my heart is fixed ; I will sing and give praise." He knows what God hath said, " Whoso offereth me praise, glorifieth me : " and he determines to offer unto God the tribute that is so justly due. Nor will he do this in a cold and formal man- ner : no ; as a man of warm feelings expresses with his body the emotions of his soul, so will he, together with his heart, lift up his hands also in the name of liis God. Nor will he pour forth these effusions only on some particular occasions, or during any one particular season : he will do it continually ; he will do it to the latest hour of his life. He considers "praise as comely for the upright;" and he wishes it to be the constant language of his lips.]
To this determination he is led by the considera- tion of the loving-kindness of his God —
[O how wonderful does that love appear to him, wliich gave no less a person than God's co-equal co-eternal Son to die for him ! which gave him too the knowledge of that Saviour, together with all spiritual and eternal blessings in him, whilst thousands and milHons of the human race are dying in igno- rance and perishing in their sins ! This loving-kindness so free, so rich, so full, appears to him "better than even life itself; " and all that he can do to testify his gratitude seems nothing, yea " less than nothing," in comparison of it. The language of his heart is, " If I should hold my peace, the very stones would cry out against me." O that I had powers equal to the occasion ! how would I praise him ! how would I glorify him ! verily I would praise him on earth, even as they do in heaven.]
In these purposes the believing soul is yet further confirmed by,
III. Its expectations —
The service of God is not without its reward even in this life : and hence the Believer, whilst engaged in his favourite employment, expects,
1. The richest consolation —
[The carnal mind can see no pleasure in this holy exercise; but the spiritual mind is refreshed by it, more than the most luxurious epicure ever was by the richest dainties. His very meditations are unspeakably sweet : yea, while contemplating his God upon his bed, and during the silent watches of the night, "his soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness:" it has a foretaste even of heaven itself From its own experi- ence of this heavenly joy, the soul expects this glorious harvest, when it has sown in tears, and laboured to glorify its God in songs of praise.]
600.1 THE believer's DISPOSITIONS TOWARDS GOD. 455
2. The most assured safety — [Thus engaged, the soul looks down upon all its enemies with disdain : it feels itself in an impregnable fortress : it is conscious that it owes all its past preservation to the help of its Almighty Friend ; and it rejoices in the thought that under the shadow of the Redeemer's \vings it must still be safe; and that " none shall ever pluck it out of the Father's hands." The state of Hezekiah, when surrounded by a vast army that was bent on his destruction, exactly shows what is the state of a believing soul in the midst of all its enemies: " The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn ; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee." Such was the language of Zion to all the Assyrian hosts : and such is the blessed anticipation of victory which every Believer is privileged to enjoy ^.]
Improvement —
1. How greatly do the generality of religious pro- fessors live below their privileges !
[It was not peculiar to David thus to delight in God : it was then common, and is yet common, to all the saints. Can it be thought that we, who live under so much better a dispen- sation than he, and have so much brighter discoveries of God's power and glory than ever he had, should yet not be privi- leged to delight in God as he did? Were this the case, v/e should be losers by that religion which the Son of God came down from heaven to establish. But it is not so : we may par- take of all spiritual blessings in as rich abundance as he, or any other of the saints of old, did. And we have reason to be ashamed that our desires after God are so faint, our purposes respecting him so weak, and our expectations from him so con- tracted. Let us, each for himself, look at our experience from day to day, and compare it with his ; and let us not rest, till we have attained somewhat at least of that delight in God, which so eminently distinguished that blessed man.]