How To Be Happy In An Unhappy World
Bible Study
A Psalm for Every Sigh
Finding Your Song in God's Word
Object:
What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
-- Psalm 8:4
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich -- yes, richer than a king --
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.1
This poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson points to a very real problem in our society -- suicide. From 1980 to the present, suicide among 15- to 24-year-olds rose 254%. This year 250,000 adolescents will attempt to kill themselves. Over 6,000 will succeed. Overall, more than 30,000 Americans will take their own lives this year.
This brings us to Psalm 8 and a study of how to be happy in an unhappy world. Note the psalm begins and ends with praise: "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!" But what does all of this have to do with being happy? Just this: Verse 4 asks a question, "What is man?" What is it to be human? What is it to be a person, to be me?
You see, it is impossible to be happy without a positive self-image, and the fact that so many people are destroying themselves today is strong evidence that individuals are deficient in self-esteem. Suicide is the number two killer of teenagers these days. The number one killer is accidents and most of them are alcohol-related, which points to self-esteem troubles, also. We have got a big problem!
But where does one get a positive self-image? In counseling, if you ask a grown man to tell you about himself, he'll tell you about his job. A woman will tell you about her husband and children. A teenager will tell you about his or her sports. A single person will tell you about his or her lover or his or her latest project. In every case, each person is measuring his or her own self-worth by someone or something. The trouble is, we get fired from jobs, retire from accomplishments, and children grow up and move on. Then where is our self-esteem? How do you look at who you are? How do you value yourself? Is your self-image in people -- things -- accomplishments -- beauty? The author of Psalm 8 finds his value in God.
He Looks At God
It is a paradox, but durable self-esteem does not begin with ourselves or even with what others think of us. It begins with who God is and what he thinks of us. Psalm 8:1-2 focuses on who God is. In the entire psalm, God is mentioned nineteen times while references to people occur about nine times. The focus, you see, is on deity, not self. God is the center, not me.
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name!" It is easy to become so impressed with self that we've no time for God. But not the author of Psalm 8, he begins with worship. He ascribes worth to God.
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!" "O Lord" -- the word is Yahweh -- the word that sums up all who God is, a word so holy the Jews found it all but unspeakable. "Our Lord" -- the word here is Adonai or "Lord" meaning the master, the ruler, or the one in charge. "How majestic is thy name" -- large, imposing, permanent, as unchanging as the mountains. Then there is the word "our" -- God is personal, not aloof, unavailable, or indifferent.
Then, too, his name is majestic in "all the earth." God's not just famous in two states. He is known throughout the cosmos generation after generation. "Thou whose glory is chanted ..." this refers to his weightiness, his radiance. This great God can even "still the enemy and the avenger." In other words, he can control history. He has power to begin and end, to limit and permit. Christ dying on the cross is not letting things get out of hand. Why, God actually raised him from the dead. Consider the work of his hands -- "the moon and the stars." I've built an arbor over my back porch. It's a joy to have friends over and sit in the vine-covered cool and show off my workmanship. But step out from under it and look toward the canopy of space. Who could do that but God?
"O Yahweh our Adonai, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!"
All of this praise pours out in just a few verses of one psalm. Yet there is so much more to his name. In fact, trying to know and understand all of God is like trying to capture the ocean in a thimble.
I don't think we esteem God highly enough. We are so consumed with our personal misery or so preoccupied with our own cleverness that we've no time for deity. But not this author of Psalm 8. First and foremost he is overwhelmingly impressed with who God is. Second, he is impressed with creation.
He Looks At Creation
In verse 3, the psalmist looks at the moon and the stars and "considers." Is it all an accident? Did no one make these things? Is it all random, a chance dance of atoms in a universe of absurdity? Or is there a genius behind it all and perhaps behind me, too? Consider:
* Evolution says you are the product of a long, naturalistic process, one of the fittest to survive the ordeal. You have worth in your ability to dominate.
* Secularism says you are important only as you accomplish. Your self-worth, then, is measured in your achievements and acclaim.
* Marxism says you have value only as you produce. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." You are worth what you can do.
* Materialism says you are worth what you possess. The richer you are the more value and meaning you have.
* Nihilism says you are nothing but a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on a gigantic dirt ball hurtling through space.
* German Dadaism defines you as an absurdity. You have no meaning. Life is nonsense.
In just about every case, you have no value in and of yourself! If you have meaning and worth, it is only because you produce, achieve, possess, or dominate. This is completely different from the gospel of Jesus Christ and his definition of you. The Bible says you have worth and meaning because God made you, because you are created in his image.
If you will, consider, for a moment, that bane of the household -- the common fly. Have you ever seen one walk across your ceiling and wonder how he does it? Why doesn't gravity pull him down? Does he have claws? Actually, it's all done with glue. Attached to each of a fly's legs are dozens of tiny, hollow hairs with a sack of glue at each end. When a fly alights, pressure is exerted and through each hollow hair a bit of glue is secreted that gives its feet sticking power.
Just look at a fly's radar system and its maneuvering ability in flight -- all that comes from a pin-head-sized brain! Why, if I could manufacture such an amazing aircraft for the Air Force I'd have a contract worth billions! Yet, a fly can reproduce itself by the millions! And what is its fuel? High-grade jet fuel? No, almost any waste will do. Such is the creation of God!
The amazing thing is that if I kill a fly, God is not in the least angry with me. He's got billions of others!
Go on! Consider "the moon and the stars." I recall a United States astronaut who landed on the moon. He said he was really beginning to feel like a big shot until he started home and saw the earth the size of a basketball floating alone in an awesome vastness. Suddenly he realized just how small he was.
Consider on! Psalm 8 mentions babies and angels, but finally one's own self. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" As extraordinary as the housefly is, as spectacular as is outer space, the human species is more amazing still. In Psalm 139, the author describes himself as being "fearfully and wonderfully made." Centuries ago, Augustine wrote, "Men travel abroad to see mountains and cities, to marvel at great oceans, and all the while miss the marvels of themselves."
Consider yourself -- you're God's creation, made in his image! Consider taste, touch, smell, and hearing. Don't forget sight. What a work is man! "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!"
So far, the poet has shown us that he is very impressed with who God is and what his creation is like. Now he looks at himself, and there he finds something impressive as well.
He Looks At Himself
First, perhaps, the psalmist tilts toward an inferiority complex. In verse 4 he compares himself to God and the rest of creation and moans, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Hear that? "I don't matter. No one cares if I live or die. I'm single, unloved. I've got the personality of a dial tone. Today the boss fired me. See there? That just goes to prove how worthless I am."
Emily Dickinson has a poem with something of this pain in it. It is titled "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" It can be found online at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15392.
You can find some of this in the Charlie Brown comic strip, as well. Charlie is talking to his friend, Linus, about the pervasive sense of inadequacy he feels all the time. Charlie moans, "You see, Linus, it goes all the way back to the beginning. The moment I was born and set foot on the stage of life they took one look at me and said, 'Not right for the part.' "
"What is man that thou art mindful of me?" "I don't count! I'm so worthless! Just one big mistake!" And a low estimation of oneself is dangerously close to insulting God. For we are actually thinking lowly of something he made.
Note that the psalmist tilts toward the other extreme. From an inferiority complex he now leans toward a superiority complex. In verse 5 he muses, "Yet Thou hast made me little less than God, and dost crown me with glory and honor."
On television's game show, Wheel of Fortune, the host comes on stage to a thunderous applause. He bows and says immodestly, "I know, I feel the same way, too!" And so it is with many of us. We're impressed with ourselves to the point of conceitedness.
But the psalmist finds a balance between an inferiority complex and a superiority complex. He can say with real honesty, "What am I?" But he can say with just as genuine a passion, "Thou hast made me little less than God and put all things under my feet." He can mention God nineteen times in this single psalm, but not forget to mention himself ten or eleven times, as well. His self-esteem is simply held in this tension. So ours must be, as well.
When someone asks, "Stephen, tell me about yourself," I can answer, "I am a creation of God. He has fearfully and wonderfully made me! I am unique among the people of the world, the only one of my kind! No one else has my fingerprints! Just as the telephone company took seven digits and made a special number for each person, so God took hair, race, sex, teeth, eyes, temperaments, and talents and made me what I am right now. He knows my name. Why, the very hairs of my head are numbered."
In the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 2, Psalm 8 is quoted as describing Jesus Christ. This is a reminder that we have fallen so short of what we were created to be that God had to come and redeem us by dying on the cross for our sins. Look at the cross -- it is not an "X" negating our self-worth, but a kind of divine plus mark affirming our value. God is saying, "I'm willing to hurt for you! I count you worthy of this!"
The good news gets better. When we respond to Christ, he tells us he wants to take us as his bride to live with him for all eternity!
Until then, he fills us with his Holy Spirit. We become his living temples.
Here on earth, he puts all things under our feet that we might rule his creation -- from mere houseflies to rivers and seas, we're his stewards.
Now, that's self-esteem!
Notice how if your self-image is too low, God will bring you up a notch. If I say, "I'm bad," God reminds me that he looked on all that he had made, myself included, and he affirmed, "It's very good!" Who am I to quarrel with the Lord?
On the other hand, if I let my self-esteem get too high, God will see to it that I'm brought down a notch. Remember the king in Daniel 4:28 who went out on his porch to look over his kingdom and congratulate himself for being such a clever man to create all he saw? The Lord struck him with madness and he became as a dog that ate grass until he knew that God was the Lord.
You see, God will get you both ways! Low or high, he brings our self-esteem into balance.
Conclusion
Walking onto the beach from the boardwalk this summer, I saw a young lady who was rather obese and had a bad case of acne. She was red with sunburn and breathing heavily as she labored up the stairs. Her eyes caught mine and I saw into her soul -- the loneliness, the self-loathing, the pain. I asked God, "Can a person like her ever find happiness in life?"
And the answer came. Not if she looks for her self-worth in things or people or beauty or talent or acclaim. But if she comes to know Jesus Christ, if she with the poet of Psalm 8 becomes impressed with who God is and what he has done in creation, and discovers herself to be a part of his brilliant masterpiece, she can.
And what about you? And me? We'll never have adequate self-esteem until we stand beside our majestic Lord and say, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth."
Suggested Prayer
O Jesus, you have made me. Cause me to love you, along with creation, self included. Amen.
____________
1. Edwin Arlington Robinson, "Richard Cory," written in the early 1920s. In the public domain.
-- Psalm 8:4
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich -- yes, richer than a king --
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.1
This poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson points to a very real problem in our society -- suicide. From 1980 to the present, suicide among 15- to 24-year-olds rose 254%. This year 250,000 adolescents will attempt to kill themselves. Over 6,000 will succeed. Overall, more than 30,000 Americans will take their own lives this year.
This brings us to Psalm 8 and a study of how to be happy in an unhappy world. Note the psalm begins and ends with praise: "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!" But what does all of this have to do with being happy? Just this: Verse 4 asks a question, "What is man?" What is it to be human? What is it to be a person, to be me?
You see, it is impossible to be happy without a positive self-image, and the fact that so many people are destroying themselves today is strong evidence that individuals are deficient in self-esteem. Suicide is the number two killer of teenagers these days. The number one killer is accidents and most of them are alcohol-related, which points to self-esteem troubles, also. We have got a big problem!
But where does one get a positive self-image? In counseling, if you ask a grown man to tell you about himself, he'll tell you about his job. A woman will tell you about her husband and children. A teenager will tell you about his or her sports. A single person will tell you about his or her lover or his or her latest project. In every case, each person is measuring his or her own self-worth by someone or something. The trouble is, we get fired from jobs, retire from accomplishments, and children grow up and move on. Then where is our self-esteem? How do you look at who you are? How do you value yourself? Is your self-image in people -- things -- accomplishments -- beauty? The author of Psalm 8 finds his value in God.
He Looks At God
It is a paradox, but durable self-esteem does not begin with ourselves or even with what others think of us. It begins with who God is and what he thinks of us. Psalm 8:1-2 focuses on who God is. In the entire psalm, God is mentioned nineteen times while references to people occur about nine times. The focus, you see, is on deity, not self. God is the center, not me.
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name!" It is easy to become so impressed with self that we've no time for God. But not the author of Psalm 8, he begins with worship. He ascribes worth to God.
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!" "O Lord" -- the word is Yahweh -- the word that sums up all who God is, a word so holy the Jews found it all but unspeakable. "Our Lord" -- the word here is Adonai or "Lord" meaning the master, the ruler, or the one in charge. "How majestic is thy name" -- large, imposing, permanent, as unchanging as the mountains. Then there is the word "our" -- God is personal, not aloof, unavailable, or indifferent.
Then, too, his name is majestic in "all the earth." God's not just famous in two states. He is known throughout the cosmos generation after generation. "Thou whose glory is chanted ..." this refers to his weightiness, his radiance. This great God can even "still the enemy and the avenger." In other words, he can control history. He has power to begin and end, to limit and permit. Christ dying on the cross is not letting things get out of hand. Why, God actually raised him from the dead. Consider the work of his hands -- "the moon and the stars." I've built an arbor over my back porch. It's a joy to have friends over and sit in the vine-covered cool and show off my workmanship. But step out from under it and look toward the canopy of space. Who could do that but God?
"O Yahweh our Adonai, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!"
All of this praise pours out in just a few verses of one psalm. Yet there is so much more to his name. In fact, trying to know and understand all of God is like trying to capture the ocean in a thimble.
I don't think we esteem God highly enough. We are so consumed with our personal misery or so preoccupied with our own cleverness that we've no time for deity. But not this author of Psalm 8. First and foremost he is overwhelmingly impressed with who God is. Second, he is impressed with creation.
He Looks At Creation
In verse 3, the psalmist looks at the moon and the stars and "considers." Is it all an accident? Did no one make these things? Is it all random, a chance dance of atoms in a universe of absurdity? Or is there a genius behind it all and perhaps behind me, too? Consider:
* Evolution says you are the product of a long, naturalistic process, one of the fittest to survive the ordeal. You have worth in your ability to dominate.
* Secularism says you are important only as you accomplish. Your self-worth, then, is measured in your achievements and acclaim.
* Marxism says you have value only as you produce. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." You are worth what you can do.
* Materialism says you are worth what you possess. The richer you are the more value and meaning you have.
* Nihilism says you are nothing but a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on a gigantic dirt ball hurtling through space.
* German Dadaism defines you as an absurdity. You have no meaning. Life is nonsense.
In just about every case, you have no value in and of yourself! If you have meaning and worth, it is only because you produce, achieve, possess, or dominate. This is completely different from the gospel of Jesus Christ and his definition of you. The Bible says you have worth and meaning because God made you, because you are created in his image.
If you will, consider, for a moment, that bane of the household -- the common fly. Have you ever seen one walk across your ceiling and wonder how he does it? Why doesn't gravity pull him down? Does he have claws? Actually, it's all done with glue. Attached to each of a fly's legs are dozens of tiny, hollow hairs with a sack of glue at each end. When a fly alights, pressure is exerted and through each hollow hair a bit of glue is secreted that gives its feet sticking power.
Just look at a fly's radar system and its maneuvering ability in flight -- all that comes from a pin-head-sized brain! Why, if I could manufacture such an amazing aircraft for the Air Force I'd have a contract worth billions! Yet, a fly can reproduce itself by the millions! And what is its fuel? High-grade jet fuel? No, almost any waste will do. Such is the creation of God!
The amazing thing is that if I kill a fly, God is not in the least angry with me. He's got billions of others!
Go on! Consider "the moon and the stars." I recall a United States astronaut who landed on the moon. He said he was really beginning to feel like a big shot until he started home and saw the earth the size of a basketball floating alone in an awesome vastness. Suddenly he realized just how small he was.
Consider on! Psalm 8 mentions babies and angels, but finally one's own self. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" As extraordinary as the housefly is, as spectacular as is outer space, the human species is more amazing still. In Psalm 139, the author describes himself as being "fearfully and wonderfully made." Centuries ago, Augustine wrote, "Men travel abroad to see mountains and cities, to marvel at great oceans, and all the while miss the marvels of themselves."
Consider yourself -- you're God's creation, made in his image! Consider taste, touch, smell, and hearing. Don't forget sight. What a work is man! "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!"
So far, the poet has shown us that he is very impressed with who God is and what his creation is like. Now he looks at himself, and there he finds something impressive as well.
He Looks At Himself
First, perhaps, the psalmist tilts toward an inferiority complex. In verse 4 he compares himself to God and the rest of creation and moans, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Hear that? "I don't matter. No one cares if I live or die. I'm single, unloved. I've got the personality of a dial tone. Today the boss fired me. See there? That just goes to prove how worthless I am."
Emily Dickinson has a poem with something of this pain in it. It is titled "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" It can be found online at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15392.
You can find some of this in the Charlie Brown comic strip, as well. Charlie is talking to his friend, Linus, about the pervasive sense of inadequacy he feels all the time. Charlie moans, "You see, Linus, it goes all the way back to the beginning. The moment I was born and set foot on the stage of life they took one look at me and said, 'Not right for the part.' "
"What is man that thou art mindful of me?" "I don't count! I'm so worthless! Just one big mistake!" And a low estimation of oneself is dangerously close to insulting God. For we are actually thinking lowly of something he made.
Note that the psalmist tilts toward the other extreme. From an inferiority complex he now leans toward a superiority complex. In verse 5 he muses, "Yet Thou hast made me little less than God, and dost crown me with glory and honor."
On television's game show, Wheel of Fortune, the host comes on stage to a thunderous applause. He bows and says immodestly, "I know, I feel the same way, too!" And so it is with many of us. We're impressed with ourselves to the point of conceitedness.
But the psalmist finds a balance between an inferiority complex and a superiority complex. He can say with real honesty, "What am I?" But he can say with just as genuine a passion, "Thou hast made me little less than God and put all things under my feet." He can mention God nineteen times in this single psalm, but not forget to mention himself ten or eleven times, as well. His self-esteem is simply held in this tension. So ours must be, as well.
When someone asks, "Stephen, tell me about yourself," I can answer, "I am a creation of God. He has fearfully and wonderfully made me! I am unique among the people of the world, the only one of my kind! No one else has my fingerprints! Just as the telephone company took seven digits and made a special number for each person, so God took hair, race, sex, teeth, eyes, temperaments, and talents and made me what I am right now. He knows my name. Why, the very hairs of my head are numbered."
In the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 2, Psalm 8 is quoted as describing Jesus Christ. This is a reminder that we have fallen so short of what we were created to be that God had to come and redeem us by dying on the cross for our sins. Look at the cross -- it is not an "X" negating our self-worth, but a kind of divine plus mark affirming our value. God is saying, "I'm willing to hurt for you! I count you worthy of this!"
The good news gets better. When we respond to Christ, he tells us he wants to take us as his bride to live with him for all eternity!
Until then, he fills us with his Holy Spirit. We become his living temples.
Here on earth, he puts all things under our feet that we might rule his creation -- from mere houseflies to rivers and seas, we're his stewards.
Now, that's self-esteem!
Notice how if your self-image is too low, God will bring you up a notch. If I say, "I'm bad," God reminds me that he looked on all that he had made, myself included, and he affirmed, "It's very good!" Who am I to quarrel with the Lord?
On the other hand, if I let my self-esteem get too high, God will see to it that I'm brought down a notch. Remember the king in Daniel 4:28 who went out on his porch to look over his kingdom and congratulate himself for being such a clever man to create all he saw? The Lord struck him with madness and he became as a dog that ate grass until he knew that God was the Lord.
You see, God will get you both ways! Low or high, he brings our self-esteem into balance.
Conclusion
Walking onto the beach from the boardwalk this summer, I saw a young lady who was rather obese and had a bad case of acne. She was red with sunburn and breathing heavily as she labored up the stairs. Her eyes caught mine and I saw into her soul -- the loneliness, the self-loathing, the pain. I asked God, "Can a person like her ever find happiness in life?"
And the answer came. Not if she looks for her self-worth in things or people or beauty or talent or acclaim. But if she comes to know Jesus Christ, if she with the poet of Psalm 8 becomes impressed with who God is and what he has done in creation, and discovers herself to be a part of his brilliant masterpiece, she can.
And what about you? And me? We'll never have adequate self-esteem until we stand beside our majestic Lord and say, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth."
Suggested Prayer
O Jesus, you have made me. Cause me to love you, along with creation, self included. Amen.
____________
1. Edwin Arlington Robinson, "Richard Cory," written in the early 1920s. In the public domain.
