Happiness, Joy, And Praising God Even When Life Is Crazy

Happiness, Joy, and praising God seems to evade our thinking when life gets crazy! Even when life is running along smoothly it is easy to totally forget to praise God in the mundane of our lives.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Do you know which Psalm is my favorite?

Glad you asked!

I love Psalm 27, and Psalm 139, and Psalm 91, BUT if you want to know which is my favorite, Psalm 34 is the one I come back to time and time again!

This Psalm encourages those who trust in God through expressing happiness!!

Joy is probably a word that has a deeper meaning than happiness but I love the word happy.

To me, it shows me HOW to express the inner joy that God is giving me. You cannot ‘work up’ joy. It comes through the Holy Spirit and bubbles up from your heart.

Sometimes we don’t ‘feel’ joy.

David might not have felt like expressing joy when he wrote this Psalm. This is a Psalm that David wrote when he pretended to go crazy before Abimelech. (1 Samuel 21:11-15)

You might not have read about Abimelech recently. I forget the details of the Old Testament stories so we are both in the same boat.

One thing I just realized is that in the Bible, several of the Philistine kings were called Abimelech or Ahimelech in some translations. It was the same as Pharoah being the title for Egyptian rulers and Caesar being the ruler of the Roman Empire.

In this story, Abimelech’s personal name was Achish.

David fled from King Saul who was trying to kill him.

David became very afraid of Achish and pretended to be crazy!

Happiness When Life is Crazy

Life can get so crazy!

When I think of a crazy life, I am thinking how financial strain, cancer, heartbreak of a disintegrating marriage, rebellious young people breaking their parents’ hearts, physical or emotional pain, and whatever you can put in this blank ___________.

Those things bring defeat not victory!

BUT . . .

Not according to David and what he shares in Psalm 34!

He praised and blessed God even when life was crazy.

That brings happiness if you ask me!

I am suggesting something that was almost impossible for me just a few years ago. I am asking you to act like you have happiness bubbling up from your heart even if your circumstances are hard.

You will be amazed at what starts to happen to you!

Praising God when Life is Crazy

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1

David chose to bless God in all circumstances. That is what it means when the word ‘continually’ is used.

Even though he was afraid of Achish, David chose to praise the Lord.

When life is difficult we can praise the Lord in ALL our circumstances and pray without ceasing. It will be amazing to see what God begins to do in your life.

Joy Comes from Expressing Praise to God