As the old year ends and a new one begins, you’ll probably be wished at some point, “Happy New Year!” And indeed, for many of us, a new year does provide an opportunity to mark out one’s course for the twelve months ahead—a course likely aimed at greater happiness.
Psalm 1, one of the most beloved entries in the Psalter, presents a biblical picture of the truly happy person. While in many translations it begins “Blessed is the man…” we might just as easily replace “blessed” with “happy.” Both of these words describe the person who is—in modern, nontheological language—fortunate, experiencing the good gifts life has to offer. The person Psalm 1 describes is living the good life as God sees it.
As we think about improving our lives and experiences in the coming year, this psalm is an important one to consider. It describes three ways people go wrong, the one way to go right, and the results that spring from each path.
Three Ways to Go Wrong
The happy person, we read first, “walks not in the counsel of the wicked” (v. 1). They do not embrace the aims, principles, or practices of the sinful world around them. This does not mean having no non-Christian acquaintances or strictly shunning those who believe differently. It does mean recognizing the difference between right and wrong and affirming what is right. Following Jesus is a mind-altering experience. Believing faith changes the way a man or a woman thinks —and that change should involve a decided rejection of “wicked” ways of seeing God, the world, one’s neighbors, and oneself.
Nor is it the happy person who “stands in the way of sinners” (v. 1). Clarity of belief brings clarity of behavior. The happy person walks with God and so doesn’t stand around loitering in the highways and byways with the ungodly. They choose their friendships well. They have heeded the advice of J. C. Ryle to “never be satisfied with the friendship of anyone who will not be useful to your soul.”1
Following Jesus is a mind-altering experience. Believing faith changes the way a man or a woman thinks.
Nor is it the happy person who “sits in the seat of scoffers” (v. 1). How common it is to despise what we don’t understand, mocking and scoffing at it! The Bible is full of challenging stories or teachings that may tempt us to laugh rather than to listen. We might similarly jeer at the long, incomprehensible names of our pharmaceuticals—yet it would be a grave mistake to throw them away on that basis. We ought not to despise the prescription made to save our lives!
The Way to Go Right
If Psalm 1’s opening verse describes the course the happy person does not pursue, the next verse describes the course they do pursue: The happy person’s “delight is in the law of the LORD” (v. 2). They have great joy in considering God’s words to us—not just the laws of the Ten Commandments but all that He has said in the pages of Scripture.
God calls us through His Word to His Word to find happiness. The entrance of God’s Word gives light (Ps. 119:130). If we put confidence in ourselves, we will be disappointed. If we put confidence in Scripture, however, it will change our lives. Thomas à Kempis once said, “I have no rest, but in a nook, with the book.”2 Without a desire for and a delight in the Word of God, there is little hope for the kind of happiness described in this psalm.
Tom Landry said that his job as an NFL coach was “to get people to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.”3 We say, “Oh, goodness gracious! I don’t have time for the Word this morning. I’ve got to shower, brush my teeth, brush my hair, get the kids to school, get to the office early.” Then, at the end of the day, we’re too tired; perhaps we’ll read in the morning, we tell ourselves. But we’ll never achieve the happiness we’re aiming for this way. We need to commit ourselves to the discipline of regular Bible reading, doing what, in the moment, we often don’t want to do.
When you meditate on that which purifies and transforms, you become the kind of happy person this psalm envisions.
Yet the happy person not only reads God’s Word but also “meditates day and night” on it (v. 2). This means chewing the cud, so to speak—reflecting on the meaning and relevance of the words and keeping them before the mind’s eye. When your mind dwells on sin, you’ll become more of a sinner. When it dwells on bitterness, you will become more bitter. But when you meditate on that which purifies and transforms, you become the kind of happy person this psalm envisions.
We don’t need to expect ourselves to become masters of the Scriptures in a day. (As if anyone has ever “mastered” the Scriptures rather than the other way around!) Begin delighting in the Word by reading something. Begin meditating on it by writing something down. It may feel small today, but day by day, it will build and nourish your soul.
The Result
With that nourishment, the happy person becomes “like a tree planted by streams of water” (v. 3)—rooted, sturdy, fruitful. Without it, the miserable person becomes “like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4)—rootless, weightless, useless. The end will be either joy “in the congregation of the righteous” (v. 5) or death with the wicked (v. 6). And the essential factor is this: “The LORD knows the way of the righteous” (v. 6). Those who root themselves in God may know God and find salvation in Him.
There is no third way. To be on the way of the wicked, we need only to be born (Ps. 51:5). By default, we go in the wicked’s counsel, stand in the sinner’s way, and sit in the scoffer’s seat. “But with you there is forgiveness,” the psalmist says to the Lord, “that you may be feared” (Ps. 130:4).
If we haven’t already done so, we can begin to walk the road of righteousness in the new year by accepting the offer of forgiveness in the Lord Jesus, who stands at the entry to the narrow way (Matt. 7:13–14) and says, “I died on the cross, bearing your sin and sparing you from judgment. If you’ll trust in Me, I’ll help you walk this road.” This is the beginning of a happy life. And if we are already on that road, then we can seize the opportunity to recommit ourselves to the course, delighting ourselves in God’s law and allowing it to light our path (Ps. 119:105) all the more in the days ahead.
This article was adapted from the sermon “How to Have a Happy New Year” by Alistair Begg.
