John Calvin Commentary Psalms 144:15

"Happy is the people that is in such a case; [Yea], happy is the people whose God is Jehovah." — Psalms 144:15 (ASV)

Happy the people, and so forth. He thus concludes that the divine favor had been sufficiently shown and manifested to his people. Should anyone object that it conveyed an entirely crude and worldly spirit to assess human happiness by benefits of a temporary nature, I would reply that we must understand these two things together: those are happy who recognize the favor of God in the abundance they enjoy, and have such a sense of it from these temporary blessings that it leads them, through a conviction of His fatherly love, to aspire to the true inheritance.

There is no impropriety in calling those happy whom God blesses in this world, provided they do not show themselves blind in the way they use and appreciate their mercies, or foolishly and carelessly overlook their Author. The kind providence of God in not allowing us to lack any necessities of life is surely a striking illustration of His wonderful love.

What is more desirable than to be the objects of God’s care, especially if we have sufficient understanding to conclude from the generosity with which He supports us that He is our Father? For everything is to be viewed in relation to this point. It would be better to perish immediately from lack than to have a mere animal-like satisfaction and forget the most important thing of all: that those, and only those, are happy whom God has chosen as His people.

We are to observe this: while God, in giving us meat and drink, allows us to enjoy a certain measure of happiness, it does not follow that believers who struggle through life in need and poverty are miserable. For God can counterbalance this lack, whatever it may be, with better consolations.