Psalm 90:12; Proverbs 3:13; Proverbs 29:18
Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
He that keepeth the law, happy is he.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Though every day be a New Year’s Day, still the alteration in our dates and our calendars should set us all thinking of that continual lapse of the mysterious thing—the creature of our own minds, which we call time, and which is bearing us all so steadily and silently onwards.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): To be happy is the universal desire; but while all pursue this as their aim, few comparatively attain the accomplishment of their wishes: and the reason is evident; they mistake wherein man’s true happiness consists, and the means which lead to it: consequently, they are ever bewildered in a fruitless search, and tormented with continual disappointment.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Wherein is happiness to be found?
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): True happiness lies in being united to God. And hence we may infer what is the true happiness of men. It is, when God enlightens our understandings, so that we embrace the salvation which has been revealed to us in Christ. For, so long as we are destitute of that knowledge, we are at the greatest possible distance from happiness.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “O Lord, thou art my God,” Isaiah 25:1―Not by creation and providence only, but by covenant and grace. This is the first and foundation blessing of grace, and secures all the rest; in this true happiness consists, and is preferable to every other enjoyment. “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.”―By wisdom is meant Christ, and a saving knowledge of Him by means of His Gospel.
JOHN CALVIN: Paul says that “He is made unto us wisdom,” 1 Corinthians 1:30, by which he means, that we obtain in Him an absolute perfection of wisdom, inasmuch as the Father has fully revealed Himself to us in Him…There is a similar passage in Colossians 2:3—“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
JOHN GILL: “And the man that getteth understanding,” gets Jesus Christ and a spiritual understanding of Him: this is not a proper acquisition of a man’s own; an interest in Christ is not gotten by anything of man’s; not by his good works, which are the fruits of grace; nor by faith and repentance, which are gifts of grace themselves; but it is given unto a man: and “getting” here signifies the possession and enjoyment of Christ, as God’s pure gift—as a man that is said to obtain the favour of God, when he enjoys it, and the effects of it, in consequence of finding Christ.
JOHN CALVIN: We ought also to bear in mind that saying of the Psalmist, “Blessed are the people whose God is Jehovah,” Psalm 144:15. It confirms what I have just said, that a happy life is complete in all its parts, when God promises to be a God to us and takes us as His people. The Prophets, therefore, do not without reason so often inculcate this truth; for though nothing else might be wanting to us that could be expected to make us happy, yet until we feel assured that God is a Father to us, and that we are His people, whatever happiness we may have, it will only end in misery.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Suppose a man to possess the whole world, there will still be in his bosom an aching void, a secret something unpossessed. But the man who can look up to the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, “This is my Friend, and my Beloved;” “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” can never wish for any thing beyond.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): So the apostle Paul judged it. So upon a trial he found it. All the world’s show, all his former valuable “gain, he counted as dung and dross” for the true wisdom—“the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord,” Philippians 3:4-8.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): 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.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Thus it must ever be—if we want to be happy, we must be occupied with God.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): True happiness is found in hearing the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, and keeping them in a holy heart—and, practicing them in an unblamable life…Those are truly blessed, or happy, whose hearts are devoted to God, and who live in the habit of obedience. Those, whom the general tenor of their life is not conformed to the will of God, have no true happiness
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is piety only that will secure men’s true happiness.
JOHN CALVIN: It is then our true happiness when we acknowledge that we are not our own, and allow God, by His sovereign power, to rule us as He pleases. But we ought to begin with the law of God. Hence, then, it is that we are said to bear the yoke of God, when we relinquish our own judgment, and become wise through God’s Word, and when, with our affections surrendered and subdued, we hear what God commands us, and receive what He commands. True happiness, with its accompaniments, consists in obedience to God. It amounts therefore to this—that they who obey God, and submit to Jesus Christ as their king, shall be blessed.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): That this conformity to His image and obedience to His commands, are pleasing to Christ and excite His affection, is evident from His own language. “I have not called you servants,” says He to His disciples, “but I have called you friends; and then are ye my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you,” John 15:14,15. The fruits of holiness thus produced by His people on earth, imperfect as they are, are on some accounts more pleasing to Him even than those produced by the angels in heaven.
ADAM CLARKE: Live to His glory, as this is the sure way to be happy in this life, and in that which is to come.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: As thou art crossing the threshold of another New Year, be sure that thou commence it with a heart undivided for Him. We know of no happiness for a new year, or for any day in all the year, but in the fullest, sweetest, fellowship with Him. All happiness without Christ is vapid and worthless, and must soon pass away, as time rolls on rapidly.
ADAM CLARKE: The world by wisdom―its wisdom, never knew God, 1 Corinthians 1:21.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Let thy first business then, be the salvation of thy soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
JOHN CALVIN: Seek Him without delay.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: That all our readers may have a Happy New Year, in the richest and truest sense, and one of happy service and communion with the Lord, is our most earnest and fervent prayer.
