Excerpt from poem “Meditations upon the love of Christ, in the redemption of elect sinners” by Hugh Clark.

O saints who share His love, in Him be glad,

Who love you, ere you a being had!

Why should you doubt His love to you, because

You cannot in yourself perceive the cause?

‘Twas not your worth of goodness could deserve

That He at first from death should you preserve,

Nor will your worthlessness, nor vileness make,

Your loving Lord your souls again forsake.

It was the goodness of His sovereign will

Engaged him first, and will engage Him still,

And since He love you from eternity,

Believe He’ll do the same eternally.

Lay by your doubtings, then, ye saints, and raise

Melodious songs to your Redeemer’s praise.

A Cloud of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ; Being the Last Speeches and Testimonies of Those Who Have Suffered for the Truth in Scotland Since the Year 1680, updated with notes by John H. Thomson, xiii.

To the onlooker, Moses and Israel were in the saddest and most miserable circumstances. Moses had experienced many disappointments and frustrations over his life, especially during the last forty years in the wilderness, and particularly in being banned from entering the promised land because he lost his temper once. Israel’s forty-year history up to this point was a trail of thousands of carcasses in the same wilderness, and they were still outside the promised land!

Yet Moses pronounces God’s people [Deuteronomy 33:1-25, 29] not just happy but the happiest people in the world! Incomparably happy. Happier than the most powerful and prosperous nations.

What can possibly explain it?

It wasn’t something manufactured or manipulated; it was given by God. Given the circumstances, negativity and pessimism would have been easier. But, by grace, God enabled Moses to rise above every discouragement and sadness (without denying them) and to find happiness in God. Like Paul, who faced similar harrowing circumstances, he was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10).

. . .

Remember how one of the lessons from Moses’s life was that the believer can enjoy happiness regardless of the circumstances in his life. We can see this in Paul’s life too, especially in one of his prison letters in which he commended and commanded rejoicing in the Lord (Phil. 4:4) before insisting, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (v. 11).

. . .

As Psalms 37, 42, 43, 73, 78, and many others demonstrate, our thoughts and feelings can be changed, even if our circumstances can’t. Plus, the Christian has the additional help of the Holy Spirit, one of whose fruits is joy.

“Happiness: Science Versus Scriptures” by David P. Murray in PRJ 10, 1 (2018): 205-223.

[T]extual variants need not be relegated to the status of scraps on the cutting room floor, but can also function as ‘windows’ into the world of early Christianity, its social history, and the various theological challenges it faced (The Early Text of the New Testament, eds. Charles E. Hill & Michael J. Kruger, 5).

[A] text does not have to be sacred for its original wording to matter (The Early Text of the New Testament, eds. Charles E. Hill & Michael J. Kruger, 4).