THE HAPPINESS OF GOD's PEOPLE.
Deut. xxxiii. 29. Happy art thou, 0 Israel : who is like unto thee, 0 people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency !
THE God of Israel is infinitely exalted above all the gods of the heathen : and though there cannot be any such disparity between one creature and another, as between the Creator and the creature, yet is there a wonderful difference between the peo- ple of God and all other people upon the face of the whole earth. This indeed is a necessary consequence of the former : for, if there be no god like the God of Israel, there can be no people like the Israel of God, since they, and they only, have Jehovah for their God. These truths are united in the pas- sage before us : the former had been mentioned in a
242. J THE HAPPINESS OF GOD's PEOPLE. 587
preceding verse a; and, in the text, the latter is de- clared, together with its dependence on the former.
From these words we shall consider, I. The happiness of God's people —
The manner in which Moses speaks on this sub- ject is worthy of notice : we may observe in his address to Israel a strong persuasion of the truth he was uttering, an unfeigned delight in declaring it, and an affectionate solicitude, that they might both be persuaded of it themselves, and live in the com- fortable enjoyment of it. He affirms that they were,
1. Truly happy —
[It is God's own declaration, " Happy art thou, O Israel!" and, if appearances were ever so unfavourable, we might be sure that Ins judgment was according to truth. But this tes- timony agrees with the experience of God's people in every age. They are represented as possessing a " peace that passeth understanding," and a "joy that is unspeakable and glorified." Is it objected that they are also represented as mourning15, as tempted0, as persecuted*1? True; yet none of these things interfere with their real happiness ; yea, instead of destroying, they advance ite. If then they can be happy in such situations as these f, and even derive happiness from these situations e, they must be truly happy.]
2. Incomparably happy —
[It is God himself who challenges all mankind to vie with his people ; and this too, not in respect of privileges merely, or of prospects, but in respect of present enjoyments. Who are they that will presume to rival the Lord's people? Ye great, ye rich, ye gay, what is your happiness, when compared with that which God's Israel possess ? Is not all your happiness mixed with gall? Is it not altogether dependent on the crea- ture ? Is it not cloying, even in the very possession ? Do you not find it transient, and, on the whole, delusive, promising far more in the anticipation than it ever affords in the enjoyment ? In all these things it is the very reverse of the Christian's hap- piness. His, as far as it is derived from spiritual things, is unmixed : none can rob him of it, because none can intercept the visits of his God : no man was ever surfeited with spiritual delights : if we lived to the age of Methuselah, we might, by a retrospect, revive a sense of them in our souls : and, if our
a ver. 26. b Matt. v. 3, 4.
c Jam. i. 2, 12. d Luke vi. 22, 23. 1 Pet. iv. 14.
e See the passages just referred to.
f Acts xvi. 23—25. 8 Acts v. 41. 2 Cor. xii. 10.