Here he felt encouragement to pour out his soul before God, and to ask whatsoever his returning necessities might require. This, to him whose trials were so great and manifold, was an unspeakable privilege. The extreme arduousness of his affairs also rendered it most desirable to him to spread all his difficul- ties before the Lord, and to ask comisel of him for his direction.
a Ps. xlii. 1, 2. b Ps. xlii. 3. <= Ps. xlii. 10.
^ Ps. Ixxxiv, 1 — 4. ^ Ps. Ixxxv. 10.
True it was that in private he could carry his affairs to the Lord, and implore help from him : but, as the public ordinances were of God's special appointment, and as the high-priest was the established medium of access to him, and of communications from him, he delighted more particularly to wait upon God there ; that so, whilst he received blessings in a more abundant measure from God, he might glorify God in the sight of all Israel.]
Admiring, as I do, this bright example, I beg leave to,
II. Commend it to your imitation —
We have far greater reason to love the house of God than ever David had —
[If the beauty of the Lord was visible in the Jewish wor- ship, how much more so must it be in the ordinances of the Gospel ! David beheld the perfections of his God only under types and shadows : but we behold them reflected as in a glass or mirror, with transcendent brightness, and all shining with united splendour in the face of Jesus Christ. We see, not bulls and goats, but the very Son of God himself, " Jehovah's fellow," offered in sacrifice for the sins of men. What then must the justice be that required such a sacrifice ! What the love, that gave HIM from the Father's bosom to be a sacrifice ! What the mercy, that spared not him, in order that we, enemies and rebels, might be spared! So imperfectly was this mystery knov.n under the Jewish dispensation, that all, even the most exalted prophets, were in a state of comparative darkness : but now, " the things which from the beginning of the world eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had it entered into the heart of man to conceive, are revealed unto us by the Spirit^;" so that we can truly and emphatically say, " The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth^." John the Baptist was greater in this respect than all the prophets ; because he personally saw and bare witness to Him, whom all the other prophets spoke of obscurely, and at the distance of many hundred years : but, great as John was, " the least and lowest in the Gospel king- dom is greater than he^." In our ordinances, Jesus Christ is so fully revealed, that he may be said to be " evidently set forth crucified before our eyes^:" and at his holy table we " eat his flesh, and drink liis blood," as truly in a spiritual sense, as we do really and substantially eat the bread and drink the wine by which they are represented. We see that through the virtue of this sacrifice God is so reconciled to us, as to " behold
f 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. si John ii. 8.
»> Matt. xi. 11. > Gal. iii. 1.
537.1 David's love to god's oiidinances. 183
no iniquity in us*":" for, viewing us as clothed in the right- eousness of his dear Son, he beholds us " without spot or blemish V Moreover as by faith we see the Lord Jesus carry- ing his own blood \vithin the veil, so we also hear him making intercession for us at the right hand of God : yea, and " out of the fulness that is treasured up in him we receive" all the blessings that he has purchased for us. How often are we, in the experience of these things, constrained to cry out with the prophet, " How great is his goodness ! how great is his beauty™!" And how often, in rapturous admiration of him, do we pray with the Psalmist, " Let the beauty of the liord our God be upon us ! " In truth, it is by thus " beholding as with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord"."