Desiring God: Chapter 1

This is the first of my chapter by chapter posts on John Piper's book Desiring God. Chapter 1 is entitled "The Happiness of God," and its premise is that God is God-centered and that He is completely satisfied in Himself:

The ultimate ground of Christian Hedonism is the fact that God is uppermost in his own affections:

The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever.

And so Desiring God gets off to a quick, jarring start. God is uppermost in his own affections? Piper correctly points out that we tend to think, or assume, that we are uppermost in God's affections. We often attempt to explain God's purposes with ourselves at the center.

Piper begins to explain his theory by discussing God's sovereignty, quoting Psalm 115:3, which says that "Our God is in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases." I can't imagine a Christian who would deny Piper's assertion that God has the right, power, and wisdom to do whatever He wants. The conclusion he draws from this is interesting, but it should have been obvious: If God can do anything He wants, and His purposes cannot be frustrated, He must be the happiest of all beings. Just the thought of a happy God is a bit different for me, after having spent a couple years in the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition, where God is alternately presented as a cosmic ATM and a harsh judge waiting for the chance to take back your salvation and toss you out the back door into outer darkness. I love that Piper hangs all of Christian Hedonism on this foundation -- we can't expect to find joy in a joyless God, but since God is full of joy, He is a reliable source of joy for us.

Piper goes on to tackle the difficult question of evil in the world, and what place it has in God's plan. Far from being a God frustrated with a world full of evil gone wild, he states that God uses the evil of this world to fulfill His greater purposes. Referencing Job, Jeremiah, and the story of the crucifixion, Piper shows that "the evil Satan causes is only by the permission of God." As a further explanation, Piper describes two different lenses through which God views evil in the world. In the narrow view lens, he says, God sees sin as abhorrent and He is saddened by its damaging effects. In the wide view lens, through which God sees all of redemptive history, God sees sin and evil as tools by which to bring about His ultimate purposes. This is one of the most intriguing attempts to explain "the problem of evil" from a sovereignty-oriented perspective, and it seems to make a lot of sense.

In the latter half of the chapter, Piper discusses God's happiness in Himself, using the example of how God is well pleased in His Son Jesus, who is the exact image of His glory. Thinking of God's God-centeredness in relation to the Trinity was helpful to me in getting my head around the concept. Creation is an overflow of this happiness; it reflects God's glory and brings Him further happiness.

Finally, Piper discusses God's seeking of our praises. He quotes C.S. Lewis's discovery of why God wants us to praise -- not to fill some need within Himself, but because praise is the natural completion of our enjoyment of anything. Lewis correctly points out that the world is full of people praising all the things that they enjoy. If we find pleasure in God, that pleasure is made complete by praising Him. What a revelation of the many Psalms that exhort us to sing praises to God! It makes perfect sense, and I look forward to my own enjoyment of God to overflow in many constant praises.

"Oh Lord open my lips, and my mouth with shew forth your praise."

This chapter is full of big concepts, and honestly reading it through a second time was a great help. Seeing God as perfectly happy within Himself, and seeing that happiness as a foundation for finding our happiness in Him was truly a revelation, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of the book builds on this foundation.

Posted by JohnH at January 31, 2004 03:21 AM | TrackBack