Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.
Do you want to be happy in life? Do you want to be truly happy? Then you need to find wisdom and understanding.
What does it mean to be wise?
According to the Book of Proverbs, the first thing it means is that a person fears the Lord: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). Wise people know the most important thing you could ever know. They know that the creation and everything in it is, indeed, a creation. It is a creation of the Lord God. If you don’t know this, or, more accurately, if you refuse to acknowledge this (see Romans 1:18-23), then you can’t be wise in any meaningful sense of the term.
Even more, if you don’t fear the Lord God, then you’re a fool according to the Bible: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 14:1). You’re a fool not only because you fail to know, or fail to acknowledge, the most important thing you could ever know, but you also fail to know or acknowledge the will and ways of the Lord. As Proverbs puts it, “fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). They despise, in other words, the way things are meant to be in the Lord God’s creation. They despise the way He designed things to go.
If you want to be happy, then, you must become wise and leave your foolishness behind. You must come to know and acknowledge the Lord God for who He is and you must come to know and acknowledge His will and ways. Proverbs tells us that having wisdom is better than having all the silver, gold, and precious rubies you could ever want. Indeed, “all the things you may desire cannot compare with her” (Proverbs 3:14-15). It only makes sense. If you know the way things are meant to go in the world, then you’re going to do well in it.
How well? Proverbs says that those who are wise are blessed with long life and with riches and honor. They walk in ways that are pleasant and peaceful. Wisdom is “a tree of life to those who take hold of her” (Proverbs 3:16-18). In other words, the wise are blessed with a happy life well-lived.
