Yea, Happy Is That People, Whose God Is The LORD

As I was reading The Treasury Of David this morning by Charles Spurgeon, I came upon this saying in the Psalms... And though each of us have our differences on here, this saying from Psalms of David should bind us together... God has blessed me with countless blessings more than I ever deserved and not only that, as that would be reason enough to praise his Holy name... But he went further than that, he delivered me from HELL which I also deserved, by dying for ME!... Not just me only, but ALL THE FATHER GAVE HIS SON TO SAVE!... I AM HEAVENLY HAPPY!... Time to spread some "HAPPY" on this board... It is LONG OVERDUE!... Brother Glen

Verse 15. Happy is that people, etc. It is only a narrow and one sided religion that can see anything out of place in this beatitude of plenty and peace. If we could rejoice with the psalms fully and without misgiving, in the temporal blessings bestowed by heaven, we should the more readily and sincerely enter into the depths of their spiritual experience. And the secret of this lies in the full comprehension and contemplation of the beautiful and pleasant as the gift of God. --A.S. Aglen.

Verse 15. Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. "Yea, happy." This is the best wine, kept to the last, though all men be not of this opinion. You shall hardly bring a worldly man to think so. The world is willing enough to misconstrue the order of the words, and to give the priority to civil happiness, as if it were first in dignity, because 'tis first named: they like better to hear of the cui sic than the cui Dominus. To prevent this folly, the Psalmist interposes a caution in this corrective particle, "yea, happy." It hath the force of a revocation, whereby he seems to retract what went before, not simply and absolutely, but in a certain degree, lest worldly men should wrest it to a misinterpretation. It is not an absolute revocation, but a comparative; it doth not simply deny that there is some part of popular happiness in these outward things, but it prefers the spirituals before them: "Yea", that is, Yea more, or, Yea rather; like that of Christ in the Gospel, when one in the company blessed the womb that bare him, he presently replies, "Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it": Luke 11:28 . In like manner, the prophet David, having first premised the inferior part and outside of a happy condition; fearing lest any should of purpose mistake his meaning, and, hearing the first proposition, should either there set up their rest, and not at all take up the second; or if they take it in, do it preposterously, and give it the precedence before the second, according to the world's order, Virtus post nummos. In this respect he puts in the clause of revocation, whereby he shows that these outward things, though named first, yet they are not to be reputed first. The particle "Yea" removes them to the second place; it tacitly transposes the order; and the path of piety, which was locally after, it places virtually before. 'Tis as if he had said, Did I call them happy who are in such a case? Nay, miserable are they if they be only in such a case: the temporal part cannot make them so without the spiritual. Admit the windows of the visible heaven were opened, and all outward blessings poured down upon us; admit we did perfectly enjoy whatsoever the vastness of the earth contains in it; tell me, What will it profit to gain all and lose God? If the earth be bestowed upon us, and not heaven; or the material heaven be opened, and not the beatifical; or the whole world made ours, and God not ours; we do not arrive at happiness. All that is in the first proposition is nothing unless this be added, "Yea, happy are the people which have the Lord for their God." -- Richard Holdsworth.

Verse 15. Thrice happy nations, where with look benign
Thine aspect bends; beneath thy smile divine
The fields are with increasing harvests crown'd,
The flocks grow fast, and plenty reigns around,
Nor sire, nor infant son, black death shall crave,
Till ripe with age they drop into the grave;
Nor fell suspicion, nor relentless care,
Nor peace destroying discord enter there,
But friends and brothers, wives and sisters, join
The feast in concord and in love divine. --Callimachus.

Verse 15. David having prayed for many temporal blessings in the behalf of the people from Psalms 144:12-15 , at last concludes, Blessed are the people that are in such a case; but presently he checks and corrects himself, and eats, as it were, his own words, but rather, happy is that people whose God is the Lord. The Syriac rendereth it question wise, "Is not the people (happy) that is in such a case?" The answer is, "No", except they have God to boot: Psalms 146:5 . Nothing can make that man truly miserable that hath God for his portion, and nothing can make that man truly happy that wants God for his portion. God is the author of all true happiness; he is the donor of all true happiness; he is the maintainer of all true happiness, and he is the centre of all true happiness; and, therefore, he that hath him for his God, and for his portion, is the only happy man in the world. --Thomas Brooks.

Verse 15. Whose God is JEHOVAH. A word or name well known to us English, by our translators now often retaining that name in the mention of God in our English Bible, and therefore we shall do well to retain it. Lord was a lower word, in common acceptation, than God. But JEHOVAH is a higher name than either, and more peculiar, incommunicable, and comprehensive. Exodus 6:3 : "I appeared" (saith the Lord) "unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them."
To have God to be our Jehovah is the insurance of happiness to us. For of many, observe but these two things in the name Jehovah: First, God's absolute independency -- that he is of himself omnipotent, Exodus 3:14 : "And God said, I AM THAT I AM." Secondly, God's faithfulness, that he cannot but be as good as his word, Exodus 6:2-4 , 6: "And I have also established my covenant with them; wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am JEHOVAH (so in the Hebrew), and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." So that this name is our security of God's performance. Examine we therefore our bonds, and bills, that is, his promises to us; behold, they are all the promises of Jehovah; they must stand good, for they bear his name; they must reflect his name, and promote both our good and God's grand design. --Nathanael Homes, 1678.