Does God command Christians to be happy?

John Piper states in the opening paragraph in the preface to his book Desiring God:

This is a serious book about being happy in God. It’s about happiness because that is what our Creator commands: “Delight yourself in the LORD!” (Psalm 37:4). And it is serious because, as Jeremy Taylor said, “God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.”

According to Piper, the spiritual life should be one characterized by happiness and joy even in the midst of suffering and pain. He uses Jesus as an example, citing Hebrews 12:2: “…who endured the cross for the joy set before him.” Unfortunately this interpretation of scripture leads to a dangerous form of theology that tends to minimize true human sorrow and sidestep biblical instruction for dealing with pain and suffering.

I have encountered this theology in my former Christian context. Individuals with good intentions try to ‘encourage’ a believer struggling in the pain of his suffering to live beyond his circumstances and experience the ‘peace that passes all understanding.’ Unfortunately I have witnessed that this kind of exhortation has little positive impact upon the one who is suffering, and usually introduces an element of frustration and guilt that pushes the distraught soul farther into depression.

In my opinion, a proper biblical theology of happiness must also engage the theme of human pain and sorrow as it occurs throughout the scriptures. The Bible seems to indicate that human sorrow, although not in God’s ideal world (Rev. 21:4), is a normal part of our fallen condition. God chooses to enter into human suffering and identify with mankind by experiencing the pain and sorrow of the fallen world. The narrative account of the passion of Jesus in the gospels reveals that our Lord experienced emotions resembling depression and traumatic grief, a far cry from the euphoric happiness implicit in Piper’s interpretation of the ‘joy set before him.’

There is a place for happiness in the life of the believer just as there is a place for true human despair and sorrow. For one tormented by the tragedies of a fallen world the heavenly ideal of happiness as a governing emotion is unrealistic. For a segment of Christians, particularly those of us from more affluent Western Christian contexts, happiness may be more characteristic than sorrow. But the realities of many believers are ruled by sorrow, not happiness. It would be wise for us to accommodate this broad spectrum of valid human responses to pain and suffering within our theology and, more importantly, within our ministerial practice. All of us though can take comfort that a day will come when all oppression and evil will be defeated, and those who delight in the Lord will experience true everlasting happiness.