Blessed or Happy?

I heard a message on Psalm 128. From the very beginning when the preacher outlined what he was going to cover in the message I struggled with what I heard. Saying that, there were some great points made about fearing God as He is, an all-powerful God, and standing in awe of Him.

The verse says, 'Blessed are all who fear the Lord'. The preacher suggested that 'blessed' is the same as happiness, that the Psalmist was saying that to be happy you need to fear the Lord.

I realise it's semantics, but I don't believe 'happy' was the best word to use in its place. I actually came away from the message feeling kind of depressed because I know I don't feel happy all the time, yes there are times I do, but not all the time, and I don't read anywhere in the Bible that God tells me to be happy all the time. He tells me to rejoice in all circumstances, but that's different to being happy. When my marriage ended, I was seeking to fear the Lord, but I certainly was not happy. I was able to find joy in God, yes, but I was not happy.

My concern is that there were no doubt others hearing the message who were in a difficult patch and not feeling happy, who needed to hear that they are blessed because of what Jesus has done for them, blessed, not that they need to be happy.

I am incredibly blessed, there's so much to be thankful to God for in my life. I often don't thank Him enough, and fall into the trap of just seeing my 'wants' and unfulfilled desires, rather than seeing His blessings. These blessings are a reason to rejoice and to praise God, but they don't mean I always need to be happy.

Joy would be more closely aligned to 'blessed' in my opinion, and joy is something we experience when we fear God, and we can experience it even in the coldest of winters when life is at its most difficult. It's something we experience deep in our souls, that may not be displayed outwardly in a smile, though it definitely can be. Happiness, I believe is a feeling. Which is why I struggled so much with what was said - the last few weeks we've been reminded of the importance of trusting God and the truth in His Word, not our feelings. This seemed to contradict that.

I guess his concern with the term 'blessed' may have been that it's often associated with prosperity doctrine, and we often interpret it as gaining what we want. So I understand being careful about it's use, I just don't think happy really defined it well.

What are you thoughts?