The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.
Riches in God’s blessing
I. God’s blessing gives material wealth. The silver and the gold are His, and He gives them to whomsoever He will. He who rules in the highest, reaches down to the minutest concerns of this world, and controls them all.
II. God’s blessing makes rich His blessing is riches, although the wealth of the world should all flee away. There are two ways of acquiring wealth. Some people grow rich without God’s blessing, and some grow rich by it. The god of this world gives riches to his subjects sometimes, when neither giver nor getter own the supremacy of the Almighty; and God Himself gives riches to some who are His children. Wherein lies the difference, since both the godly and the godless have gotten wealth? It lies here: God addeth no sorrow with it, but that other lord does. Sorrow is sure to come with ill-gotten wealth. It lies like a burning spark on the conscience, which will not out all the rich man’s days. Sometimes the wealth is scattered by public judgments. Sometimes it becomes the source of family strife. There are many arrows of judgment in the Almighty’s quiver. If you take God into your counsels, and so grow rich, there will be no bitterness infused into your gains. A human soul is so made that it cannot safely have riches next it. If they come into direct contact, they will clasp it too closely; if they remain, they wither the soul’s life away; and if they are violently wrenched off, they tear the soul’s life asunder. Whether, therefore, you keep them or lose them, if you clasp them to your soul with nothing more spiritual between, they will become its destroyer. Certain tortures that savages have invented and applied to the human bodies bear an analogy to the process by which his money makes the miser miserable, alike when it abides with him and when it departs. They wrap the body of the living victim all round in a thick impermeable plaster, and then set him free. If the covering remains all the pores of the body are clogged, the processes of nature are impeded, and the life pines away; if it is torn off, it tears the skin with it,--the pain is sooner over, but it is more severe. Thus the soul of a thorough worldling is either choked by wealth possessed, or torn by wealth taken away. Out of that dread dilemma he cannot wriggle. The laws of God have shut him in. The Maker of the soul is its portion. He made it for Himself. When riches are clasped closest to the heart, He is slighted and dishonoured. If you be Christians, if you have put on Christ, great riches may come and go; you will not be clogged while you have them; you will not be naked when they leave. But if the wealth be the first and inner wrapping of the soul, how shall that soul ever get into contact with the Saviour, that life from its fountain may flow into the dead? It is easy for a Christian to be rich, but hard for a rich man to become a Christian. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
New hopes for a new year
Whatever may be your ideas of your own powers and resources--whatever may be the confidence that you put in man, or the trust that you repose in princes--you may be quite sure of this, that it is only the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich, and that addeth no sorrow. The blessings of God are not marred or mixed with evil. Paraphrase the text thus--“All that God gives to do us good really secures our good without any admixture of evil.” Two facts in connection with the Divine blessing.
I. It enriches. Some Divine gifts are granted in displeasure. It is possible to connect sorrow with that which God intends ultimately to prove a blessing. Sometimes the blessing of the Lord is material and temporal wealth, as in the case of Abraham and of Job. Much wealth is, alas! gotten by vanity and dishonesty--by treachery and falsehood and over-reaching, and by that indefinable sin, but that exceedingly common sin, covetousness. Sorrow was added in the case of Lot’s wealth; but then Lot added the sorrow. There was no sorrow with the portion of Abraham. More frequently the blessing is not wealth, but food convenient for us. I know the great number of the poor, but there is a far greater number of persons not poor. Our attention is often directed to the poverty which exists, but I think we do not sufficiently look at the competency which exists. Where poverty is permitted, how often do you see godliness with contentment. You cannot always say of riches, “Godliness with riches is great gain.” The blessing of the Lord turns every possession into wealth. Children, when blessed by God, are a heritage from the Lord. Friends, when blessed by God, are as so many ministers and servants and priests of God to us. Money, when blessed by God, instead of being the root of all evil, is the source and means of much good. Honour and reputation, when blessed by God, instead of being traps and snares and stumbling blocks, are an exalted position upon which light may shine for the good of others, and the glory of our Father in heaven. Some things wrapped up in the blessing of the Lord are of priceless value. He who has the blessing of salvation is rich indeed. To acquire good things is to prevent all misgiving as to the right of possession. Temporal prosperity, if chosen for you by your Father in heaven, is not only a condition in which you may lawfully be found, but one in which you may feel secure and safe. In this state there is no suspicion as to the power of keeping what we have, and there is no alloy in the use or enjoyment. Providence over both material and spiritual things is fully co-operative with a man whose position is created by the blessing of the Lord. He can look his fellow-men in the face concerning his prosperity--even his temporal prosperity--and can speak of all he has without bringing a blush upon his cheek. Then try to get God’s blessing upon everything--body, soul, and spirit; upon the husband, upon the wife, and upon the children, upon your means of livelihood, upon your property, upon your friendships and connections, and upon all your pursuits. (Samuel Martin.)