And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord.
Encouragement in the ways of the Lord
I. The ways of the Lord are divine. Are His ways cold and unpleasant? H we descend a deep coal-pit and look up the shaft into the bright sky, we see the stars, but the pit is cold and dark. So men think that when they commune with God, it is like being in a coal-pit beholding a star; it is a beautiful sight, but makes one cold and unpleasant. Is this the truth? No; the Bible describes God’s people as having melody in their hearts, and one of His sweetest names is “The happy God.” Some people are afraid of becoming religious, lest they should be miserable; but they mistake the God in whose breast there is an ever-flowing heaven. The man who the most loves God is the happiest in disposition and the most cheerful as well as the most graceful in life.
II. His ways are also humane; they constrain us to love our suffering fellow-man, when he can do us no good but when we can do him good. (W. Birch.)
Jehoshaphat
I. Some men when, like jehoshaphat, they have riches and honour in abundance, have their hearts lifted up, but not in the ways of the Lord. The natural tendency of such circumstances is to create and foster a spirit of pride, of self-sufficiency, and of independence. How necessary the warning (Deu_8:11-14). Nebuchadnezzar is a striking exemplification of this.
II. Some men whose hearts are not lifted up are in the ways of the Lord. They are real Christians, but doubting, desponding Christians.
III. Some men have their hearts lifted up, like Jehoshaphat, in the ways of the Lord. They “rejoicein the Lord alway.” (R. Harley.)
