Where does our happiness come from?

You know how sometimes a phrase or a verse will come up over and over again, and you just know that there is something that the Lord is trying to impress upon you? Well, that's what is going on with me right now. He continues to bring up Psalm 1 in ways that I would never expect to see it. It appears in a movie we watched (Flywheel), it shows up handwritten in a greeting card, Dr. Al Reichman uses it as the basis for last week's message. So I thought I would look more closely at it, and this is what I realized in the first verse, and I felt like I needed to share it.

So many people are wondering about where to find happiness. And I am not going to tell you that all the answers are to be found in this verse. But I can tell you that if we don't heed this verse, we WILL NOT find happiness. Psalm 1:1 says, in the NASB, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!" Let's look at the Hebrew, though.

אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ - Ashrei ha-ish - Commonly translated as "Blessed is the man," the Hebrew for "bless," ברך isn't found in this section. Ashrei is from the word אֶשֶׁר esher which means happiness. Therefore, ashrei ha-ish is "Happy is the man."

אֲשֶׁר לֹא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים - asher lo halach ba-atzat r'shanim - who did not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לֹא עָמָד - u'v'derech chatah'im lo amad - and in the way of the sinners did not stand

וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים לֹא יָשָׁב - u'v'moshav lay-tzim lo yashav - and in the seat of the scornful did not sit

As Dr. Reichman pointed out this past Shabbat, there is clearly a progression in this first verse. It moves from הלך, to walk, to עמד, to stand, and ends up with ישב, to sit. If we can say, as in the first section, happy is the person who doesn't do these things, then the converse is also true, unhappy is the person who does these things. And the unfortunate fact is that the more unhappy one gets, the more likely they are to engage in these activities, creating a cycle of unhappiness. It would therefore be impossible to find true happiness while in the midst of the cycle. Getting out of the cycle doesn't guarantee happiness, however, remaining there DOES, in fact, guarantee UNhappiness. And who wants to live in THAT place?

There is a reason that Rabbi Sha'ul teaches us that we are to WALK in the newness of life (Romans 6:4), and STAND by faith in His grace (Romans 5:2, 11:20). In this, we will find happiness.

The Believer and the Jewish Community

So Kim and I are back now, and we are half way through the week, already. But since it is Wednesday, I remembered that I hadn't finished my comments from the Wednesday of the symposium. So here we go.

So after the conversation about the Jewish believer and the church, we heard three papers on the Jewish believer and the Jewish community. If you have already read my paper, you will know that it is my contention that the Jewish believer is, inherently, part of BOTH the body of Messiah and the Jewish community. While I also believe that we share more theologically with the body of Messiah, the Jewish believer shares a history that the non-Jew will not be able to relate to in most cases. Therefore, being part of the Jewish community is something that should not be frowned upon for cultural connection. For spiritual formation and edification, however, the body of Messiah MUST remain the community of reference.

One speaker said, "Many Messianic Jews still claim a Jewish identity but through faith in Messiah have lost all meaningful contact with the Jewish community." Unfortunately, I can't disagree with her. Though there are those in the Messianic community who feel that the Jewish believer should be intimately involved, not just in the Jewish community, but in the synagogue as well. However, I disagree with this, as this places the believer under the spiritual authority of someone who is not filled with the רוּחַ הַקּוֹדֶשׁ Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit. And that is not acceptable.

Which brings me to the next topic, the Jewish Believer and Rabbinic Tradition. I was surprised by the fact that the three speakers were so close in their presentations. I really would have thought that there would have been one person who was really against the keeping of Rabbinic tradition, one who was really for it, and one who was somewhere in the middle. All three papers were pro-Rabbinic tradition for the Jewish believer. Though there was clearly one speaker who was clearly more emphatic about it than the others.

Without getting into too much detail, the one speaker said exactly what I was afraid would be said. Essentially, he said that we shouldn't believe that the rabbis and sages, in writing down the Talmud, weren't being led by the Holy Spirit. This flies in the face of everything that the New Testament teaches about the Spirit. Once Messiah came, died, was buried, and resurrected, the Holy Spirit is only given to believers. This doesn't mean that God can't use unbelievers. God can use ANYONE. However, to claim that the rabbis and sages of the second, third and fourth centuries were acting under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is, in essence, heresy.

I do believe that there is clearly good lessons to learn from the Rabbinic tradition. However, to place it as authoritative in one's life is to nullify the work of Messiah. Now Messiah never reprimanded men for keeping traditions. He reprimanded them for placing them at the level of Scripture. What makes us think that we can do it now?

So what do you think? Should the Jewish believer be a part of the Church? Should the Jewish believer be a part of the Jewish community? And what role, if any, should rabbinic tradition play in the life of a Jewish believer?

Blessings!