Bible Commentaries

GODLY MIRTH

‘Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.’

Psalms 126:2

The Jews when, by God’s mercy, they were once more settled in the land of promise, gave way to the same feeling of which we are conscious when we are excited by pleasure, by prosperity, by unexpected success. Either mirth must be altogether forbidden to Christians, or it must be regulated by the rules of Christ’s Gospel, like every other part of our daily lives.

I. Every tendency and feeling and desire of which we are conscious was implanted in us by God for some wise and good purpose.—The mere fact that our mouth can be filled with laughter seems to prove that God designed us to use the power for good ends. Those ends, no doubt, are such as these: the relaxation and refreshment of the mind after labour or sorrow, or other severe tension; the encouragement of vigorous work by the pleasure attaching to success; the promotion of that spirit of cordial fellowship and goodwill which may be ennobled and sanctified into brotherly kindness and Christian charity. In the Old Testament mirth and laughter are frequently recognised and sanctioned, not in the passage before us only, but in many other places also. And hence we do not hesitate to believe that they are in accordance with God’s will; and, therefore, our duty, as His children and servants, is to guard them from evil, just like every other gift or faculty or advantage which He has bestowed upon us.

II. But it is plain that the abuses to which they are liable are very numerous.—Mirth may intrude into times and places from which it should be excluded; it may degenerate into coarseness, into unkind sarcasm and satire, into irreverence, into mere selfish indulgence and excess. But the habit of mind which is especially the degradation of that cheerfulness permitted by God, and the result of its unrestrained enjoyment is undoubtedly frivolity. He who is frivolous regards everything in a ludicrous or trifling aspect, whether it is some high effort of the intellect, some sublime truth or noble action, or the very revelations of Christ’s Gospel. Such is not the condition of him who remembers the duties which he owes to the kind and loving Father Who endowed us with the capacity of enjoyment, Who knows that his first duty is to serve God and sacrifice his own inclinations, and so accepts laughter and cheerfulness as merciful recreations to the real work of life.

—Bishop Cotton.

Illustrations

(1) ‘In this psalm there are two distinct chords sounded forth. At the outset the song is in the major key. It throbs and pulsates with joy. My soul must have such moments on the Mount. It must know the gladness of pardon, of freedom, of fellowship, of home. It must be acquainted with the upper regions of the spirit, and the points where earth and heaven meet.

But by and by the song passes into the minor key. There are brothers of their own who are in the house of bondage still. They are pained for them. They pray to the God of salvation to lead them, too, into liberty and peace. It is a lesson to me. When my captivity is terminated, let me not be selfish, let my heart go out to those who continue in the prison, let me labour and intercede until they are brought back—back like mighty streams swollen by the winter rain.’

(2) ‘We all know something of that captivity with which the enemy of our souls strives to capture and hold us. When those green withes are bound around as, we cannot free ourselves. There is no alternative but to cry aloud to our victor Emmanuel, Emancipator, to turn again our captivity and loose our bonds. When our emotions are frozen and congealed, we need to ask to be thawed. When our faces are turned from God, and our backs towards Him, we need to cry, “Turn us and we shall be turned; melt us, O Love of God! turn back our captivity as streams in summer.”’