Psalm 144:15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yes, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. : — As a child in any of the families in our midst can only be happy by being docile and obedient and trustful to the wise and benevolent guidance of a godly father, or to the tender leading of a gentle and saintly mother, so, we all acknowledge at least, can we experience the highest good of the soul only by being reverent and truthful towards Him who is the Parent of us all — in whom we live and move and have our being. To be thus is to have Jehovah for our God; and only in this way shall we be happy. Now, if this is true, as unquestionably it is, of individuals, it follows that it must also be so of large collections of individuals or of nations; and this is the idea which the psalmist had principally in his mind when the words of the text were uttered. The true happiness — may I not go farther, and say the true prosperity? — of a nation will rise or fall, advance or recede, just as the love of God and the practice of justice and goodness and generosity and forbearance are or are not prevalent among the people, from the sovereign and the advisers of the crown downwards to the very humblest in the land. The true recognition of God or a conscientious regard for goodness and straightforward dealing, existing to any extent in a vast community, is a solid ground of hope in the midst of national distress or under the cloud of national calamity. If ten righteous men had been found in Sodom that city would have been saved from the destroying fire. Not only a ground of hope, therefore, but also a token of safety — of returning prosperity, of reappearing happiness. It was so as to the experience of God's ancient people, commemorated in the psalm from which our text is taken. The wrath of God had kindled against the apostate race; the proud tyrant of Babylon had been permitted to carry them away on account of their sins; but by and by this affliction became a purifying process. The love of God returned to their hearts, and the darkness began to brighten; and here there is anticipated in lofty strains a renewed golden age of power and plenty, of prosperity and happiness. The youth of the land are to be marked by native strength and vigour and freedom, whilst the maidens in their polished gracefulness and quiet beauty are to resemble the exquisitely sculptured forms which adorn the corners of some magnificent hall or chamber of a palace. Plenty both in the produce of the field and in flocks and herds is to be granted by a kindly-disposed Heaven; the very streets of their towns and villages are to re-echo to nothing but sounds of joy and thankfulness. Happiness is to prevail, but that simply because goodness is to be the national characteristic. Not one of us can fail to see most clearly his duty in this connection. We love our country, and we desire to see it great and glorious and free and happy; but let us recollect that the only way in which this result can be obtained is by the individual members of the community devoting themselves to the honest service of goodness — in their homes, at their business, in the company into which they go, at their everyday work, always and everywhere. Thus only shall we be happy individually, and also as a people. (W. M. Arthur, M. A.). Parallel Verses KJV: Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. |
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