a christian's delight in god.
Ps. cxxxix. 17, 18. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
0 God ! hozv great is the sum of them ! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand : when I awake,
1 am still with thee.
THESE words will admit of a twofold interpre- tation : they may be considered as referring to the thoughts which God had entertained in his bosom respecting David, or to those which David enter- tained respecting God. If we take them in the former sense, the import of them is to this effect : ' It is im- possible for me ever to enumerate the mercies which, in thine eternal counsels, thou hast prepared for me, and which I am daily receiving at thy hands : and if I should attempt to number them through the whole day, I should make so little progress, that in the fol- lowing morning I should have all my work to do again.' In this view, they agree with what the in- spired penman says in another psalm, " Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward : they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee : if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered a." If we take them in the latter sense, their meaning is, ' My delight in contemplating all thy glorious perfections, and all the wonders of thy love, O my God, is inexpressible : it is my sweet employment day and night, insomuch that my first waking thoughts ever recur to thee.' In this sense they accord with what he says in the 104th Psalm : " I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live : I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet : I will be glad in the LordV It is to this latter sense that I rather incline; because there is a remarkable coincidence between the general subject of the 104th Psalm with that which is before us, (both of them speaking altogether of God as the Creator and Governor of the world ;)
a Ps. xl. 5. b Ps. civ. 33, 34.
735.] a christian's delight in god. 4()1
and because the expressions of delight in God, in both the psalms, stand in immediate connexion with his aversion to sinners, whom, for their opposition to God, he consigns over to merited disgrace and punish- ment0. But, in either case, this is clear, namely, that David found his happiness in contemplating the Deity : and whether we extend his views to the wonders of God's love in general, or confine them to those which had been vouchsafed personally to himself, they will equally afford me occasion to shew you the nature and blessedness of Christian experience.
Let us consider, I. The nature of Christian experience —
The world at large have no conception of delight- ing themselves in God : they rather say to God in their hearts, "■ Depart from us ; we desire not the knowledge of thy waysd." And they endeavour to put him far from them : for they will not entertain him in all, or any of their thoughts6. Nor has the hypocritical professor of religion any real delight in God : for Job says of him, " Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon Godf?" But of the true Christian this is a very leading fea- tureg: he delights,
1. In the contemplation of God —
[His mind soars upwards to the Deity ; who is, as it were, ever present to his view. In all the works of creation, in all the dispensations of Providence, and in all the wonders of re- demption, he sees the glory and excellency of his God. He can behold nothing, he can think of nothing, which does not set God before him in some of his glorious perfections. The wis- dom, the power, the goodness, the patience, the forbearance, the love, the mercy of his God, pass in review before his eyes, and call forth his devoutest acknowledgments; and the display of these, in his own personal experience, calls forth in him such admiring thoughts as no language can adequately express.