Happiness: The Old Wisdom Psalm 1 Continued
by Ken Wilson
Happiness: The Old Wisdom. Because old wisdom catches what new wisdom misses. But new wisdom is catching up with some-o-dat old wisdom. The How to Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, a happiness researcher at U of C. Research confirms most people pursue short term strategies for happiness that don't deliver: changing circumstances rarely works; getting more money, provides at best a temporary lift. Things that make a difference are same ones found in wisdom literature of Bible: practicing forgiveness and acts of kindness, practicing gratitude and faith. Last week…
Happy the man who has not walked in the wicked's counsel,
nor in the way of offenders has stood,
nor in the session of scoffers has sat.
But the Lord's teaching is his desire….
Happiness requires enough savvy to reject well-worn pathways of false promise forged by the powers that be, those who cross bound-aries, the scoffers. But negation--refusing to follow the crowd---is not sustainable without desire. So the awakening of desire for a God who reveals himself and his ways is key to happiness.
But the Lord's teaching is his desire,
and his teaching he murmurs day and night.
Awakened desire leads to the practice of focused attention.
Ever been in love? Leads to an effortless attention. "You were always on my mind" sang Willie Nelson when he was in love.
Awakening of romantic love releases a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters that lasts for up to seven years. But to sustain love beyond seven years you need to develop practices that will nurture desire once the Margarita glass is empty.
Desire for God is sustained for the long haul by meditation: "and his teaching he murmurs day and night"
Most translations: "meditates"; but Hebrew is more concrete and less high sounding: murmur.
Murmur. Cogitate. Ruminate. Meditate.
What do you murmur day and night?
What do you say under your breath when no one is listening?
What do you talk about to yourself?
What do you say, over and over?
It's not for polite company, but we all murmur something….
[as my mother weakened in her final days: O dear, O dear]
The Hebrews were a murmuring lot. When they read, even to themselves, they murmured the words.
Murmuring words over & over is the basic form of meditation; the repetition, or unhurried pondering of the words, buries them in the heart--literally in the brain certain neural pathways are strengthened corresponding to the meaning and emotion of the words. The brain gets hardwired for God, hardwired for happiness.
The Bible is full of vivid images because it's more than a book of information. It's a book of inspiration. And inspiration is meant to be absorbed by meditation. Reading through the Bible has its place but the real power of the Bible comes through meditation on these words.
So we have a choice: we can leave our brains unattended, and let them ruminate on what they will. And they will, unattended, tend to ruminate, on fear-worry-anxiety laden things [mom's O dear]
Or we can focus our attention on words and the emotions they convey that correspond to what we believe to be the deepest and most trustworthy desire awakened in us, the desire for God.
It's not rocket science. It's neuroscience. And it's old wisdom.
"But the Lord's teaching is his desire,
and his teaching he murmurs day and night"
Day & night is a pattern. What patterns are you laying down to give your brain a chance at happiness?
Yearly patterns: 55 years of celebrating Christmas, the candlelight service, the readings from Isaiah, the gifts….sustaining desire.
Weekly patterns: when you gather with others to sing these songs--a form of meditation--to ponder these words, share the communion…sustaining desire for God, a key to happiness.
Sonja says the research says: people who go to church more often are happier than people who go less often.
Daily patterns: prayer at intervals--a form of murmuring day & night, a daily time to meditate, sustains desire for God, a key to happiness.
Sonja says the research says: people who meditate daily [20 minutes] are healthier and happier for it, in general.
[Next week explore this more: how focused attention-meditation can
curb the worry dog, according to the Bible, chapter and verse!]
There's a revolution going on in the field of psychology. The father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, was openly disdainful of religion.
Viewed religious orientation as a form of mental malfunction. And within the modern university, the rates of faith have been lower than in other parts of society. So there has been a bias away from faith.
But facts are resilient. And the fact is, people who have faith, and especially those who practice there faith, are, on the whole happier because of it. And so the modern psychology, the new wisdom, is catching up with this and focusing the scientific method on this, and in the process the old wisdom is coming into sharper view than ever.
In the long run: science is not an enemy of faith, but a friend. Because science is all about facing the facts, whatever they are. And the facts are resilient. And when they are faced--when reality is faced--it opens a door to the real God.
Shall I talk more about science? JUST KIDDING. Let's move on…
To be happy requires a vision of happiness. What does it look like to be happy? Will the happy woman be like a rocket blasting off, or like a butterfly moving from one flower to the next? Will the happy man be like a king surrounded by gold & concubines? Or like a copper wire coursing with electricity? What's the image (and associated feelings) that best reflects what the happy person will be like?
And he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water,
that bears its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither--
and in all he does he prospers.
Murmur that for a while. Say that to yourself meditatively. What would if be and feel like to be such a tree--picture it, sense it, feel it.
…a tree planted by streams of water: in the middle East trees are rare, because the terrain can be brutal, rocky, barren. Highly valued. They may only survive near streams.
Happiness doesn't fly in to us on the wings of happy circumstances. The old wisdom and the new research tells us so. [If you believe happy circumstances are key to happiness, you will be disappointed.] Happiness happens against all circumstantial odds. Happiness happens in rough terrain when you're planted by streams of water.
…that bears its fruit in its season: Sonja says the research says comparison breeds misery. By comparison, we either feed pride (easy: compare your strength to another's weakness) or envy (compare your weakness to another's strength)--and both are ingredients in the recipe for misery.
But the happy woman is like a tree that bears its fruit….not another tree's fruit! A granny smith apple tree bears granny smith apples, not oranges and not McIntosh apples. Each tree bears its own fruit.
You are going to bear fruit that corresponds to who you are
and it won't come out looking like someone else's fruit.
Don't look for someone else's fruit on your tree!
Don't define your productivity by the productivity of others.
in its season: each tree has its own fruit bearing season.
A tree is not always in its fruit bearing season.
And fruit bearing seasons vary from tree to tree.
Some trees mature quickly, others take longer.
The happy person ponder this….and understands this about happiness and themselves, accepts this about happiness and themselves, doesn't demand fruit out of season from themselves.
and his leaf does not wither: In between fruit bearing seasons, a tree is still healthy, prospering, if it's leaf doesn't wither.
For a tree, fruit, produce--what we call productivity--isn't the only sign of life. The steady reaching out toward the light, in and out of season, that's what the happy person is like.
In all that he does he prospers.
Not so the wicked,
Full stop and turn…emphatic! Not so the wicked!
Not so the wicked,
but like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand up in judgment,
nor offenders in the band of the righteous.
No matter how far you are along the God path, you never grow past the need for the occasional emphatic negation.
In other words, don't expect to discover a path to happiness if you are not ever-ready to turn your back on the false paths.
WORD TO THE WISE! You can let your own maturity lull you to sleep. You can assume that because you're so doggone mature, responsible, well respected in the community, you're beyond the need for the occasional emphatic negation…
Every now and then, whistling while you work, your life in auto-pilot, you need to change gears and belt out a little Dionne Warwick, "Walk on by! Walk on by….your foolish pride!" You need to belt out a little Diana Ross: "Stop! in the Name of Love!"
For the Lord embraces the way of the righteous,
and the way of the wicked is lost.
There it is a again: negation followed by desire; negation and embrace, the rhythm of Psalm 1, the rhythm of happiness.
The word translated "embrace" is literally "know" and in Hebrew it is a word of intimate knowing. When the context is a man and a woman, it's the word for sexual union, in fact.
Because the desire is mutual: earlier in the Psalm it's us for God (the Lord's teaching our desire!); but here at the end, it's God for us.
Which desire do you think is more powerful?
We can readily feel the power of gravity.
But the theoretical physicists stumped by a puzzle. Gravity as we know it, is much too weak. Gravity should be stronger, in order for all the equations to work.
So they are thinking there must be something fundamental about the nature of the universe--physical reality--that we're missing. Some other dimensions where gravity is MUCH stronger than gravity as we know it. Maybe a parallel universe where gravity is MUCH stronger.
No, I'm not saying that when we've discovered where that more intense gravity is located we'll have discovered God. Just that our desire is like the weak gravity we're aware of, compared with the stronger gravity that must exist. God's desire for us is like the stronger gravity the theoretical physicists are positing.
There is something on the other side of the mystery, of the questions, of the wrestling, the struggling, the doubting, the resisting, the reaching, the yearning, the whole human enterprise fueled by longing for God, the whole human preoccupation with God….someone on the other side of all this, who desires us, and embraces our path…
Never forget, it's you he wants. God wants you. What a stunning thing to believe about God. God wants me….
The old wisdom bears witness to God's desire for us: it's to be pondered, absorbed through meditation….
Jesus to those common ordinary men and women, those sinful men and women, saying, "Follow Me!" It was a big deal to be invited by a rabbi to be a disciple. A great honor. Like getting into Harvard or Yale. Most people didn't qualify. Most rabbis did their recruiting in Bloomfield Hills, not the places the rest of us live. But these disciples were not the cultural elite, they were just ordinary, struggling, unable to keep the Law common people on the outside of the kingdom looking in.
Why did they respond so readily--because it was such an honor: He wants me!
How I long to gather as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wing….
Jesus, the desire of the nations, giving us glimpse into God's desire for the nations!
How I could forget you? Could a mother forget the infant nursing at her breast?
[Extend the invitation-summons: God wants you! Do you want him!
Do you sense him calling you? Answer him! Yes! Here I am!]