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Good morning.

Happiness is big business. Self-help books, advertising, influencers – advice on what will make us happier abounds, and shiny happy people populate our social media feeds with carefully curated images of the good life. And yet, as a nation, we struggle, and our young people, in particular, struggle. Research by the Resolution Foundation tells us this week that for the first time, young people between 18 and 24 now have the poorest mental health of any age group. Happiness and wellbeing are elusive.

There is something striking in this report, something which is a feature of much talk about mental health. Recommendations often include better mental health care – which is absolutely right. But individualised care can only ever be part of the answer. Mental health struggles are complex, and factors that shape mental health struggles are invariably not just individual. The report identifies socio-economic factors such as poverty and education as key drivers.
This perhaps isn’t really surprising: humans are social beings, part of systems, networks, cultures and histories that shape individual lives.

As a Christian, and an Anglican priest, I read the Psalms a lot, and they have rather a lot to say about this. The very first sentence of the book of Psalms starts with, ‘happy are those’. Happiness, sometimes translated as blessedness, is a big deal. But happiness in the Psalms is never just about me: happiness is a seamless mixture of the individual, the communal and the spiritual. Psalm 1 says that happiness is found in shaping our life and desires towards the right ends. That’s individual. But Psalm 2 tells us that the kings and rulers of the world shape a world in which we need refuge and help. The possibility of wellbeing is conditioned by external factors. Psalm 146 sets happiness in the context of God giving justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. In the Psalms, there is no such thing as ‘my happiness’ independently from ‘your happiness’ and ‘our happiness’.

The Psalms though are nothing if not realistic: struggles are part of being human, and at times they can be crushing, even overwhelming. Mental health challenges are complex and multifaceted, and appropriate care is essential. But the Psalms remind us not to forget our collective responsibilities to work for a better world, where justice, peace and care for one another and creation can make it at least possible for every person to have a chance. And in doing so, we might find happiness surfaces in surprising places along the way.

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