Psalm 4:7

Verse 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart. The comforts which God reserves for his mourners are filling comforts ( Romans 15:13 ); "The God of hope fill you with joy" ( John 16:24 ); "Ask that your joy may be full." When God pours in the joys of heaven they fill the heart, and make it run over ( 2 Corinthians 7:4 ); "I am exceeding joyful;" the Greek is, I overflow with joy, as a cup that is filled with wine till it runs over. Outward comforts can no more fill the heart than a triangle can fill a circle. Spiritual joys are satisfying ( Psalms 63:5 ); "My heart shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips;" "Thou hast put gladness in my heart." Worldly joys do put gladness into the face, but the spirit of God puts gladness into the heart; divine joys are heart joys ( Zechariah 10:7 John 16:22 ); "Your heart shall rejoice" ( Luke 1:47 ); "My spirit rejoiced in God." And to show how filling these comforts are, which are of a heavenly extraction, the psalmist says they create greater joy than when "corn and wine increase." Wine and oil may delight but not satisfy; they have their vacuity and indigence. We may say, as Zechariah 10:2 , "They comfort in vain;" outward comforts do sooner cloy than cheer, and sooner weary that fill. Xerxes offered great rewards to him that could find out a new pleasure; but the comforts of the Spirit are satisfactory, they recruit the heart ( Psalms 94:19 ), "Thy comforts delight my soul." There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten, and one that is painted on the wall. Thomas Watson.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 6-7. An assurance of the Saviour's love, the source of unrivalled joy.

Verse 7. The believer's joys.

Another excellent theme suggests itself -- "The superiority of the joys of grace to the joys of earth;" or, "Two sorts of prosperity -- which is to be the more desired?"