Our moment in history is not marked for its optimism or positivity. Commentators on a range of cultural phenomena and from across the social spectrum discuss how things are only getting worse. Wherever we look, public services, consumer affairs, the creative industries, there is a sense that standards are in decline and have been for decades. Even upheavals in the political domain are less a sign of insightful new plans for workable improvement in people’s lives than a risk-taking turn to extremes born of a sense that there is nothing much really left to lose. Embittering the disappointment is the failure of our society’s myth that things are on an upward trajectory and can only get better. Even as Christians, we are often tempted to resentment and ask angrily why we have to put up with this when things were never this bad in the past. Without necessarily doubting that things have got worse over time, Alexander Nisbet reflects on why Ecclesiastes teaches us not to start asking, “What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) Misery comes from sin, and difficulties are an opportunity to depend more fully on the Lord. Redemption in Christ Jesus provides us with a hope for the world to come that lasts through and beyond the miseries and disappointments of this world. In the following updated extract, Nisbet urges us to avoid the response of frustration with our circumstances in providence and to take God’s way of contentment through self-abasement and heavenly wisdom.

The main aim of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 7 is to reveal more about the way to true happiness and contentment, and to point out some remedies to the vexations which are incident to this life.

The question not to ask

In verses 9–10, the Preacher dissuades us from two things which are far contrary to the grace of patience. “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”

The Preacher warns us against the very first sudden motions of anger or revenge against oppressors and the instruments of trouble (v.9). To have anger “resting” or being cherished in the heart is the habitual and allowed frame of those who are void of the saving knowledge of Christ. They are the ones who cherish angry feelings, and think over in detail all the ways they have been wronged, and feed on the contemplations of possible ways of revenge. They have no reluctance or grief about such a vengeful spirit, whereas, although a child of God may be assaulted with the impulse to revenge, yet he gives these impulses no permission to rest peaceably in his heart.

The Preacher warns us also against sinful quarrelling against the Lord for apparently making times more troublesome, and burdens heavier, than they used to be. This only indicates ignorance of the true state of times, foolish presumption in finding fault with His wisdom, and unbelief of his sovereignty. “Say not thou, ‘What is the cause that the former days were better than these?’ for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”

The present may well be worse than the past

This is not to be understood as if the present times were not often worse than the former, in many respects. That is in fact foretold (Matt. 24:12; 2 Tim. 3:1).

Nor does it mean that the Lord’s people are not permitted to search into what sins may have been the procuring causes of the change for the worse, or to bewail the defections or miseries of these changes, seeing both these are duties (e.g., Lam. 3:40).

Instead, it means that we should not quarrel with God’s providence for casting our lot in more troublesome times, and under more grievous oppressions, than there have been formerly, as if there were no cause why people should submit to a change of times from better to worse.

The Spirit of the Lord does not here give particular reasons for such changes, because there are many reasons in Scripture, sufficiently obvious to satisfy us on this point. Only He prohibits and rebukes the boldness of the question, and gives, as a general reason to dissuade us, the fact that these inquiries flow from people’s ignorance of the sovereignty and wisdom of the Lord, who works all things for His own glory, and the good of His people.

Providence is not something we can quarrel with

The Lord’s people have a duty to search out the sinful causes which provoke the Lord to change times to the worse, and the wise reasons He has for so doing, and to bewail that our later times have far degenerated from the purity and holiness of former days. Yet it is a great sin to quarrel with providence, or to inquire concerning this matter with a spirit that is fretting and malcontent, as if it were not well ordered by divine providence that we should not have as much peace and prosperity, and as great freedom from outward trouble, as those who were before us.

Fretting against our times is not a sign of wisdom

To the extent that we fret and repine about how the present times are worse than the former, to that extent we are lacking the heavenly wisdom which teaches those who have it to adore the righteousness of God in all the arrangements He makes, even though they do not see the particular reasons of them. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee …” (Jer. 12:1

This heavenly wisdom often leads them to satisfying reasons, clearly held forth in Scripture. For example, God in His wisdom takes steps sometimes to discover people’s perversity, which at other times He sees fit to restrain. Sometimes He uses grievous trials to promote the faith, patience, and other graces of His people, graces which at other times He promotes without such trials.

So that this quarrelling with the Lord indicates great presumption, flowing from ignorance of the true state of both the present and former times. This leads them not to consider the good of the present times, which often as far exceeds the good of the former as the evils and troubles of the present times exceed those of the former. “Thou dost not inquire wisely (or, as it is in the original, “by wisdom”) concerning this matter.”

The way to contentment

Holiness

He commends having high esteem with God, and good report from others, founded on grace and true holiness. This is better than the most precious things in the world, in which most people place their happiness. “A good name is better than precious ointment” (v.1).

Soft-heartedness

He praises the soft and tender frame of heart which the sanctified consideration of death begets in the soul, beyond the worldly mirth and joy which is ordinarily expressed by laughter (vv.1–4).

Sensitivity

He commends humble submission to the serious and wise rebukes of those who (whether in a public or private capacity) have a call from God to point out the evil, danger and remedy of sin. This is better than glorying in your own sins, or in the flattery of others in their sins (v.5), because whatever joy or pleasure you may have in following sinful ways, or flattering yourselves or being applauded by others in your sinful ways, it is not long-lived (v.6).

Patience

He commends the grace of patience under the most grievous pressures and injuries the saints may meet with, in and from the world, as a great furtherance toward true happiness (vv.7–10).

Wisdom

He praises saving wisdom because of its excellent effects or advantages (vv.11–12).

He directs us to the right way to make use of the Lord’s dispensations (vv.12–21).

1. Consider that God brings things about contrary to our will and designs of obtaining happiness, and we cannot by our wit and power alter or twist His workings to serve our imaginary goal of finding true happiness in created things (v.13).
2. In prosperity we should rejoice with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, in adversity, we should consider seriously what has procured it, God’s purpose in it, and our duty under it (v.14).
3. We should not arrogantly think that we have such a superlative righteousness and wisdom that we can criticise the works of God for not being wise or fair, as if we could manage them better (v.16); neither should we give or sell ourselves to impiety in a time of prosperity (v.17).
4. Those whose guiding principle is the true fear of God shall have a sure and sweet deliverance from all their sufferings and temptations (even though, as to their outward circumstances, they fall before the wicked) (v.18).

This leads the Preacher again to commend spiritual wisdom, partly because of its blessed effect (in that it satisfies the person against the trials and temptations mentioned, beyond any human help or strength, v.19), and partly because people are so ready to go wrong without this saving wisdom, even when they are both imputatively and inherently “just”, v.20).

The Preacher recommends that people would not be very inquisitive to hear or know, much less revengefully resent what evil others rashly speak of them (v.21). Such inquisitive inquiries and revengeful resentments may not only readily meet with undesired and unexpected railings and revilings from those of their own household (v.21), but people may also be conscious to themselves that they themselves have spoken rashly and heatedly against others (v.22).

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The first coming of the Lord Jesus was unobtrusively in Bethlehem, some two thousand years ago. He then died at Calvary and ascended up to heaven, promising to come again. There are plenty people who entirely miss the point of His first coming and entirely ignore what He achieved on the cross. If the thought of Him coming back again ever crosses their minds, they only scoffingly dismiss it. But even the Lord’s people sometimes flag as they wait for Him to come again. We know He will “come again, without sin, unto salvation,” but it seems to be taking such a long time. In his commentary on 2 Peter, Alexander Nisbet reaches the point where Peter has countered the foolish opinions of those who mocked at the idea of Christ’s second coming. In the following updated extract, he explains Peter’s three reasons why the godly do not need to worry about the apparent long wait. Instead, the certainty that it will eventually happen should inspire us to persevere in Christian living in preparation for it.

The Lord’s eternity should mould our perception of time

The first reason, which is in verse 8, is that the delay ought not to be judged of according to our sense or apprehension, but according to the duration of God. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (v.8).

The godly to whom Peter is writing either had taken, or were at risk of taking, some bad impression of God from the bold assertions and apparent logic of the mockers. There is so great affinity between the hearts of the godly, who are but in part renewed, and the vilest temptations to the greatest blasphemies or errors, that when these errors are expressed boldly with pretence of reason, there is great risk that there be some impression left on the hearts of even the godly, inclining them to these errors.

It has pleased the Lord to condescend so far to our shallow capacity as to set forth His duration to us in Scripture in our own terms, and to give us leave to describe it in our own terms, while He calls Himself, “Yesterday, and today and for ever” (Heb. 13:8), “He which was and is and is to come” (Rev. 1:4), “the Ancient of Days” (Dan. 7:9), “He whose years have no end” (Psa. 102:27). Yet all these differences of time, which to us are longer or shorter, are all alike to Him, whose duration admits of no beginning, succession, or ending. Instead it consists in a constant presentness of all that seems to us past, or future. “For one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Ministers of Christ ought to have a far different view of those who mock at the truth of God and scoffingly vent their errors contrary to it, and of those who through infirmity may have some inclination toward error and therefore stand in need to be guarded against it. Accordingly they will behave differently toward the one and the other. Of the one the apostle spoke with indignation and contempt (as they deserved), calling them “scoffers, walking after their ungodly lusts” (v.3). But to the other he speaks with love and tenderness, calling them “Beloved,” and advising them, “Be not ignorant of this one thing…”

Some things revealed in Scripture concerning the Lord must be understood by faith, even though they cannot be comprehended by us to the satisfaction of our shallow reason. We should not be ignorant of this one thing, “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” yet this is a truth that no one within time can well comprehend. Only faith can assent to it and make use of it, in judging as He judges, that many years’ delay to us of the performance of a promise is but a very little time compared with eternity. It may though foster a holy longing to be with Him, when we shall partake of His duration as well as of His glory, when there shall not be such a thing as any sad reflections on past sweetness, or any painful langour for sweetness to come, but a constant present possession of it.

The Lord’s patience takes time to accomplish His purposes

The second reason to reassure the godly concerning the delay to Christ’s second coming is that this delay does not proceed from any such thing in God (whatever may be thought) as usually makes people slow in performing their promises, but only from His patience toward His elect, whose temperament requires time and effort for working grace in them, that they may be fitted for glory. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (v.9).

We ought not to frame our thoughts of God as we do one of another, especially when we think of how long it takes for Him to perform His promises, as if that delay flowed from lack of foresight for possible difficulties, weakness, forgetfulness or fickleness — the reasons why there are ordinarily delays among us. All such thoughts of Him, though our hearts are very apt to entertain them (Psa. 50:21), we ought to remove far from us, and to persuade ourselves of the opposite — that He is most mindful of His promises (Psa. 111:5), and so swift in performing them, that He will not wait a moment after He has wrought what is necessary before the performance (Mal. 4:2). Constructions like this, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,” which deny something about God, in Scripture convey both that we are wrongly apt to imagine this about Him, and also that the contrary of what is denied is superlatively true. The Lord is the opposite of slow about His promise.

The true and satisfying explanation for the delay to Christ’s second coming is the Lord’s longsuffering toward His own elect. In order for them to be converted they must be dealt with in a way suitable to their temperament. It requires time and pains to work on each elect soul who comes into the world, and to the years of discretion, by commands, threatenings, promises, and alluring motives, every one of these being multiplied after another. By these same means, every elect person is brought to that measure of grace which God has determined to work in the converted, in order that they may be fitted for glory. The Lord does not soon or easily win His point even with His own elect, but after many refusals of His renewed offers and slighting of His pains. His love is patient and powerful and overcomes all opposition in them eventually.

The Lord’s day will come when least expected

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein shall he burnt up.”

The day of judgment will be very unexpected and terrible to complacent sinners, just as the coming of a thief in the night brings sudden terror to a sleeping family. On that day there will be a great change and the dissolution of the whole frame of nature, and of all the things in which most people place their happiness. The inference from this is not stated explicitly but we can gather it — that it is the wisdom of the Lord’s people to prepare for that day, rather than to complain of the delay, or to be anxious concerning it.

Christ’s coming at the last day will be a great surprise to the majority of people, who refuse to be wakened out of their complacency by the Word in order to make preparation for it. Scripture does speak of prior signs that this day is coming, such as the destruction of Antichrist, the conversion of the Jews, etc. But some of them may be done in so little time, and so immediately before the judgment day, and others of them may be so little noticed, or recognised as signs of that day, that, notwithstanding them all, the majority shall be surprised at it

That day of judgment will be a most terrible day to all who do not expect and prepare for it. There will be a strange sight, and a dreadful noise, when the great workmanship of all creation, being on fire, shall all rush down, and all the delights of wicked men shall be burnt up before their eyes. By this the Lord testifies His displeasure against people placing their happiness in these things, and defiling them by making them subservient to their lusts, while at the same time signifying His purpose to give a more cleanly and glorious mansion to His own to dwell in. “In that day the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.” Rather than raising questions about this, it is much safer for us to direct our time and energies towards being found of Him in peace at that day.

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The secularism of our age makes a virtue of, not exactly excluding God from our lives, but confining Him to the parts of our lives where we find Him useful in our pursuit of personal human flourishing. But the seemingly valuable goal of personal flourishing, pursued in its own right, does not lead to actual flourishing, where we find real satisfaction and fulfilment in our lives. Instead it leaves us with a nagging sense of emptiness and futility. The perfect life, the perfect artwork, perfect happiness is always just out of reach. Why is this? We can’t lay all the blame on other people, or structural barriers to our personal fulfilment. Such things may frustrate us but ultimately the problem is that we are looking for fulfilment in the wrong place. The things around us and within us are simply incapable of meeting our deepest desires and needs. In the following updated extract, Alexander Nisbet draws on the wisdom of Ecclesiastes to make this point. When we sideline God in our lives, or make Him subservient to our own self-directed goals, we doom ourselves unavoidably to futility and emptiness.

The preacher says, “All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). All created things, and all human endeavours related to them, are insufficient for yielding any true contentment. “All is nothing,” it could be translated, or “empty of any virtue as to the effect of making us happy.” This includes created delights such as riches, honours, and worldly pleasures, particularly as they are abused, and “subjected to vanity” (Rom. 8:20), by people seeking their chief good from them. Also “vanity” are all the efforts we make by human power or skill to make ourselves happy, or contented, whether in the contemplation or the enjoyment of created things. These are vain because they are unable to afford any thing but disappointment, and disappointment in the highest degree, “vanity of vanities.”

Spiritual beings need spiritual fulfilment

There are earthly and tangible delights which are in themselves good, and in their right use lawful, and subservient to us for attaining true happiness. Yet even these prove altogether unprofitable, and unsatisfying to us, if we seek to enjoy them as our chief good. They are so disproportionate, so inadequate, to the human soul. The nature of the soul is spiritual, and the soul is capable of enjoying an infinite good – God reconciled to through Christ as our portion. This is why our souls can never be satisfied with these fading and transitory things. All temporary delights, mainly because they are fading, and unable to satisfy the immortal soul, are here pronounced to be vanity of vanities.

The “just a bit more” fallacy

Solomon continues, “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). While people are pursuing earthly contentments as their chief good, they foolishly imagine that if they just had a bit more of them, they would then be satisfied. Yet, pursuing earthly things as our best portion always ends in dissatisfaction, not only in the pursuit but also when they are attained, as if by drinking you only become more thirsty. All the toil and wearisome labour that people have in pursuing these lying vanities, and all the dissatisfaction and even disgust they feel in consuming them, never in the slightest diverts them from spending themselves yet further in the pursuit! They still keep gazing at these unsatisfying sights, and still listen greedily to the voice of temptations and corruption, expecting to find happiness in these things. Even when their efforts are unspeakable weariness, yet still they labour in the same way.

The “now we know better” fallacy

In fact, people persist in this, so entranced with the apparent sweetness of earthly things, as if nothing like it had ever been tasted by anyone who ever lived before. It is as if they had found out, or could find, new ways of achieving happiness, and get more fulfilment than anyone ever did before. “There is no new thing under the sun,” Solomon says. “Is there anything of which it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us” (Ecclesiastes 1:9–10). This refutes anyone who thinks that previous generations were short-sighted in finding happiness in earthly things, and that now we will easily find out new and more excellent delights, and new and more effective ways of attaining to them. The Holy Spirit contradicts this. Whatever methods they invent are only the same as others have tried before. They are unsatisfactory, and have a sting in their tail.

The “then my worries will be over” fallacy

Solomon had all possible advantages to allow him to enjoy as much as anyone could from all the choicest flower of created things. In Ecclesiastes 2:4–8 he mentions, for example, his stately buildings, the paradise-like orchards he planted, his numerous attendants, his great herds of cattle. He also had great plenty of the best sorts of jewels, and variety of excellent music.

But so empty are all created things, and so unable to give satisfaction, that when you have your eyes filled with the most delectable sights that they can afford you, and your taste and smell refreshed with the most delicious of them, and your future secure with the abundance of all sorts of riches – even then, your heart will readily be frequented with sad thoughts, in the midst of it all. Many cares and fears will readily mix themselves with all your enjoyments.

The “following my heart” fallacy

In verses 10–11 Solomon confesses that he threw himself into finding joy in life’s pleasures. Although he was a true child of God, yet he gave himself permission to pursue happiness in earthly things and gorge himself on whatever his eyes desired or his heart rejoiced in. Yet, reflecting later on that period in his life, he can only conclude that he had met with nothing but emptiness, and disappointed of any true satisfaction. His soul was gnawed away with the tormenting challenges of his conscience for pouring out his delight so much on these things; this is the “vexation” he speaks of. In his final analysis he says there was “no profit” in all these things. He found nothing remaining over and above, besides disappointment and vexation.

When the Lord is not made the prime delight of our souls (as He alone deserves to be; Song 2:3), we are at the mercy of whatever represents itself to us as desirable or fulfilling. Whatever it is, we are ready to give ourselves up to it! We have God’s restraining grace to thank, if we are kept back from the most heinous wickedness in this pursuit.

People often think it is a good enough reason to continue in their sinful way, to say that their heart prompts them so to do, and that they can take joy in the way they are going. Yet when the Lord awakes the conscience, they will realise that, far from being a warrant to go this way, it only increases their grief that they had the kind of heart that rejoiced so much in this sinfulness! “My heart rejoiced in all my labour” (v.10) was the reason that prevailed with Solomon to abandon himself to his earthly pleasures, but now he sees it as something that aggravates his guilt and increases his grief.

The bitter emptiness we feel should prompt us to pursue God instead

By verse 17, Solomon has related disappointment after disappointment from his attempts to find happiness in natural things and intellectual things. He has heaped up to himself all possible variety of earthly delights, but in the end he finds he “hates,” that is, “loathes, or despises” all these ways of living. Instead of finding fulfilment in estrangement from the Lord he has nothing but a gnawing of spirit.

Even as one of God’s people, it was a difficult thing to bring Solomon back from seeking fulfilment in earthly things once he had let himself go. Neither the voice of God’s Word, nor the voice of conscience, nor the influences of the Spirit, were sufficient to awake him or reclaim him. It wasn’t until the Lord sent this bitterness on his spirit, and made all his idols bitter to him, that he was brought to repentance.

All of us are naturally so wedded to our own will that as long as Christ’s sanctifying Spirit is not swaying our will in the right direction, we will rather desire not to live at all (even though we also have sneaking fears that things will not necessarily go well with us in the afterlife), than to be disappointed in what we have set our hearts on as a piece of happiness in this world.

When the Lord makes our life bitter to us, and other things grievous, while we are living at a distance from Him, then, especially if we are one of the Lord’s people, we should be far from taking it as a token of his wrath, and a sign that His purpose is to destroy us. On the contrary, take it as an evidence that He is preparing you for a new manifestation of His favour, after this time of being humbled. It is when our hearts are ravished with delight in any thing under the sun, more than with delight in God, that we are clearly under His displeasure. Then we should be afraid in case He abandons us to rejoice in this sinful way until we perish. In Solomon’s case, sensing the bitterness and vanity of earthly things became the means of his renewed repentance and faith in the Lord, and so spoke of God’s love and mercy towards him.

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Laying a loved one’s body to rest in the grave brings to mind all sorts of contrasts and a sense of inescapable change. Reflecting on the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth, so much that was familiar is no longer here, and we are reminded that however gilded anyone’s life here has been, they still encountered difficulties and sorrows of one form or another. So is that the end, or are things any better in the afterlife? The burial service of the Church of England commits the deceased’s body to the grave, “in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Who can legitimately take comfort from this “hope,” and what are we “hoping” for anyway? In the following updated extract, Alexander Nisbet reflects on the words of the apostle Peter in his first letter to distressed believers. To encourage and motivate them Peter tells them, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for His people.”

Not death and despair, but life and hope

When we are regenerated it is “unto a lively hope” (verse 3). Before the Lord makes this powerful change in sinner, we are altogether without any true or well-grounded hope of a better life than this. But those who have been born again – given a new life and new nature from the Lord in regeneration – they have been given with it this grace of hope. This is what allows them to keep up their hearts in expectation of all that the Lord has promised.

If we have been born again, we have a “lively” hope – a hope that enlivens us to use all the means to attain what we hope for, and to keep ourselves free from everything inconsistent with being born to such great hopes. And the basis for this hope is “the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (verse 3). What keeps our hope alive is that after Christ died for us, He rose again as a conqueror. His resurrection is a testimony that He has fully discharged all our debt, and a guarantee that we will rise with Him and share with Him in the possession of all that He has purchased in our name.

Not uncertainty and futility, but a guaranteed inheritance

All who have been born again have a matchless inheritance to look for at the end of their lives. It is both excellent in itself and guaranteed to them.

What are its excellences? One is that nothing in itself is going to allow it to decay. A second is that nothing from outside it can stain its beauty. And the third is that it will remain to all eternity in all its glory. It is “incorruptible, and undefiled, and fadeth not away” (verse 4). All of these are sweetened by the fact that it is safely kept in store for them, in a place beyond all hazard. Its is “reserved in heaven for you” (verse 4).

So if you want to keep your heart in a praising disposition, and if you want to be steady and cheerful in adhering to the truth of Christ notwithstanding sufferings, then you must have your hearts absorbed with considering the excellence of the portion which is coming to you beyond time. In this way you will pay less attention to the afflictions that come by the way, and you will despise the pleasures of sin, and you will be able to stomach all the difficulties involved in holiness.

Not a thing, but a person

And what is this inheritance anyway? It is nothing else but the Lord Himself blessed for ever, enjoyed by His people to all eternity. He is called “the inheritance” of His people (Psalm 16:5-6). He is “incorruptible” (Romans 1:23). He is “undefiled” (Hebrews 7:26). He “fadeth not away” (Psalm 102:27).

Not earned, but a family inheritance

This heavenly inheritance does not come to the regenerate by their own purchase or procurement, but by virtue of their sonship. They are made sons as soon as they are united to Christ (John 1:12). This has been purchased for them (Ephesians 1:14), and He has left it to them in legacy (John 17:24). He lives for ever to be the executor of His own testament (Hebrews 7:25). So far from being merited from any of them, it falls to them by lot – it comes by heirship, left in legacy.

This blessed state is made very sure and certain for the regenerate. From eternity it has been decreed by judicial sentence to come to them (Matthew 25:34). In time it has been secured to them by the promise of the faithful God (John 6:40). And even now it is possessed for them in their name by their surety and covenant head (Hebrews 6:19-20). It is “reserved in heaven for them.”

Not yet fully in possession, but ready to be revealed

As the inheritance of the regenerate is kept in heaven for them, so they are “kept by the power of God” for it (verse 5). The power of God in making them persevere works principally by giving them faith to rest on His word (the word of Him who is faithful and able to save to the uttermost), and keeping this faith in life and exercise, providing it with necessary supplies. The power of God keeps believers “through faith.”

Because it is not yet apparent to the saints what a blessed inheritance is coming to them. The reason why they do not now have their inheritance in full possession is not because it is not ready for them (for it is purposed for them, Matthew 25:44, and brought to them, Ephesians 1:14, and possessed by Christ in their name, John 14:2) but because they are not ready for it.

Indeed, they will not be ready until the full number of the elect are brought in (Revelation 6:11), and every one of them brought to their full stature in grace (Ephesians 4:13). Both these things can be furthered by the prayers and endeavours of those who long to be in heaven.

But the particular time when they shall be put in possession of their heavenly inheritance is fixed. The marriage day between Christ and His bride is fixed, and it will take place at the time that is fittest and happiest for them. The day cannot be far off now, for these days of ours are the “last times” (verse 5). The bodies of the saints who are alive now will not have to sleep long in the dust.

Not heaviness, but great rejoicing

Sad-hearted sufferers the regenerate may sometimes be. But Peter provokes them to more spiritual joy and praise, noting that already they are rejoicing from considering their beautiful inheritance and their other spiritual privileges, and exhorting them to continue in it. “Wherein ye do (or, do ye) greatly rejoice” (verse 6).

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According to a recent study, one of the questions that plays most on the minds of younger adults is, “What will make me happy?” Happiness for many people is very fleeting and usually just out of reach. Whether we seek it in impressive achievements, extravagant experiences, or just the simple things of life, lasting and life-impacting happiness eludes the majority. So maybe happiness is being sought in the wrong places? In this updated extract, Alexander Nisbet draws on the wisdom of Ecclesiastes to turn conventional thinking on its head. Real happiness is possible, but possibly where you least expect it.

The purpose of the Spirit of God by Solomon the Preacher in Ecclesiastes is to point out to miserable fallen sinners the way to recover our lost happiness. He first aims to convince us where it cannot be found, and so he sets out the proposition, “All is vanity.” By this is meant that all created things, and all human endeavours about them, are insufficient for yielding any true contentment. As the word signifies, it is all “nothing,” or “empty” as far as any virtue towards making us happy.

The good things in life cannot make us happy

This expression, “All is vanity,” is not to be understood of any thing that God has made in respect of its existence as such, since all things considered in that way are “very good” (Gen. 1:13). Nor is it to be understood of the right use and enjoyment of created things, i.e., using them in such a way that we are led by them to our Maker, and engaged to fear and obey him, for in this way all things are holy and good to those who use them (Titus 1:15; 1 Timothy 4:4). Neither yet does it refer to anyone’s lawful diligence and efforts in their lawful calling and employment, as if that was vain (1 Timothy 5:8).

Instead, “all is vanity” is to be understood firstly of all created delights, such as riches, honours, worldly pleasures, and particularly as they are abused and subjected to vanity when we seek our chief good from them, and place our happiness in them, while at the same time neglecting the question of reconciliation with God, and of living in his fear and in obedience to him. This is what Solomon recommends to us as the only way to true happiness (Ecclesiastes 12:23).

And “all is vanity” is to be understood of all the efforts a person can make by virtue of any human power or skill to make themselves happy, or contented, whether in the contemplation of created things or the enjoyment of them. All things of this nature Solomon proclaims to be “vain” in this sense, unable to give us anything but disappointment, and that in the most extreme degree (for this Hebrew form of speech, “vanity of vanities,” expresses the superlative degree).

It takes a lot to convince us of this

And to help this truth make the deeper impression, Solomon propounds it by way of exclamation. “All is vanity!” It is as if he is wondering at – and pitying – the madness of poor humanity, so ravished with glimpses of happiness in what is really only a vapour (as the word translated vanity can also mean).

This same truth he repeats frequently, to show not only the certainty of it (Gen. 40:32) but also people’s unwillingness to consider it (Jer. 22:29), and the difficulty of believing it John 5:2, 4; 6:37). It shows also how deeply he himself is affected with the folly and vanity of his former sinful ways, now that he is penitent, and how extremely he now detests them (Gal. 1:8-9). And because when people hear such teaching, they often treat it as only another human opinion, and so esteem it as only vain words.

This language of the Old Testament is the same in substance with that of the New. For example, “Doubtless I count all things loss and dung, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:8). So transported are all of us naturally with the thought of happiness in earthly things (Jer. 2:24), and therefore so unwilling to hear of anything to the contrary (Zech. 7:11), that someone like Solomon who wants to convince people of the vanity of these things and of the folly of their way in seeking happiness in them, has to go to the effort of finding the most attractively persuasive way of appealing to their hearers. They have to be very instant and frequent in inculcating on their hearers the baseness and vanity of their idols and their sinful ways, and to lead up their minds to God, the one who is higher than themselves, in whose name they speak.

These words flow from the sense of penitent Solomon’s heart, marvelling his own madness in seeking happiness in such vain things as he had done during the time of his estrangement from God, weighted with grief for his so doing, and earnestly desirous to reclaim other perishing sinners from such vain ways. He longs to allure them to come and taste of the sweetness in fellowship with God which he now enjoys.

Counter-intuitively, religion will make us happy

Throughout Ecclesiastes 2 and 3, Solomon is working towards the point that the highest happiness attainable in this life is a cheerful and ready following of the duties of religion toward God, and righteousness towards others, even in all the vicissitudes of our lives.

This is the best we are capable of enjoying in time. And seeing we must once leave, and not return again (after death) to see or to enjoy these outward things, it is therefore our wisdom to use all our outward comforts as encouragements to give willing and cheerful obedience to God (Eccles 3:22).

From all this it is evident that we are not to seek or expect true happiness in any outward enjoyments, but in the favour of God through Christ Jesus, and following our duty in obedience to the command of God. Subservient to this, we are obliged to pursue a silent and conscientious submission to and contentment with all the various providences that pass over us in the world.

The way to achieve happiness

At the end of Ecclesiastes 12, Solomon urges us to take heed of the truth of God’s words. In studying the Scriptures we should not aim only to get comfort, but mainly to receive clear information and warning of our sin and danger, the true remedy for our sin, and the way to attain to this remedy. This is the main use to be made of the book of Ecclesiastes, and consequently of the rest of Scripture.

By nature people are so transported with a desire of vain glory, especially what they imagine they get by their own wisdom (John 11:12) that while they have time or strength, they will never make an end of seeking out many inventions by which they think to attain to their imaginary happiness. After they have written one book to show how wise they are in discovering the way to happiness, they will begin another. Yet so empty are all created things, and so futile are all the ways that people interact with them, that till people betake themselves to the new and living way to happiness which the Scripture reveals, they will meet with nothing but endless labour and continual disappointment, without any true settling or quietness to their minds.

The pursuit of saving knowledge may prove wearisome to the flesh, partly by reason of our slowness to learn, and unacquaintance with the grounds of consolation and confidence of success, and partly because the Lord intends that the wearying of the flesh in this way should be a means of promoting mortification and of diverting the heart away from sinful delights. Nevertheless the pursuit of saving knowledge is sweet in itself, and it is the very rest and refreshment of the soul. Indeed, it is health to the spirit, and marrow to the bones. In comparison with it all other studies are exhausting and wearisome even to the flesh.

Happiness springs from having the right attitude to God

Solomon concludes, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This is our main task, a compendium of all that God requires and works in His own people, and what they should be wholly taken up with all their life-time, as they desire to be truly happy here and hereafter.

Anyone who wants to see good days and live in the light of the Lord’s countenance must learn to be in the fear of God all the day long, entertaining the faith of His greatness and goodness, so that they may be kept from these things which impede their fellowship with Him, which is what their happiness consists in. For, when Solomon sums up his directions for attaining to true happiness, after proving that it is impossible to be found in earthly things, and only to be had in fellowship with God reconciled in Christ, he gives this as one of the two principal parts of that summary, “Fear God.”

And our true happiness is only to be found in keeping of the commands of God. We cannot expect a sweet meeting with God (Isa. 64:5) nor the comforting manifestations of His love (John 14.21:23), except in that way. This is the other part of the summary of Solomon’s directions for attaining to the true happiness which consists in communion with God: “Keep his commandments.”

The fear of the Lord is the root and principle of all right obedience to him, without which we cannot act acceptably in any commanded duty. This is why Solomon presses us to the fear of God in order to have acceptable obedience. And where the fear of God is in the heart, care to keep His commands will also be manifested in the practice. That fear will evidence itself by some endeavour after a suitable walking according to His commands. Keeping the commandments as urged on us here may be looked on as the evidence and fruit of the fear of God.

Contrasting views of the way to happiness

Those who seek their happiness in this earth look on the study of the fear of the Lord and obedience to the Lord as no part of their business in order to attain what they imagine is happiness, but rather an impediment in the way to it (Mal. 3:14). Yet this same blessed study is the great end for which man was made, and the only study that is worthy of having anyone’s spirit wholly exercised about it, so as all their other studies are subordinate to it.

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It’s coming to all of us. Young or old, whether we’re in the prime of life or feeling a bit past it, eventually our lives here will come to an end. And then what? A recent survey of attitudes to Jesus in the UK found that across all age groups, one of the big questions people have is, “What happens when you die?” The options are stark but we all need to confront reality. Death is not the end, because our souls will all live on. But what kind of existence will it be? And what can we do about it before we come to die? Alexander Nisbet sets out the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes in the following updated extract.

Dying means going to our long home

As King Solomon puts it in Ecclesiastes 12:5, we are all going to “our long home,” or as the original is, to “the house of eternity,” meaning the state where the soul will be eternally, without any further change.

It is our wisdom therefore, before this time comes, to make sure that we are reconciled to God in Christ. That will provide some suitable consolation for our souls, while our bodies will be [laid in the dust].

Therefore, while we are fit and healthy, we should employ our strength well, to make sure we are at peace with Him who is most high, so that He will not be a terror to us in the evil day (Jer. 17:17). If we have faith, then things that may present themselves as terrifying to others, will be no cause of fear to us.

Some people think that the best they will ever get is in this present life, and they promise to themselves that they will enjoy things on earth perpetually. Yet they shall find themselves after a little while miserably disappointed. They shall find that this is not their home. It would be wiser for them instead to look on their mansions here as short-stay residences, and to think of themselves as strangers and pilgrims, that so they would give all diligence to ensure they will have everlasting habitations.

After death there is no change of the state of souls as to their misery or the blessedness. They must remain for ever either with Satan in his prison, or with Christ in His Father’s house.

Death affects both soul and body

Solomon summarises our future state after death, making reference to both body and soul, the two principal parts of which we are made up: “Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Eccles. 12:7).

The body, Solomon calls “dust,” because it was formed out of the dust (Gen. 2:7). When the body is separated from the soul, it is the most vile and loathsome piece of dust of all. He says it “returns to the dust,” because it is ordinarily buried in the earth, to remain there till the resurrection, and because it is in effect the same substance as the dust of the earth.

The more noble part is the soul, here called the “spirit” because it is immaterial, and because of its resemblance to God, the Father of spirits. The soul “returns to him who gave it.” This does not mean only the souls of the godly, but rather it is the common state of the souls of all humans after death. Every soul is said to return to God, because in the very moment of its separation from the body, it must appear before God as the supreme judge, for Him to settle our eternal state. This will be done according to the state of the soul at death. Surely then we will timeously make our peace with God, so that He will receive our souls favourably at death, and so that we may lay down our bodies in the dust in hope of a glorious resurrection.

From this we see that although our bodies have some beauty and majesty imprinted on them while the soul resides in them and activates them, yet in themselves our bodies are only dust, and when the soul is separated from them they will look like very loathsome clay. The thought of this should keep us from being proud of our bodily strength or our physical looks (Jer. 9:23). It should also make us admire the Lord for condescending to have anything to do with such dust (Gen. 28:27), and for His marvellous skill and power in framing so beautiful a piece of work as our bodies just out of dust (Psa. 139:24). But especially it should make us admire Him for taking so frail a being as a human body into a personal union with the deity (Psalm 8:4). Yet we can also make use of this fact as a ground of confidence that we can obtain pity and help from Him to frail dust (Psa. 103:14). It should also make us careful to get the ornament of His grace, which makes base dust truly beautiful (1 Pet. 3:4), and it should make us long for the time wherein Christ shall change our vile bodies, and make them like His glorious body (Phil. 3:21).

Unlike our souls, our bodies do not go to the state they will be in eternally. Instead, as they were at the first taken out of the earth, so they must go back there for a time, while we believingly await the resurrection.

Unlike our bodies, our souls do not die, or decay away. Instead they subsist after their separation from the body. This fact alone should make us careful to see to the eternal well-being of our souls.

As our souls came to us as God’s free gift, so, when our souls go out of the body, they will appear before Him. He will throw the spirits of the wicked into the lake that flames with fire and brimstone, and He will bind up the spirits of the godly as his jewels in the bundle of life.

After death comes the judgment

Solomon finally says, “God shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

The last judgment is both certain and exact. At this time, both our more open and visible actions, and our more secret plots, and closest contrivances, of whatever sort, good or bad, shall be brought forth to be sentenced, either to reward or punishment, according to their nature. If we desire to be truly happy here and hereafter, we must leave off the pursuit of earthly vanities and sinful delights, and apply ourselves to this blessed thing, to “fear God and keep his commandments, which is the whole duty of man.”

So exact will the last judgement be, that no action or purpose shall escape the cognisance and sentence of the judge in that day. People’s public sins will then be published to all, and their secret sins, even the sins of their hearts, which they had altogether hid from the eyes of the world (and which they tried all along their life to hide from their own consciences, neglecting to confront them and mourn for them) will then be laid open.

The very best actions of the godly, considered in themselves, cannot abide the trial of God’s judgement by reason of the sinfulness mixed in with them. Yet considered as they are perfumed with Christ’s merits, and made perfect by him, they shall be brought forth to judgement to receive the reward of grace which the righteous judge shall give in that day.

All people’s evil actions, which they now refuse to look in order to mourn for them, and make use of the blood of Christ for cleansing them, shall in that great day be set out clearly and made patent, to their shame and terror. They will receive for them deserved wrath to the utmost. They should consider this when they are tempted to sin, and when, complacent and impenitent, they make light of the wickedness they have done.

This last solemn action, the last judgement, will be in a sense between time and eternity. It deserves our most frequent and serious consideration. Otherwise we will never get our hearts properly alienated from pursuing perishing vanities and sinful delights, as if these were our chief good. Nor will we be properly committed to pursuing true godliness. It should be much in the thoughts of the Lord’s people, who should live in such a way as that they may daily desire to see this day. “Even so come Lord Jesus.”

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Perhaps especially when there is so much unsettling change it’s easy to feel nostalgic-even for 2019. A recent scientific study identified higher happiness levels “during the early days of the pandemic” arising from feelings of nostalgia. For some, reaching out to simpler and less complex times has been a coping mechanism. This sentimental longing for our own past or some period in history can be beneficial if it draws us towards things that are of value. Yet nostalgia often paints a rosy picture of how it used to be compared to now. No doubt at some point we will be nostalgic for lockdowns. Dwelling on the past obsessively can be unhelpful and unhealthy but can it be sinful? It was for Israel of course as they looked back to Egypt with mournful regret. Nostalgia makes it hard to look ahead with the right attitude of hope and expectation since we are always harking back (Philippians 3:13). Surely we need hope more than ever in the current context rather than a wistful longing to be comfortable? Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns us in relation to nostalgia. It doesn’t say that it is wrong and sinful in itself. Rather it says that there is a subtle and dangerous temptation that can accompany it. We can be drawn into a distorted perspective inclining us to question God’s providence and purpose. In our discontent we begin to dispute the way things are. Why are we left in such a situation? Can any good come out of it? Such an attitude is neither wise nor right.

Alexander Nisbet shows how Ecclesiastes 7:10 guards us against quarrelling with the Lord’s dealings in this way. We are not to question why He should do this and complain at His appointing a hard lot to any of us. Neither are we to be so swallowed up by lament for the times that we fail to highlight what is positive and what may be the purpose behind it all. There is a danger of making such an absolute comparison between our times and the past that we feel the present is hopeless. This is a verse that needs to be understood and applied carefully and Nisbet helps us to do that in the following updated extract.

1. It is not sinful to recognise that times have become worse

This is not to be understood, as if the present times were not often worse than the former in many respects, seeing that is foretold (Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:1).

2. It is not sinful to ask why the times have become worse

It is not that the Lord’s people must not search into what sins people have committed to cause the change of times to the worse. Nor are they forbidden from lamenting the defections or miseries of their times. Both of these are duties for them (Lamentations 3:40). It is the duty of the Lord’s people to search out the sinful causes which provoke the Lord to change times to the worse. We are to enquire into the wise reasons He has for doing so and to bewail that later times have degenerated so far from the purity and holiness of former periods.

3. It is sinful to be discontented that the times have become worse

It is, however, a great sin to quarrel with Providence, or to enquire concerning this matter with a fretting discontentment of spirit. It is as if we were saying that things are not well ordered by Divine Providence, if we do not have as much peace and prosperity and as great freedom from outward trouble as those who were before us have had. For this is the evil here dissuaded from: to ask the cause why the former times were better than these.

We should not quarrel with God’s providence for appointing our lot in more troublesome times, and under more grievous oppressions than have been formerly. We should avoid speaking as if there were no cause why we should submit to a change of times from better to worse. The Spirit of the Lord does not give particular reasons of such changes here. There are many obvious reasons given in Scripture which are sufficient to satisfy us in relation to this. Rather, He prohibits and rebukes such boldness and gives a general reason of the dissuasive, that these inquiries flow from men’s ignorance of the Lord’s sovereignty and wisdom, who works all for His own glory, and the good of His people.

4. It is sinful not to submit to God’s purpose that the times have become worse

To fret and repine that the present times are worse than the former shows us to be void of heavenly wisdom. This teaches those who have it to adore the righteousness of God in all His dealings. They do this even though they do not see the particular reasons for them (Jeremiah 12:1).

5. It is sinful to ignore good things, even though the times have become worse

Such submission often leads them to satisfying reasons clearly held forth in Scripture, namely that God in wisdom uses certain times to reveal men’s perversity which at other times He sees fit to restrain. At times He chooses to advance by sore trials the faith, patience, and other graces of His people, which at other times He advances without such trials (Daniel 12:10).

This quarrelling with the Lord is evidence of great presumptuousness arising from an ignorance of the true condition of both the present and former times. This makes them fail to consider the good of the present times, which often exceeds that of the former as far as the evils and troubles of the present exceeds those of the former. Solomon says that in such a spirit we do not enquire wisely (or as it is literally in the Hebrew original “by wisdom”) concerning this matter. The expression intends more than is expressed.

Conclusion

Nostalgia may have its benefits as well as its pitfalls, but it cannot really transform. It can bind us to the past in ways that debilitate us in the present. It recalls a past that cannot be recovered. Hope on the other hand, is always transformative. In some ways we could think of hope as nostalgia in reverse, a longing for our future home (2 Corinthians 5:1-4). Hope does not unsettle us, it anchors us (Hebrews 6:19). This kind of nostalgia in reverse is not sinful, rather it purifies us (1 John 3:3; 2 Peter 3:14). It strengthens us with patience (Romans 8:25). Surely we need to cultivate it more?

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