From Lament to Hope: Wellbeing and Happiness in the Psalmsنموونە

Psalm 146: Called to Nurture Communities of Wellbeing and Justice

Throughout the Psalter, the golden thread of happiness and wellbeing weaves itself through, but where does it end up, at the end of its convoluted journey through a very rugged landscape? Psalm 146, the final “happy are those…” saying, gathers up the threads of the psalms’ reflections: “happy are those who take refuge in the Lord,” in an echo of Psalm 2, because “princes and mortals” alike fail to do what is right. Then follows a long commentary on the nature of God and how this nature can foster wellbeing. God is the creator, to start with—therefore, hope resides in the fact that God stands over creation. This is not a struggle between equal partners. We have hope because the battle is already won: God’s kingdom will come on earth, as it is in heaven.

Psalm 146 goes far beyond creation, however, and anchors the vision of happiness in the nature of God as a God of justice. The psalmist riffs on many of the images of God we find throughout Old Testament narratives and prophetic books, and reflected in the life of Jesus: God cares for the marginalised, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger; God loves justice and will bring oppressors and the unrighteous to ruin. Here we glimpse one of the most profound insights of the Psalms: happiness has an ethical shape. Happiness is not the pursuit of individual fulfilment, but, like the fruitful tree of Psalm 1, happiness is found where communities nurture their life together in ways that reflect God’s care for every person, and God’s concern and compassion for the vulnerable and suffering.

In other words, happiness and wellbeing are shaped and made possible—or impossible—by the ways in which we live as communities. In the psalms, there is no such thing as my happiness, my wellbeing, that does not consider your, and our, happiness and wellbeing. For all who struggle with the way things are, with the trauma of the past, with life as it is today, the psalms say, you are not alone—and you cannot, and should not, fight this alone. It is our calling together as the people of God to nurture communities where wellbeing is at least possible, if only we hold on to the vision of shaping communities that reflect the biblical God of compassion and justice.

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