Does God want us to be happy? What does the Bible say about happiness?

“Happiness” may seem like a passing thing, and hardly the ultimate goal in most belief systems. In fact, though, it is the Lord’s greatest goal for us: He wants us to be happy. If we allow it, He will lead and guide us to be as happy as we are able to be.

The whole reason the Lord created us was so that he could love us, and what else but happiness do you wish for someone you love? But the happiness the Lord wants for us is not the passing joy of satisfying our bodily desires but the exquisite eternal joy of conjunction with the Lord and true love of the neighbor, things that are harder to see and harder to attain but ultimately far more delightful.

Swedenborg distinguishes heaven’s happiness from worldly happiness of satisfying our bodily desires. In heaven, all happiness is felt from loving the Lord and being of use, living for the sake of others. Everything the Lord does is part of his attempt to lead us to that state, and in everything that happens to us - even the things that are the most tragic on the natural level - he provides opportunities for us to move toward that state.

In Arcana Coelestia 6392, there's this: "...performing good deeds without thought of recompense is that in which heavenly happiness consists." A couple of sentences later, there's another key statement -- i.e. that this real love of the neighbor has to be rooted in a "new will" in us, a will that can only be implanted by the Lord when we make room for it, and seek it.

In the American Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happiness" is one of the 3 enumerated inalienable rights that our Creator endows us with. Certainly, the Lord wants our happiness, and wants us to pursue it. In a way, though, if we pursue it directly, externally, we will probably not get it. If we pursue happiness for others, we will be making our minds open and ready for that new will. (See Arcana Coelestia 454 for more about this.)

The Lord also leaves us in freedom. We can reject his efforts and turn away if we choose to, and while that choice may seem to us to lead toward happiness, it's a passing, low-level happiness that is ultimately only a shadow of the joy he desires for us. However, people in hell are "happy" being there - at least as happy as they CAN be - because the life there matches the self-centered love they cultivated while on earth. If people in hell could be lifted up to heaven, they would feel tormented.

From Psalm 65:9-13:

Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it; thou makest it very plenteous.

The river of God is full of water: thou preparest their corn, for so thou providest for the earth.

Thou waterest her furrows; thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof; thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy clouds drop fatness.

They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness; and the little hills shall rejoice on every side.

The folds shall be full of sheep; the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing.

From John 15:11:

I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 1153 [2]; Divine Providence 37)

660. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and shall be glad.- That this signifies the delights of infernal love with those who are opposed to the goods and truths of the church, is evident from the signification of they that dwell upon the earth, as denoting those who are in the church; in the present case, those therein who are in evils and in falsities therefrom, consequently those who are opposed to its goods and truths; and from the signification of rejoicing and being glad, as denoting here the delight of infernal love; for all joy and all gladness is from love. For every one rejoices and is glad when his love is favoured, and when he is in pursuit of and attains the object of his love; in a word, all man's joy proceeds from his love, and all sadness and grief of mind from antagonism to his love.

[2] It is said "to rejoice and to be glad" because of the marriage of good and truth. For joy is said of good because it relates to love, as it properly pertains to the heart and will, and gladness is said of truth, because it relates to love of truth, as it properly pertains to the mind and its thought; therefore we say "joy of heart" and "gladness of mind." For everywhere in the Word two expressions occur, one of which has reference to good and the other to truth, and this is the case because the conjunction of good and truth makes both heaven and the church, therefore both heaven and the church are compared to a marriage, from the fact that the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and heaven and the church, the bride and wife. He therefore who is not in that marriage is neither an angel of heaven, nor a man of the church. The reason of this also is, that good is not possible with any one unless formed by truths, nor is truth possible unless it lives from good. For all truth is the form of good, and all good is the esse of truth, and because one is not possible without the other, it follows that the marriage of good and truth must necessarily exist both with the men of the church and the angels of heaven; also all intelligence and wisdom are from that marriage, for from it truths and goods are being continually born, by which the understanding and will are formed.

[3] These things have been stated to make it clear why it is said "to rejoice and be glad;" for to rejoice is stated of good and its love or affection, and to be glad is stated of truth, and its love or affection. Similarly also in many other parts of the Word, in the following passages:

"The heavens shall be glad and the earth shall rejoice" (Psalm 96:11).

"Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee" (Psalm 40:16; 70:4).

"The just shall be glad, and exult before God, and shall rejoice in gladness" (Psalm 68:3).

"That we may rejoice all our days, make us glad according to the days thou hast afflicted us" (Psalm 90:14, 15).

"Be glad in Jerusalem, and exult in her, all ye that love her, rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her" (Isaiah 66:10).

"Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom" (Lamentations 4:21).

"Behold joy and gladness; killing the ox" (Isaiah 22:13).

"They shall obtain joy and gladness, sadness and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:10; 51:11).

"Joy and gladness shall be found in Zion, confession and the voice of singing" (Isaiah 51:3).

"Thou wilt make me to hear joy and gladness" (Psalm 51:8).

"Gladness and joy are cut off from the house of our God" (Joel 1:16).

"The fast of the tenth month shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness" (Zech. 8:19).

"The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" (Jeremiah 7:34; 25:10; 33:11).

[4] In the place of joy, exultation is also mentioned, because exultation like joy, is said of good, because it relates to love, to the heart and to the will; as in the following passages:

"Jacob shall exult, Israel shall be glad" (Psalm 14:7; 53:6).

"I exult and am glad in thy kindness" (Psalm 31:7).

"Be glad in Jehovah, and exult, O ye just" (Psalm 32:11).

"The mount of Zion shall be glad, and the daughters of Judah shall exult" (Psalm 48:11).

"Let all that trust in thee be glad, and let them that love thy name exult in thee" (Psalm 5:11).

"This is the day which Jehovah hath made, we will exult and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24).

"We will exult and be glad in his salvation" (Isaiah 25:9).

"Be glad and exult for ever in the things which I create" (Isaiah 65:18).

"Exult and be glad that Jehovah hath magnified his doing" (Joel 2:21).

"Sons of Zion exult and be glad in Jehovah your God" (Joel 2:23; Habakkuk 3:18).

"Be glad and exult with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem" (Zephan. 3:14).

"Gladness and exultation are taken away from Carmel" (Isaiah 16:10; Jeremiah 48:33).

The angel said unto Zacharias, "Thou shalt have gladness and exultation, and many shall rejoice at his birth" (Luke 1:14).

In all these passages, exultation signifies delight from the love and affection for good, and gladness signifies pleasure from the love and affection for truth.