[3.] If we do not bring love with us, we shall not be welcome to God ; for * he that loveth God is known of him.' Others are not owned in an ordinance, but dismissed as they came. God will not fail the loving soul.
2. How we should exercise love in this duty.
[1.] In ardent desires of Christ's benefits. We can neither live nor die without him, therefore we must desire his grace, his righteousness, and Spirit : Luke i. 53, ' He hath filled the hungry with good things ; ' Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.'
2. In an holy joy and rejoicing in him : Cant. i. 4, ' We will be glad, and rejoice in thee.' Christ hath a special way of communicating the sense of his love to a believer. Now when we are admitted to what we long for, we must express our gratitude.
3. We must not restrain the benefit to the act of receiving ; no, our future profit is to be regarded, that for the time to come we may live to no other purpose in the world but to obey and honour Christ, even at the dearest rates. We must from henceforth live as those that are the Lord's : 2 Cor. v. 15, ' And that he died for all, that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.'
VOL. XVllL K
SERMON UPON PSALM LXXXIV. 10.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather he a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to diuell in the tents of wickedness. — Ps. Ixxxiv. 10.
In these words is set forth David's esteem of the ordinances and means of grace.
Here is (1.) A general proposition, ' A day in thy courts is better than a thousand ; ' (2.) A particular application to the man of God's own judgment and sentiment in the case, 'I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness.' The one sets forth the excellency of the thing itself; the other David's, and, in his person, every godly man's, sense and opinion of it. Things may incomparably differ, yet every one hath not the eyes to see it. In the general proposition, the comparison is made with any earthly thing whatsoever ; in the particular application to David, with the pleasures of sin. Both must be considered.
In the general proposition, ' A day in thy courts is better than a thousand ; ' i.e., a day or hour spent in thy worship is better than a thousand spent among worldlings and about worldly business. Eternal things, and all things conducing thereunto, must be preferred before temporal, and communion with God above all the pomp and glory of the most splendid worldly condition.
But then, in the particular application, temporal things are con- sidered as enjoyed with sin; as also Heb. xi. 25, 'Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.' However, there you may observe — (1.) God's worst, ' I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God ; ' (2 ) Sin's best, ' Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.' Where observe —
First, The terms, in which one condition is opposed to the other —
1. On the one side, the meanest, lowest office about God is mentioned, to be a door-keeper, or, as the Hebrew signifieth, to sit at the threshold ; a phrase often used to express the office of the Levites, or sons of Korah, who were keepers of the gates or thresholds of the tabernacle, 1 Chron. ix. 19, and thcKefore called porters, ver. 17. And to these was this psalm committed ; for the title saith, it was ' A psalm for the sons of Korah ; ' and to encourage them in their office, David useth such an expression. He had rather be in the meanest condition, wherein he might daily worship God.
SERMON UPON PSALM LXXXIV. 10. 147
2. On the other side, here was dwelling in the tents of wickedness ; that is, in the stateliest habitations of the great ones of the world, wherein wickedness reigneth. Possibly he alludeth to the wild Arabiansj who lived by prey, and lived in tents which were black without and rich within. Therefore the church, is compared to tents of Kedar : Cant. i. 5, ' I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar ; ' as else- where he saith, God is ' more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey, ' Fs. Ixxvi. 4 ; preferring God's strength above theirs that dwelt in the mountains, and lurked there for prey. And this suiteth. with his condition, who, in his exile from the temple, was forced to live as a wild Kedarene or Ishmaelite : Ps. cxx. 5, ' Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar ; ' meaning the Arabian tents, the barbarous people of Arabia that were called Scenitae ; for their manner of living, he then resembled them.