God's Happiness

Excerpt from John Piper The Happiness of God: Foundation for Christian Hedonism

Which brings us now to the final observation: God's happiness is the foundation of Christian Hedonism because his happiness spills over in mercy to us. Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression like some Jack -and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected and frustrated? Could we join David and say, "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is" (Psalm 63:1)? No way! We would all relate to God like little children have to a gloomy, dismal, discontented, frustrated father. They can't enjoy him. They can only try to avoid him and maybe try to work for him to make him feel better. Therefore, the foundation of Christian Hedonism is that God is infinitely happy, because the aim of Christian Hedonism is to be happy in God, to delight in God, to cherish and enjoy fellowship with God. But children cannot enjoy the company of their father if he is gloomy and dismal and frustrated. And so the basis and foundation of Christian Hedonism is that God is the happiest of all beings.

Here is another way to say it. In order for a sinner to pursue joy in God, he must be confident that God will not shut him out when he comes seeking forgiveness and fellowship. How can we be encouraged that God will treat us with mercy when we repent from our sin and come seeking joy in him? Consider this encouragement from Jeremiah 9:24, "'I am the Lord who performs mercy and justice and righteousness in the earth, because in these things I delight' says the Lord." God shows mercy because he delights in it. God is not constrained to save by some formal principle or rule. He is so full of life and joy in his own glory that the climax of his pleasure is to overflow in mercy to us. The ground of our confidence in the mercy of God is that he is a perfect Christian Hedonist. He delights above all things in his divine excellence, and his happiness is so full that it expresses itself in the pleasure he has in sharing it with others.

Listen to the heartbeat of the perfect heavenly Hedonist in Jeremiah 32:40-41. Why does God do good? How does he go about the business of loving you? Listen:

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

God does good to you because he enjoys it so much! He pursues the business of loving you with all his heart and with all his soul. The happiness of God spilling over in joyful love is the foundation and example of Christian Hedonism.

I close with an invitation. These precious and astonishing promises of God's favor do not belong to everyone. There is a condition. It is not a condition of work or payment. An infinitely happy sovereign does not need your work and already owns all your resources. The condition is that you become a Christian Hedonist—that you stop trying to pay or work for him or run from him, and instead begin to seek with all your heart the incomparable joy of fellowship with the living God.

His delight is not in the strength of the horse
Nor his pleasure in the legs of man;
But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
In those who hope in his steadfast love. (Psalm 147:10-11)

The condition for inheriting all the promises of God is that all the hope for happiness you have pinned on yourself and your family and job and leisure you shift over to him. "The Lord takes pleasure in those who hope in his steadfast love." "Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).