Of the hundreds of teachings and sermons I’ve heard that were supposed to help me understand God, I don’t remember any that described Him as happy. Angry? Yes. Ready to rain down fire? For sure. But happy? No can do, it seems. I’m not saying that God has to be high-fiving all the time, but you’d think that just once we’d be told He cracked a smile.
David, who wrote many of the Psalms, knew better. Further, the Psalmist had a bead on just what it is that makes God glad. “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people,” David wrote. Talk about revolutionary … It turns out that God really isn’t mad at us. He actually delights in having a relationship with His human creation, flaws and all.
Even though I often fall short, God wants me to live as one of His people. And when that happens, He becomes one happy guy.
I’m reminded of the movie Chariots of Fire and the line said by Eric Liddell, the Scottish Christian representing Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics: “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel his pleasure.” I too have sat through countless sermons where God was portrayed as angry, vengeful, vain, petty, etc. Thankfully, my life experience has shown me something else. The Truth is, whenever I use the gifts He has given me to have a positive impact in this world as a child of God, He makes His pleasure felt.