During the Monday’s Bible Study we are currently working through an 11 part series based on John Piper’s Desiring God. The handout notes (which pertain to the Chapter One: The Happiness of God) are posted below. Please note that this handout is adapted from Desiring God Study Guide and Desiring God Study Guide for Groups which can be accessed directly from the Desiring God site (here).

The introduction to the 11-week study can be read here.

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

Chapter 1 – The Happiness of God: Foundation for Christian Hedonism

The Sovereignty of God

1. How do the following passages help us understand the nature and sovereignty of God,

Isaiah 46:9-10, Daniel 4:34-35, Proverbs 16:33, 21:1, Psalm 33:10-11, Psalm 135:5-7, Psalm 115:1-3 (it would be good to consider this Psalm in its entirety) and Matthew 10:29

The Problem of Evil

1. How do the following passages help us understand place and purpose of suffering and evil in this world,

Job chapters 1 and 2, Lamentations 2:11, 3:37-38, Amos 3:6, Isaiah 45:1-7, Revelation 17:12-17

The Problem of the Cross

3. How do the following passages help us understand God’s role and purposes in the crucifixion of Jesus,

Isaiah 53:10-11, Acts 2:23, Acts 4:27-28

The Happiness of God

1. How is it and why does the author argue that God’s sovereignty the foundation for God’s happiness (p. 33)?

The author asks the provocative question, ‘How can we affirm the happiness of God on the basis of His sovereignty when much of what God permits in the world is contrary to His own commands in Scripture? How can we say that God is happy when there is so much sin and misery in the world?’ (p. 39). The author seeks to answer this difficulty by paraphrasing puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards,

Edwards did not claim to exhaust the mystery here. But he does help us find a possible way of avoiding outright contradiction while being faithful to the Scriptures. To put it in my own words, he said that the infinite complexity of the divine mind is such that God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. He can look through a narrow lens or through a wide-angle lens.

When God looks at a painful or wicked event through His narrow lens, He sees the tragedy of the sin for what it is in itself, and He is angered and grieved: “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 18:32).

But when God looks at a painful or wicked event through His wide-angle lens, He sees the tragedy of the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. He sees it in relation to all the connections and effects that form a pattern, or mosaic, stretching into eternity. This mosaic in all its parts—good and evil—brings Him delight. (p. 39)

1. How does the analogy of the two lenses help us understand how God can be happy in a world overrun with suffering and evil?

2. How does the analogy of the two lenses help us understand how the sovereignty of God relates to the problem of evil and suffering?

3. How does the analogy of the two lenses help us better understand the role and purposes of God in the crucifixion of Jesus? You might want to read the following passages in conjunction with page 40,

Isaiah 53:4, 10, Hebrews 2:10, Romans 3:25-26, Revelation 5:9-13

The Happiness of God in God

The author, adapting the Westminster Shorter Catechism posits,

The chief end of God is to glorify God

and enjoy Himself forever.

8. What do you understand the word ‘glorify’ to mean? How does this emphasis of God’s delight in his own glory make us feel? What are the possible objections to the author’s assertion that God is foremost in his own affections?

1. Consider the following passages. How does this help us understand God’s delight in Christ Jesus?

John 1:1, 17:24-26, Isaiah 42:1, Matthew 3:17, Colossians 2:9, Hebrews 1:3, 2 Corinthians 4:4

1. Why would God be unrighteous if he himself were not uppermost in his affections (pp. 42–43)?

Is God for us or for Himself?

1. What do you think the author means when he writes, ‘Because God is unique as an all-glorious, totally self-sufficient Being, He must be for Himself if He is to be for us.’ (p. 47)?

2. Read Genesis 1:26-31 and consider how God creating man and woman in his own image relates to God’s delight in his own glory.

3. Read Ephesians 1:3-14 (especially verses 4-6, 12 and 14) and consider how God’s delight in his own glory relates to our salvation.

4. How does God’s happiness relate to Christian Hedonism (pp. 32–33)?

5. Describe in your own words how God’s pursuit of his own glory is the foundation of his love for us and the foundation of our hope for grace.

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 135