HAPPY IN HIM

Psalms 72:17-19 (KJV)

His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

I have read that, during the heydays of the great Green Bay Packers football team under coach Vince Lombardi, that he would begin every season the same way;

He would gather together all of these great football players and say something to the effect of, “Gentlemen, This is a football.”

He wanted to take them 

• Back to the basics, 
• Back to the foundation
• Back to the fundamentals

Because no matter how good they got at the game, championships are won and lost in the fundamentals.

If we are not careful, we who are Christians can reach a stage in our faith where we forget the fundamentals.

We move on to a kind of faith where we focus on 

• How we can best benefit right now or
• How we can best give right now

• We maybe start teaching a class in Sunday school or
• We get involved in some sort of outreach ministry or
• We focus our energy in song and worship

And all of that is great… if we do not lose sight of our primary purpose for being Christians in the first place.

I want to take you all the way down to the first rung of the Christian faith and remind you that the pursuit of real happiness is a pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Psalms 72:17 (KJV)

His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

Allow me to walk you through this Psalm to bring us finally to our personal application.

We will begin with

I. OUR CONTEXT

Psalms 72:1 (KJV)

A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.

A. Notice the superscript first of all.

This is “A Psalm for Solomon.”

I readily confess to you that this superscript is not part of the inspired, inerrant Word of God.

It is an “add-on,” it is like a title that the Jews added to the Psalm, similar to those who gave each book of the Bible a title - it’s there to help us in our study of the Word of God but it is not technically the Word of God.

But it does give us some insight into the historical context of this Psalm.

We would take this then to be 

B. A Psalm written by David, in reference to his son, Solomon, who was to be the next King in Israel.

You might think of it in a fashion, as you would

• Isaac’s blessing on Jacob and Esau or
• Jacob’s blessings on his sons

It’s prophetic in nature.

This is King David prophesying what his son’s reign in Israel will be like.

Taken on that level it looks like the words of a pretty proud dad:

• He shall judge thy people with righteousness
• Vs 2
• He shall save the children of the needy
• Vs 3
• He shall have dominion also from sea to sea
• Vs 8
• Yea, all kings shall fall down before him
• Vs 11
• His name shall endure forever
• Vs 17

David has some Biblical reasons for making these sorts of claims for his son.

2 Samuel 7:4-17 (KJV)

And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying,

Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?

Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.

In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?

Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:

And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.

Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,

And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.

And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

David had every reason in the world to believe that God was going to do something incredible with Solomon.

On the other hand, 

C. The claims David made for Solomon in this Psalm can’t strictly be attached to Solomon alone. 

1. Solomon’s dominion was not quite as grand as David said

Psalms 72:8 (KJV)

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

He didn’t rule the whole earth.

He didn’t even rule the known world of his day.

2. The passage hints a “salvific” quality that isn’t true of Solomon

Psalms 72:12-14 (KJV)

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

Taken in context we know these passages do not speak of salvation in the sense we mean today, but they do at least point the mind in that direction.

For these reasons, I would suggest to you that, while David wrote concerning his son, Solomon, he wrote prophetically of another of his sons, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That leads me then to,

II. OUR CLAIM

Vs 17

…men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call him blessed.

The claim I make is that this is a reference to Jesus Christ the Lord and not strictly to Solomon.

Verse 18, fairly well nails my claim down tight when it says,

Psalms 72:18 (KJV)

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

This brings us back to the fundamental I began the message with; the pursuit of real happiness is a pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Every other sort of blessedness is 

• Temporary, 
• Shaky and 
• Subject to loss

As I understand it, Thomas Jefferson took those inalienable rights of

• Life
• Liberty and
• The pursuit of happiness

From the writings of one of the most talked about philosophers in that day, John Locke.

Locke claimed that all men had the right to

• Life
• Liberty and
• The pursuit of property

I’m glad Jefferson tweaked those words a little bit. 

But it doesn’t change the fact that Americans were almost consumed with the pursuit of property in those days.

The difference between poverty and wealth was land ownership.

In the earliest days of our country, a man wasn’t even qualified to vote unless he was a landowner.

The appeal of our continent was that was so much land available – almost anyone could become someone here. 

But owning land and being wealthy didn’t always make a person happy.

During the Great Depression, affluent people were among the first to take their lives – they couldn’t stand to be poor. 

Jesus offered a much more stable solution for happiness than wealth,

Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV)

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Hebrews 13:8 (KJV)

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Pursue Jesus Christ and you will find a happiness that is secure, stable and eternal.

I want to finish with

III. OUR CONCLUSION

Look what happens to those who are “blessed in Him.”

Psalms 72:17-19 (KJV)

… all nations shall call him blessed.

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

Those who have been blessed in Him, bless Him back.

• It’s natural
• It’s innate
• It’s instinctive 

to them.

Happy people behave happily.

They say things that are happy and positive

They especially show gratitude toward those who gave them happiness.

My point is not that you need to start saying, “Blessed be the Lord God…” to prove that you are happy.

What I am saying is that there is proof here that people who pursue Jesus Christ find happiness.

• Real
• Genuine
• Deep in your soul and also
• Shows on the outside

Happiness, blessedness, joy.