Happy Today
Happy those who keep justice, who do righteousness at all times. Psalm 106:3 (Robert Alter translation)
At all times – “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it then your life will surely show it.” So go the words of a children’s song. Are you happy today? Better clap your hands.
Of course, David isn’t really concerned with happiness. Happiness is the temporary alignment of desire and fulfillment. Happiness depends entirely on circumstances. I am happy the moment I win the lottery, and unhappy the next moment when I see the government tax man take 50%. What David has in mind is not happiness. Alter’s translation improves on “blessed,” but still sends us in the wrong direction. The man who keeps justice and does righteousness is not happy (although he might be) nor blessed (because it wasn’t an unearned gift). He is fortunate, lucky, successful. His life is not governed by his circumstances. It is governed by his effort.[1] Biblical luck is the luck you make!
But can David actually expect his reader to do righteousness at all times? The Hebrew, be-kol et, employs this very interesting word ‘et, a derivative of ‘ana, “to answer, to respond, to testify, to speak, to shout.” Do you see how strange this really is? We think of time the way Greeks think of time, that is, as a causal chain of fixed events on a linear path. But Hebrew has no word for this kind of “time.” In Hebrew, time is a function of the dynamic of speech. Time is conversation. If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If no one is responding, speaking, answering, has any time passed? Suddenly we realize that the power of the word is a lot more than simply speaking the cosmos into being. The power of the word of God continues to keep everything in existence—and response is required!
Can we do righteousness at all times? Before you decide that this is just impossible, ask yourself if you can respond, answer, or converse with God all the time. If you can talk with Him, you can do righteousness. Is there any time (in the Greek paradigm) when you cannot talk with God? Even in the midst of sin, God is open to conversation. Keep the communication flowing and tsedaqah will be yours. When we stop communicating with God, we step outside the Hebrew idea of time. We cease to exist.
Be happy today. Answer Him.
Topical Index: ‘et, time, ‘ana, answer, speak, happy, righteousness, Psalm 106:3
[1] These crucial differences are the basis for the true understanding of the Beatitudes. See my book, The Lucky Life (skipmoen.com/products/beatitudes-book/)
The useful definition of sin for me is whatever fractures relationship. Connection. Koinonia. We were created to be in symbiosis with our Creator, and to have full connection, communication, with everything and everyone else. I need most what every one else and WHAT everything else is, in creation, including my own self; the self that is reflecting the Mind of Christ, that is. To get all that, I need to be connected: to Him, others, myself, creation. Even more than I need that, I need to GIVE that. My deepest need of all is to express my Creator’s thought in my life in each and every minute. Then, then, I am happy. To talk to Him constantly, like King David said, upon his bed in the night watches, and every step of the way, is the correct way to communicate, because He is a Person.
I notice that in NO pagan religion is there a direct way to communicate with a Person. Nobody else outside Judeo-Christianity gets to TALK. Hmm
How ironic we may often say
something is “beyond words”,
when everything in existence
is “because” of words!
Indeed, The Word is at the center of it all.
“He is before all things, and in Him all things
consist.” Col 1:17
Should it surprise us, therefore, that He has given
us words to keep us centered on Him?
“Pray without ceasing” 1 Thes 5:17
Sounds right. Be happy.
So would this mean as God’s people, valuing relationship and conversation with people is a more important use of our time than just performing tasks? I ask because we are in a very “Martha” oriented society. Being able to be a “Mary” with people is not necessarily accepted because it takes too much time and requires vulnerability. I have found that many don’t value it because of the time (the true reason, time is money) but I have found that being present with people develops trust and respect that can’t be measured by time and someone is much more open to hearing things about God when they know you care and don’t have a salvation agenda. I minister in the inner city. I sensed a connection as I read your devotional and wondered if this applies peer to peer.
Matthew 5:21-24
It would seem that it’s preeminent. 🙂
I would say that there is a time for everything. Tasks are just as important at the appropriate time. We learn from our work. We can give the information to someone but understanding and knowledge only become wisdom after we have worked through it. The best communicators teach through demonstration.
A Psalm of David. A Maskil. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!
The (Only) Right Response
In every relationship, there is one who initiates and one who responds. God is that “Initiator” and we (all of us creatures) are the ones who respond. Some respond with “Yes, LORD,” and some (sadly, and much to their own deleterious hurt) with a “no.”
It is possible, (but not wise at all) – to say “no” to God. How is it possible to say “no LORD?”- if He is (indeed) LORD? The Bible has a name for these people, “fools.” ~ The fool has said in his (own) heart, ” No (to) God ~ Yes (to God) is our only option. God (first of all) does not “suggest,”- He commands and.. has the absolute authority to do so! Why?
Because, dear saints, it is ~ He who has made us and not we ourselves ~ The “self-made man” is a myth. And again, (the scriptures say) – “for of Him and through Him and to Him are “all things!” ~ (I believe that about covers it!). He is (both) the Source, the Supply and the Sustainer of “every good gift and every perfect gift!”
We are His (first of all) His by right of creation- “It is He who has made us..” No man, no woman, no boy or girl is here by “accident” – we are here by Providence and by the grace of (our always good) God. And friends, “not only,- but also”- not only are we His by right of creation, we are His (once more) by right of a purchase that was made on the tslav (the execution stake) of Calvary. The purchase price (we are now His purchased possession) paid for us was the blood of the Lamb of God.
~ Because God *SO* loved the world, He gave His One and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Because God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him..~ (John 3.16,17) and.. ~ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners ~ (Romans 5.6)
What is (then) our “right response” to all this?
And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood!
Died He for me? who caused His pain! For me? who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
‘Tis mystery all: th’ Immortal dies! Who can explore tHis strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of Love divine. ‘Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angel minds inquire no more. ‘Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angel minds inquire no more.
He left his Father’s throne above (so free, so infinite His grace!), emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me! ‘Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
– My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. – My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine; alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
I (too) will glory in the cross.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xum6PnA_pBc
“Can we do righteousness at all times?”
By the letter, and our Greek mindset of understanding of the word, no :- )
But, thankfully, throughSkip’s TW, we have a much clearer perspective of what that means, as required by YHWH,
and that is to respond, to have ears, to hear His Words, and to communicate with HIM at ALL times.
Question-are we hearing from TWs to better understand YHWH’s Words, to do them?
It may seem difficult when we are going through situations/times, but personally, I find it easier to call upon ABBA
in such times when I need to hear from HIM, and be assured of His Presence.
” Time is conversation.” Wow, thought provoking. Communicating with ABBA YHWH cuts through ‘time’, versus vain
talk that steals our time. Hmmmm
Even so, the lack of communications in any relationship, at ALL times-of expressing our emotions and conveying
our thoughts oftentimes sour relationship/s, or cause misunderstandings, due to our judgmental, critical, self-serving, prideful attitudes. :- (
Being ‘happy’ is not as having Shalom at all times.
Thanks, Skip, for being such a blessing!
Oh my! This intensifies something Avinu revealed to me not long ago. I asked Him to show me the sins of the tongue. At the top of His list was prayerlessness.