sermonette: A Merry Heart

How To Have A Merry Heart
Ted E. Bowling
Given 07-Dec-02; Sermon #587s; 14 minutes

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We have entered into a time of the year when the world is all abuzz over this holiday season. You cannot turn on the radio in the car or at home without coming across Christmas music. And as you walk through the store, it constantly assaults our ears, no matter what store that you are in. And we see the glitter of the lights, the tinsel, and the flash.

All the time we are also hearing the common buzzwords of the time, “Have a merry Christmas,” or “Happy holidays.” And there is the sign that you will see often around all through town, “Joy to the world.”

But all the while there really is very little merriment, joy, or happiness. Many dread this time of the year as much as we do. Many are trying to get through their obligations of buying gifts for each other; planning the huge family dinners. And they are just trying to figure out how to get through the month in one piece, and without going broke.

In fact, even in this month's Reader's Digest, there is an article on how to get through the season. It is called, “More Joy, Less Stress.”

It is a time of the year when suicides are up, and depression is on the rampage. They do not really understand what it means to be merry or joyful. When you go past the lights, the glitter, and the brightness of people's homes that are all lit up, there is nothing there that is lasting. It is all surface.

But as God's people, being merry and joyful is not a seasonal thing. Instead, it is a daily part of our lives. I am not talking about an outward burst of laughter, or a celebration of a day or event, humor or joking. I am talking about what it really means to be joyful and merry, which can only come from God.

Please turn to Proverbs 15.

Proverbs 15:13 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

And then the third verse that is connected here is Proverbs 17, verse 22. And it reads:

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.

So what is a merry heart? The word “merry” comes from the Hebrew word sameach, which simply means, “joyful, merry, and glad.” Many translations of the Bible use the phrase, “a joyful heart.” The dictionary definition of joy is, “a strong feeling of happiness; gladness; delight; a state of contentment, which is peace, or satisfaction; to be glad and rejoice.”

The word joy is spoken of in the Bible approximately 150 times. The vast majority of the time it is used in direct relationship to God, of being our joy. It is used in regards to God's blessing the people, and the people rejoicing in their blessings and trials; the acknowledgment of those blessings and trials coming from the Lord.

One of the definitions of the second word, “heart,” is that it is, “the central part of, the most central point of something, or the vital part or essence of something.” But in the Bible, it is used as the center of all human life. In this context the heart is the center of one's thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

You will see the verse uses the word spirit as well. The word “spirit” could be interchanged here with the word “heart.” Spirit is the vital essence of a person, the intelligent nonphysical part of a person.

So in the context of these verses here in Proverbs, the terms “merry heart,” or “joyful heart,” is talking about our relationship with God; that God has revealed Himself to us. He has given us His Spirit, which then is seen by the way we conduct our lives. It is a quiet confidence knowing that He is watching over us, and that our God is an active part of our lives. True joy can only come by knowing God and living our lives as He lives.

Please turn to Proverbs 2.

Proverbs 2:10-11 When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you.

Wisdom is the practical application of God's law. It enters our heart, and in other words, the center of our intellect, or our mind. And in understanding God's law, we have the opportunity to know how God lives and have a closer relationship with our Creator. The joy is that peace, that quiet confidence, and that satisfaction of knowing God, and knowing the will of God, and being obedient to God through the wisdom that has been revealed to us.

So we see that a merry heart shows that our relationship with God and our obedience to God is going to have an outward effect on each and every one around us as well.

In verse 15, we see that a merry heart will affect our countenance. In other words, that means our attitude, which would definitely have an effect on all those around us. As it said also, in chapter 17, it does good like medicine. With a good attitude, the chances of good health are increased. Even the experts of the age recognize that our attitude affects our physical health. Most of us have heard of some physical treatments that only carry a person so far, but sometimes it is a positive attitude that can make a difference.

But there is an opposite side of this. In the second half of Proverbs 15, verse 13, it says “that by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.” Here we see “merry and cheerful” on the positive sides, but contrasted to “broken and sorrow,” which is the negative attitudes of the spirit. When we allow sin to enter our lives, we place a barrier between us and God. (You might want to write down Isaiah 59:2.) Sin will cut us off from that joy, that peace of mind, that quiet confidence that we have in God. And when we transgress it can cause a bad attitude in us as well; it can cause depression; it can cause our health to fail. Sin can only bring a person down, and working like a cancer can eat away at our health.

Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.

It is sin that is then at the core.

This can be seen in the story of David and Bathsheba. David was a man that had God's Spirit. He was a man after God's own heart. He knew God. And he had a proper understanding of who God was, and the wisdom of the practical use of God's law. David was a man with a merry heart as can be seen through many of his writings in the Psalms. But when he sinned with Bathsheba, sin separated him from God.

You can read the story of Bathsheba and David, which is in II Samuel chapters 11 and 12. The story is that David saw Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop, he lusted after her, he had an affair with her, and she became pregnant. And then in his attempt to cover up his sin, he had Uriah her husband brought back from the battle he was in, sending him in to lay with her to cover up what he had done. But Uriah would not go in to her. So he placed Uriah back into the battle right at the vanguard of the war where he would definitely be killed. In other words, Uriah was murdered by David. And then God sent Nathan to David with his story of a rich man and poor man in which the rich man takes the sheep from the poor man, and prepares it for a party for a traveler, and the only lamb that the poor man had. And upon hearing this story, he became very enraged. And he stated, “As the Lord lives, the man that has done this shall surely die!”

Now if you read in Exodus 22:1 the punishment for stealing a lamb was to only replace it fourfold. So it is clear that David was not thinking clearly.

In Jamieson Fausset Brown's commentary, there is a statement on this verse. It reads,

This punishment was more severe than the case deserved or was warranted by the divine statute. The sympathies of the king had been deeply enlisted, his indignation aroused, and his conscience was asleep. And at the time when he was most fatally indulgent in his own sins, he was ready to give them the delinquencies and errors of others.

So we see that David was oblivious to what he was doing, but he can see everyone else's until Nathan told him, “You are the man!” I do not think that David questioned the word that Nathan said because I think it is clearly laid out in Psalm 51. I would like for you to turn to Psalm 51. Here we see David's prayer of repentance. We see David's acknowledgment of his sin, and he asked God to take his sin from him. And we see in this prayer to God his desire to have a joyful and glad heart restored to him, to have that peace, that commitment, and quiet confidence that he had through his personal relationship with the Almighty God.

Psalm 51:6-12 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

Through these verses, David is talking about his spirit and his heart. They are both used together so that we will understand clearly that David is asking God to clean him up from the inside out. David had allowed sin to come between him and God, and now he was asking God to restore his merry, joyful heart—that state of contentment and satisfaction, that confidence that comes from a close relationship with God.

And it is the same for you and me. We have that joy as we go through our daily routine day-by-day and moment-by-moment. We have that quiet confidence as we encounter the test and the trials that come our way. But in James 1,

James 1:2-3 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

The peace and the confidence that comes through our relationship with God will help us through our trials.

So a true merry heart does not come through anything associated with people, places, experiences, events, or circumstances in the world, but it can only come through a deep, sincere relationship with the Almighty God.