I cannot read the opening of this chapter without thinking of the Simon and Garfunkel song. Often that is as far as I get in meditating on this chapter.
Today I intentionally looked elsewhere. Lord, what nugget do you have for me today? I prayed as I began reading. And quickly my heart was directed to verse 12: I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.
A pretty straightforward nugget to digest this morning. I realize that life circumstances do not always lead directly to happiness. But then I wondered how much of happiness in life is decided, not by circumstances, but by attitude and approach to the things that come our way.
Even as I was typing that last sentence, something in my thoughts clicked. Some translations translate Matthew 5’s Beatitudes, “happy are…” Some translate Psalm 1, “How happy are those…”
This got me thinking about true happiness, a sense of living under God’s blessing. There certainly is nothing better than living this way.
Matthew 5 goes on to talk about being ‘salt and light’ and doing good so that people see your life and praise your Father in heaven. In Psalm 1, the psalmist sings about the blessed (or happy one) who walks in the way of God, delights in the Lord’s law and meditates on God’s words. Both Matthew 5 and Psalm 1 would lead one to doing good.
And so my thoughts and meditations went this morning.
There is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good…
Lord, may I live into Your Word today… treasure the life You give me today and do good. Lord, if I accomplish this, it will have been a good day. Alleluia. Amen.
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