Make us glad.
None can overestimate the blessing that God's gift of gladness is to us. How it sweetens intercourse, encourages work, lightens our burdens, and helps us over many a difficult place! But there are forms of gladness to which no praise can be given. The laughter of fools is like "the crackling of thorns under a pot"—so says Ecclesiastes. And the gladness of evil men over evil has poison in it, notwithstanding all its loudness. And all mere man made gladness is without permanence or power to really help. The gladness that is of God's making, that is what the psalmist prayed for, and for which we also may well pray. Therefore let us observe its elements, in what it consists. And the following verses of the psalm clearly tell this.
I. GOD'S WORK MUST APPEAR TO US. That is, God's salvation—for that is emphatically his "work," and must be seen by us, and seen as our salvation. Here is the primary essential of all true gladness.
II. HIS GLORY ALSO. "And thy glory unto," etc. That is, God must be seen to be the delight and joy of the soul. David speaks of God as "God, my exceeding joy." This is what is craved in Psalms 63:1-11, "To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have," etc. The soul must learn to delight itself in the Lord, as it will if the glory of God be seen.
III. THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD MUST BE UPON US. That is, the graciousness, gentleness, and goodness of the Lord's character; its purity, holiness, truth, and righteousness;—these, which constitute the beauty of the Lord, and which are so mighty in their attraction, that one asks, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" (Psalms 16:1-11.); these must be upon us. They are the adornment of the doctrine of God our Saviour. They were, and are, all seen in Christ, and they irresistibly draw all men unto him. And unless in some measure they are upon us, God cannot make us glad. Their absence kills all gladness.
IV. OUR WORK MUST BE ESTABLISHED. "Thework of our hands, establish thou it." To know that we are not labouring in vain, that when we let down the net Christ will give the draught, yea, does so; this is his establishing our work, and by it God does make us glad.
CONCLUSION. Pray this prayer for your own sake, for your work's sake, for Christ's sake; for gladness wins many hearts.—S.C.