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).

If the works of God are viewed by their own light, they naturally compel admiration and worship. Then we see that the Christian faith does not merely convey much to its own favor, but it also displays an internal beauty and, by its inherent truth and glory, commends itself to the consciences of humanity. Then we thank God, not that we must but that we may believe. Then we realize, to some extent, what our faith gives to our thinking and living. And each in his own tongue, we begin again to declare the wonderful works of God.

Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, xxxiii.

[T]he Christian religion does not exist merely in words, in a doctrine, but that it is a work of God, in word and fact, which was accomplished in the past, is being worked out in the present, and will be fulfilled in the future.

Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, xxxi.

God’s names are not empty sounds (like the names of people), but they have meaning and contribute to our knowledge of God.

Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, trans. & ed. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., 13.

That we are able to know God truly rests on the fact that God has made us in His own image, thus an impression of Himself, albeit from the greatest distance. Because we ourselves are spirit, possess a mind, will, etc., we know what it means when in His Word God ascribes these things to Himself.

Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, trans. & ed. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., 12.

Spurgeon puts it this way: “Holiness is not the way to Christ; Christ is the way of holiness.” Outside of Him, there is no holiness. Holiness is not a mere list of dos and don’ts; it is a life in Jesus Christ. Christ is the way of sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30).

Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory, Loc. 2838.

Can you recall a time in your life when someone has said something to you that changed the way you saw the world? . . .

A few years ago, I was preparing to teach at a recovery ministry event. A fellow leader and I were discussing some nuances on how I could best communicate a key point. This may seem a bit obscure, but he shared a phrase from the Protestant Reformation that forever shifted my thinking. These words have both haunted my theological point of view and given me great comfort ever since. It’s the crescendo statement of Martin Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, “God’s love does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it.” . . . Let it seep into your bones.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 102-103.

The Christian life isn’t a climb to spiritual excellence and achievement; it’s a pattern of death and resurrection. Repentance and forgiveness. This is the circular pattern of the Christian life. Where the Law has said “do this and live” (and it never gets done), Jesus says, “I have done it all,” and the believer rests in that finished work. Repentance and forgiveness, repentance and forgiveness until we get that big old dirt nap. As we’ve said all along, God deals in death and resurrections, so it’s going to work out.

Matt Johnson, Getting Jesus Wrong, 91.