that is in view (Rom. 6:1–4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). The Old Testament prophets who spoke beforehand of the new covenant certainly anticipated a moral transformation of those who were to experience its blessings (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:25–27), and Paul saw this expectation fulfilled in the lives of his converts (1 Cor. 6:9–11; 2 Cor. 3:3). These last references, together with Romans 12:2 cited above, provide the clue to Paul’s meaning in the present context. The continuous and progressive transformation by which believers are changed from one degree of glory to another is the moral transformation which is taking place in their lives so that they approximate more and more to the likeness of God expressed so perfectly in the life of Jesus Christ.”[1]
So, rather than simply wishing you a happy New Year (which I do!), let me give you an even deeper wish: May you have a happy new day!
[1] Colin G. Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC 8; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 101-102.