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SPIRITUAL HAPPINESS

by Dr Peter Masters

FROM SWORD & TROWEL 2005 No 1

‘A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken’ (Proverbs 15.13).

The verses before us in Provembs 15 have a common thread, this being spiritual happiness, or happiness in the Lord. To prepare for these verses we will glance at three proverbs in chapter 14, for these are mighty nuggets of wisdom, and they provide a perfect introduction to our study.

Chapter 14 verse 10 reads: ‘The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle[1] with his joy.’ This remarkable proverb tells us that each individual’s heart alone knows its pain, and no one can share it well enough to relieve it. It may be that the pain of one person is very similar to that of another, but ‘therapeutic sharing’ is not really effective. Both lines of the proverb intertwine, so that we cannot intermeddle with either the joy or sorrow of another person.

It has become very fashionable to think that we can resolve one another’s times of sorrow by deep sharing, and even in some evangelical churches people get together in a kind of group therapy session, and share their pain. Undoubtedly, much help may be derived from sympathy and identification, but these can never, according to this proverb, be a substantial means of helping one another, even less a cure. True biblical counselling - as we shall see in the verses before us - does not simply say, ‘How are you feeling? Let me try and share this burden.’ It says, ‘This is what you need to do in order to be helped by the Lord.’ Then it gives a biblical procedure for dealing with times of difficulty and pain, urging us to reflect on Christ’s work and purposes.

It teaches us how to think, and warns us of putting all our trust in sympathy, however helpful it may be, up to a point. Some people think deep sharing leads to catharsis, by which pain escapes, and indeed it may, temporarily and superficially, but not deeply, because we cannot ‘intermeddle’ with another’s deepest feelings.

A second introductory gem appears in chapter 14 verse 13, which reads: ‘Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.’ Plainly, laughter is no long-term cure for sorrow. Shallow sorrow, which everyone has at times, may dissipate with laughter, but deeper heaviness will soon resettle. The proverb says that even in laughter, the heart really remains heavy and sorrowful. Laughter, therefore, may appear to give temporary relief, but we look for something better.

A third introductory proverb is chapter 14 verse 30: ‘A sound heart [the Hebrew means a ‘well’ heart] is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.’ In other words, heaviness can never be eased by the pursuit of what other people have, such as wealth, possessions, power or esteem. To ache with desire will only make matters worse, yet this is often seen as the solution. The opposite of a sound heart, in this proverb, is a discontented heart, susceptible to envy. Envy is like rotting of the bones, a deep, internal pain which takes away all firmness, vigour, and strength. If the heart is at peace, and secure and contented, then it will give rise to vigour and strength in our whole disposition.

These introductory proverbs supply three principles. Firstly, we must not think that heaviness, disappointment, or sorrow can be effectively lifted by sharing (helpful though that may be). Secondly, we must not think that laughter, or some amusing distraction such as escape into entertainment, will shift the problem. Thirdly, we must avoid ‘wanting’, and desire a sound heart, which is secure and contented, because only this will really help. With these in mind, we go on to chapter 15 verse 13 where a whole group of verses speak about happiness.

Chapter 15 verse 13 reads: ‘A merry heart [the Hebrew means a ‘bright’ heart] maketh a cheerful countenance.’ A cheerful countenance clearly stands for the total disposition of a person. The proverb continues: ‘But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken’ - which means ‘whipped’. This means the person will lose all taste for spiritual things, and assurance will disappear. The implied counsel of the verse is - you must have a happy heart! But this sounds like just secular ‘positive thinking’. Surely the Word of God rises higher that this? Positive thinking says - you must learn to be happy; you must train yourself to think positively, and to look on the bright side. But biblical ‘happy thinking’ is quite different from this. Secular positive thinking usually focuses on building up ourselves in self-confidence and self-sufficiency, and learning how to look at all our earthly aspirations as if they really can and will be accomplished by us. What is advised in the Bible is quite different, because it points to a different basis for the believer’s happiness, not the idea that we should build up our self-confidence, thinking we can conquer everything. Rather, it teaches us to look away from ourselves and worldly things; and to reflect on the Lord, and His sufficiency; and to reflect on the spiritual blessings that we have through the love and work of such a Saviour.

This proverb (15.13) really says: ‘You have a duty to be happy in Christ and spiritual things.’ A happy heart makes a cheerful person, but if we perpetually give hospitality to a pained and sorrowful heart, our spirit will be whipped, humiliated and broken. Paul says the same in his words: ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway.’ How do we do this? We reflect.

We reflect on the amazing, astonishing love of God towards His people. We reflect frequently on Calvary and the incomprehensible price that was paid for worthless people like us. We reflect on the security of the believer - ‘once in Him, in Him forever.’ We reflect on our experience of salvation, remembering what happened and what the Lord did when He turned us around, and blessed us beyond measure.

We reflect on all the evidences of God’s favour that we have in our lives, and His countless interventions in our affairs. Even when we go through deep waters, there are so many instances of answered prayer, and of blessing. We think of the Lord’s infinite power, and of how He has undertaken to see us through.

We think of His unassailable promises; of future things, and of the glorious hereafter. We contemplate Christ and His majestic virtues. We survey all the understanding we have been given, since the time when we knew nothing at all. Yet now we ‘know all things’, including the meaning of life and the ultimate purpose of all that we experience. These are priceless blessings, and when we appreciate these things, and engage in wholehearted praise, the heart is strengthened even in the midst of trouble, and our entire disposition is changed.

We must think about these things, and also read about them, and then, every day, privately and in public worship, we glorify God for these unsurpassable blessings, and express that praise with every ounce of our being. We go on to tell the Lord we will gladly submit to Him, accepting His providential hand in our lives (instead of complaining about our lot), and undertaking to accept the challenges which every future day will bring. These are our duties when in trouble, and in carrying them out we receive a joy that lives alongside times of legitimate and understandable grief. This no longer overwhelms us, swallows us up, because although we cannot escape grief, we have this strong gladness and joy in the goodness of God strapped alongside it.

But what if a deep-seated grief comes into us, as it sometimes does, which cannot be shifted whatever we do or think? No matter how we reflect, it will not go. It is so obdurate and so internal it somehow seems to be deep down in our body chemistry. What should we do? The answer of Proverbs is that we must seek to contain it by the same means that we have just described. Even if, for a while, we may have to carry it, we must try to limit it by exactly the same procedure. We certainly must not feed it, and if this feeling it suggests to the mind all kinds of sorrowful things, we will refuse to feed it by murmuring, sorrowing or lamenting. We must be determined to ration our thinking about grievous matters, and pray to God for help. Reflection and worship may not remove the most deeply entrenched heaviness, but it will limit and contain it, enabling us to keep Christian joy alive alongside it.

Subsequent verses in this chapter introduce different aspects of the route to happiness, verse 14 saying: ‘The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.’ At first sight this seems to have no connection with spiritual happiness, but it is sandwiched between two verses that do, and is therefore on the same theme. Out of this group of thirteen verses, ten of them clearly address some component of spiritual joy, and the three that do not, are obviously to be accommodated to the same subject. We will take verse 14 not merely as an observation, but as an exhortation, and assume it is a piece of preventive medicine.

When we feel happy, and not going through deep water, this verse tells us what we should do in order to be strengthened for harder seasons. If you are wise, says the verse, you will pursue deep things, not shallow things. Our trouble is sometimes that we only want to listen to this kind of counsel when we desperately need it, but preventive medicine should be taken before we become sick. ‘The heart of him that hath understanding [discernment] seeketh knowledge.’ We must read good books, extend our knowledge of the faith, learn about the history of God’s people, and triumphs of faith in times of trouble, and also store in our minds what we have learned from past mistakes. Then when the hard times come, we shall be strong, and prepared. The foolish believer, however, feeds his mind on trivial things, and then has no depth when troubles come.

Verse 15 expounds to us a most profound insight into happiness and sadness. This is a basic and vital principle, and yet absent from secular literature and thought. ‘All the days of the afflicted are evil [that is: harmful or hurtful] but he that is of a merry [happy] heart hath a continual feast.’ Both lines of the proverb talk about something which is continuous. Happiness or misery, we learn (either extreme), are actually continuous states. This is not the way we generally think about these two states, in fact we recoil from this view. We say that sometimes we are ‘up’ and sometimes ‘down’. There is no continuous emotion. But this proverb says - whichever is the prevailing condition is actually our continuous state. If we are persistently gloomy, and we lack a happy and a rejoicing heart, we will certainly know times of happiness, but in reality (this proverb says) our underlying state never changes, we are unhappy. Sometimes we seem to rise above it, especially if something happens to distract our attention and make us happy for a while, but our true and settled condition is one of unhappiness. We resemble the person who has an illness that is continuous. He always has the illness, but has good days and bad days. When he feels a little better, he does not think the illness has gone. His disease is a continuous condition.

It is quite a remarkable thought, but our proverb says that the sorrowful heart is always so, internally, and a happy heart is also always so. To see this spurs us on to take this matter seriously. We thought we just went up and down but if we see we are negative, gloomy and unhappy people, that is our chief characteristic, then we will want to follow the spiritual remedies to do something about it. Is it possible for us to transfer to the other side of the proverb, so that our prevailing attitude is one of happiness in the things of God. We may then know low and gloomy times, but they will only be temporary phases. We are normally happy, and this only receives a dent now and then. The counsel of this proverb is to make that transfer, and the key is in the statement that the person who has a happy heart ‘hath a continual feast’. If this is our condition, it is because we continually see those rich aspects of Christ’s love and person and work previously referred to. The meat and drink of God is always available to us. Of course we will have real cause for grief, because perplexing and disappointing things happen, and even the Saviour wept over human suffering. But our prevailing condition should be that we deeply appreciate the Lord and His blessings.

Verse 16 gives us a rule of life essential for a happy heart, namely, that the Lord Himself must be our first and greatest desire. ‘Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble [the Hebrew is ‘turmoil’] therewith.’ The counsel of this proverb is - never elevate your earthly objectives and benefits above your love for the Lord. Your earthly aims may be perfectly legitimate: things you need to accomplish and achieve, or that you need to acquire. Make sure they are reasonable and legitimate things, but, says the proverb, never fix your mind on the desirability and pleasantness of these things at the expense of the Lord. Always maintain at fullest fervour your love for the Lord, your personal devotions, your learning of Him, and your witness and service for Him, because He is the centre and purpose of your life.

If we let the Lord slip down our scale of priorities and admiration, we will quickly be absorbed by earthly and personal desires, and according to the proverb we will reap turmoil. Spiritual happiness, in this proverb, pivots on the very first word: ‘better’. It is far, far better to have great reverence for Christ, with few possessions, than to have great wealth and a small Saviour. So we are to restrict the time and attention we give to planning home decorations, choosing of car and appliances, clothing and entertaining. We shall give due attention to these things, of course, but it they become too important, they do so at the expense of Christ our Lord.

Verse 17 runs along the same track as verse 16, yet deals with a distinct aspect, presenting a beautiful picture of fellowship: ‘Better is a dinner of herbs [vegetables] where love is, than a stalled ox [a fattened ox, presumably at a feast] and hatred therewith.’ The implicit picture is possibly travellers, the dinner of vegetables being the simple meal of a trading band in the course of a long-distance journey of days or weeks. They could not carry meat, owing to the heat, so they would have light vegetable meals all the way. However, there may be excellent companionship among them, especially when the caravan stopped for the evening and they talked together. Better is a simple dinner where there is real community, than a great feast with people you have nothing in common with, and who may be alienated family members or bitter rivals. Better to be lowly and have fellowship with the Lord’s people, than to be rich worldlings lacking without bonds of understanding, and the kindred ties of the new nature.

Our interests are so different from those of the worldling. If the Lord directs, we are happy to have little in the way of fame, reputation, and dominance over others. Certainly, we may be guided to be managing directors or highly placed in some other way, but this is not what we most value in life. Second to Christ, our priority is fellowship with the Lord’s people. Verse 16 says we must put the Lord first, and communion with Him, and verse 17 says that kinship and love between fellow believers is the next most valuable blessing to us. Both proverbs constitute rules for happiness.

The next proverb - verse 18 - identifies a quality essential to our fellowship with God and one another. ‘A wrathful man [who cannot control his feelings, and reacts instantly and angrily to matters] stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.’ Our relationship with others depends on how we control ourselves, and this applies not only to ill-tempered behaviour, but proneness to offence that burns behind forced smiles and feigned civility. This proverb has in mind quarrels and ill-feeling towards others, but it also refers to strife within ourselves. So often anger is not experienced in words, but it burns within, wrecking our communion with God, and our happiness. What are we like? Are we oversensitive and disagreeable? Do we readily entertain critical thoughts about others? If shocked or offended in some way, do we pause and reflect, controlling our feelings and balancing the other person’s virtues against the supposed offence? Or do our thoughts rampage to and fro across these unhappy events and situations, stirring up strife within ourselves.

There is even a tragic, fearful and dangerous possibility that believers may get angry with the Lord - a state of affairs that used to be called a ‘contention with the Lord’. This occurs when we bemoan our lot or situation so much that we effectively murmur against the Lord Who has ordered our life and circumstances according to His perfect wisdom and love. As Christians we would never dare to address the Lord directly saying, ‘You have been unfair to me; You have been unreasonable and unkind; You have lost sight of me.’ But our disagreeability and resentment of our circumstances have an ugly and insolent eloquence before God, and unless we control ourselves, reflect, and gladly bow to His providential will, we shall forfeit blessing and forgo spiritual happiness. How much better to put those complaining thoughts to death and go back to verse 13 - thinking of what Christ means to us, and what He has done for us! If only we approached our perceived troubles in the right way, they would be turned to our eternal and spiritual good.

Therefore, let us not be easily angered either with others, or within ourselves, or with the Lord. Be careful to control proud, angry, testy reactions to circumstances, for this is vital for fellowship with God, and spiritual happiness. If any believer has a deep- seated problem with anger, there is a powerful remedy to put alongside conscious self- control, and that is prayer. For this sinful problem, nothing succeeds like earnest prayer for deliverance.

In verse 19 we find one of the verses that does not seem to involve happiness, but it certainly does. ‘The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.’ No one would deny that a path or road made of a tough, barbed hedge of briars would be a painful, unhappy experience. Laziness, says the proverb, turns the road of spiritual happiness into an arduous, miserable route. The principle is that happiness and laziness are mutually exclusive elements of the spiritual walk. It would seem obvious that if we fail to engage in devotions, and have no striving for holiness, and no witness and service for the Lord, we shall have no warm assurance, and no blessed fulfilment.

In contrast, the proverb reads: ‘The way of the righteous is made plain.’ ‘Righteous’ could well be rendered ‘diligent’, for it clearly means the opposite of slothful. This describes the person who is diligent in private and personal devotions, as well as other spiritual duties. He is also fair in taking his share of spiritual labour in the church.

The KJV margin offers this translation ‘The way of the righteous is raised up as a causeway.’ Here is a great highway raised up on an embankment, out of the drifting sand, providing an obvious and clear route. Do we skip devotions and never engage in self-examination and the putting to death of sin? Do we read a couple of verses daily without thinking much about them? Are we mechanical and brief in prayer?

Are we unnecessarily inconsistent at weeknight meetings, or seldom to be seen pulling our weight in the various ministries of the church? The hand of the Lord will undoubtedly be withdrawn from us in some measure, and our pathway will be full of thorns. All manner of trials will irritate us, and hinder us in the walk of faith.

The picture here is of life on the farmstead of Proverbs. One of the sons on the farm is lazy and will not work or try hard at anything, and so he is always in trouble with his venerable father and everyone else in general. Laziness certainly impedes happiness in the spiritual realm.

The proverb recorded in verse 20 continues the thought of laziness, adding another insight into the way of happiness. ‘A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.’ Here are the parents and their two sons on a farmstead. One makes the father very glad because he learns well, applies all that he learns, and works hard. The other son is the opposite. He never concentrates; his mind roams outside the farmstead; he cuts corners in all he does, and is unproductive. Naturally, life will be hard for him, for his father will put him under certain restrictions and he will not be happy. Being awed by his father, he will tend to give vent to his displeasure in his conduct toward his mother. She is the easiest target for his surliness and complaints. All this is about our attitude to God, both parents forming a picture of Him. Do we consciously aim to please God, as the ideal son does? Whatever happens to us, sorrow or joy, difficulty or ease, our assignment and our delight is to please God. This is the aim of a wise son. If, however, we do not have that aim and ambition, but never listen to God, and never apply His Word to our lives, then we will soon lack the evidence of God’s blessing toward us. This, in turn, will lead to discontent, and while we may not articulate it (as in verse 18) our gloomy condition will amount to dissatisfaction with God, and grumbling against Him. That is the warning conveyed in this proverb. A wise believer sets his face to please his heavenly Lord, but a foolish one will end up despising Him.

It is interesting that in this proverb we read in the first line of a ‘wise son’, and in the second of ‘a foolish man’. The second son seems to have been dispossessed, and to have lost his status and inheritance. He is just a ‘man’. A true believer cannot lose his salvation, but how tragic if he loses assurance and joy, resembling an unblessed person!

Yet another important factor in finding spiritual happiness is presented in verse 21: ‘Folly [literally - silliness] is joy to him who is destitute of wisdom.’ Folly here refers to foolish, trivial, banal, nonsensical things. ‘Destitute of wisdom’ is ‘void of heart’ in the Hebrew. To such a person, folly is joy. Or we may turn it around and say, to love trivia and nonsense is to become void of wisdom.

We are children of God, equipped with a new outlook and a new life, but we will quickly surrender spiritual depth and strength by developing an attachment to foolish, shallow, and silly things, and being satisfied with them. We must refuse the dumbing down which is all around us. The longer we are believers, the more we look at the pleasures of worldlings and exclaim with amazement, ‘They call that enjoying themselves! There is nothing to it.’ Sadly, there are Christians who perpetually engage in a sanitised version of empty talk. We can certainly have light and humorous conversations, but if that is all we have, we reduce ourselves, wilfully adopting lightness, and forfeiting all ability to handle weightier subjects. Believers may be lighthearted, but we must be very careful that the trivial and the banal do not take over entire conversations, because that will diminish us and deprive us, making us strangely deformed, because we have spiritually enlivened, emancipated minds, but play the part of empty-heated simpletons. What a tragedy when folly or triviality become our only source of real joy! ‘A man of understanding [or discernment] walks uprightly,’ says the preacher, denoting the opposite of folly. To have depth, and solid things to say is vital to happiness, because only then are we true to our recreated spiritual nature, whereas to quip and giggle non-stop over petty things, is to shrink one’s brain, tastes and soul. Let our aim be, humour certainly and a degree of light-heartedness, but chiefly worthy, edifying and productive conversation.

Similar ‘versions’ of the proverb in verse 22 are found elsewhere (at 11.14 and 24.6), but in each setting there is a different theme. Here, the context is spiritual happiness. ‘Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.’ In verse 20 the farm owner, the father, was giving training to his sons. In verse 21, the education picture is still present, for we have on person who loves foolishness, and another who pursues understanding. (We may imagine those boys at school who conceal comics behind serious textbooks.) Now we have verse 22, another ‘education’ verse, but by this time the sons have grown up, and the polite word for instruction is counsel. They are not teenagers any more, or lads undergoing their apprenticeship, but married men, adults. However, says the proverb, they still need education, only now it will be called advice, out of deference to their age.

So it is with the mature Christian. We are no longer in Sunday School, but we must ever be learning the Word of God, and following its counsels. Without this ongoing learning process, our purposes will be disappointed, and our lives will take many wrong directions. ‘In the multitude of counsellors’ in this proverb does not necessarily point to a literal multiplicity of advisers, for it is a picture. The application is doubtless about the Word of God, and its many ‘counsellors’ are its multitude of books and chapters. If we are men and women who serious study and heed God’s Book then our purposes will be established and we shall be stable and instrumental. Surely this will lead to great contentment. Therefore, the ongoing process of learning and applying God’s Word in every situation and in every stage of life is a stairway to spiritual happiness.

The proverb of verse 23 adds an immensely significant factor to the quest for spiritual happiness, reminding us how much joy comes from helping others. ‘A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth.’ The word translated ‘answer’ is a Hebrew word that refers to our response to a situation. It does not only refer to an answer given to a question, although it may take that sense. It is more about our answer to a situation. We may once again imagine the good son who has grown up on the farm and learned all the complexities of agriculture and animal husbandry. He is now an adult, and his father is elderly and retired. The son has advanced to the point that if the neighbouring farm is in serious trouble, they come to him for advice, and he is able to solve their seemingly insurmountable problems. The grown-up son knows exactly how to deal with these, and he is able to give the very advice that is needed. The proverb speaks of this man’s joy by the answer of his mouth. He has been able to respond to the neighbour’s desperate need, and this makes him very happy. The second part of the proverb seals the interpretation, for - ‘a word spoken in due season [at the right moment], how good is it!’

If we learn the things of God and advance, then we can really help others, and this consolidates our spiritual happiness. We have proved the Lord, and now we give the Gospel to others. Perhaps, with grace and humility, we shall deliver fellow believers from many a fall, and we shall certainly spread encouragement. How we shall bless God for instrumentality, and how it will lift up our own Spirit!

Spiritual happiness also needs a clear view of eternal glory, this being the obvious theme of verse 24: ‘The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath’ (the Hebrew says the ‘grave’, but ‘hell’ is clearly the correct rendering). We must think often and in detail of the destination that is ours at the end of life’s journey. We remember that God has saved us to be on a heavenly road, consciously heading for that eternal destiny. So frequently this reflection will shrink down to size all our troubles and problems, enabling us to gain real perspective. We shall then be imbued with a sense of destination; a great concept of earthly pilgrimage. This world will no longer be ‘our place’, but a sense of calling and future privilege will sustain our spiritual joy. The way of life is above, and we look up, and by so doing, we are lifted above the purely earthly existence of those whose destiny is no higher than the grave.

Our final proverb on the theme of happiness is verse 25, an extremely beautiful and touching picture: ‘The Lord will destroy [the Hebrew says tear down] the house of the proud: but he will establish the border [the boundary or landmark] of the widow.’ A troubled believer may say: ‘Pastor, for all that you’ve said, my life is very hard, and my situation very difficult. I have great disadvantages that you will not know about, and they weight down on me all the time.’

It must first be remembered that Christians have always known troubles like this. C H Spurgeon, writing about the need for his orphanage, speaks of the grinding poverty suffered by many in Victorian times, none more so than the destitute single parents of children. Many Christians, in the past especially, have endured really painful poverty. Then there are believers in every age who battle against poor health, as well as those who are sorely persecuted. Numerous believers bear huge burdens and disappointments, and they have every right to say, ‘My situation is very, very hard. What can I experience of spiritual happiness?’ But this is exactly the situation this proverb addresses.

The first line of the proverb states a well-known fact, but it is stated to strengthen the impact of the second, contrasting line. ‘The Lord will destroy the house of the proud.’ Self-sufficient people who disdain God and are so very pleased with themselves will find their life one day torn away. But where the lowly are concerned, or believers, and especially needy believers, the Lord ‘will establish the border of the widow’. Here we are called to imagine a woman who has been left alone in those very difficult and often heartless times. Her husband has died leaving her vulnerable and defenceless. She has her land, but her unscrupulous neighbours may well move her boundary stones, greatly reducing the size of her plot, and stealing from her meagre field. This is intended as a picture of how she may be exploited in all manner of ways, because she is unable to defend herself. But, in this proverb, the Lord says, ‘I have my eye on my child, a poor widow, and I will protect her boundary stone. I, the living God, will keep her safe.’ If we have great problems, we have an omnipotent Lord also. We have a Saviour who went to Calvary and there banished all our sins. We have the righteousness of Christ offered up for us for our eternal security. We have spiritual light, and life, and boundless help. We have so many blessings, and we have a great and glorious God who will maintain us spiritually, keep us close to Himself, and jealously guard our lot and our situation. He is pledged to watch over us everyday.

We will not need, as it were, CCTV cameras to protect us, scanned from time to time by a fallible person in a remote location. The Lord will watch our boundary stone every minute of every day, and, in the word of the proverb, he will establish it, root it deeply in the ground. This is about wonderful security. Even if our problems are so great that we quake within, we must remember that the Lord is the special defender of those who are vulnerable and exposed to hardship and difficulty. We will read Romans 8.18-39

This group of proverbs tells us, first, that we have a duty to be happy (achieved by reflection and praise). We are also to feed our minds on deep and worthy things in order to be able to stand up to trials when they come. Misery or joyfulness, we learn, are continuous states, and we must strive to make happiness our prevailing underlying characteristic. Then we must never let earthly aims and delights, however legitimate, overtake our love and commitment to Christ, for He must be first. An angry, murmuring spirit, we are taught, ruins communion with God, and therefore spiritual happiness, and so does laziness in spiritual duties. We must consciously do everything we do to please God, and never allow ourselves to thrive best on trivial things. We must continue, even as spiritual ‘adults’ to faithfully consult the Bible in every situation and project, and, because much happiness comes by fruitfulness, we must be useful to others. It is essential that we take an eternal view of life, reflecting on and rejoicing in our glorious destination, and finally, we should never forget the widow’s boundary stone - the assurance that God will keep us spiritually safe right to the end. All these steps or duties for happiness deserve deeper study, but this is a simple overview of a very precious group of proverbs. May that happiness purchased for us on Calvary by the eternal Son of God be possessed and enjoyed by us, leading to His praise and honour and glory.

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