The Jews, when, by God's mercy, they were once more settled in the land of promise, gave way to the same feelings 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, Marlborough Sermons,p. 285.
References: Psalms 126:3. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 161.Psalms 126:5. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ix., p. 297.