awaked he knew not his cell, could not distinguish the night from the day,
nor difference by his taste, oil from wine; still he was calling for his
vision and saying, Redde mihi campos floridos, columnam auream, comitem
Hieronymum, assistentes angelos: give me my fresh and fragrant fields
again, my golden pillar of light, Jerome my companion, angels my assistants.
If heaven in a dream produce such ecstasies as drown and overwhelm the
exercises of the senses to inferior objects, what trances and complacencies
must the fruition of it work in those who have their whole rational appetite
filled, and their body beautified with its endless glory?— William Spurstow, 1656.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied." Have you never seen how when they
were finishing the interior of buildings they kept the scaffolding up? The
old Pope, when he had Michael Angelo employed in decorating the interior of
that magnificent structure, the Sistine Chapel, demanded that the
scaffolding should be taken down so that he could see the glowing colours
that with matchless skill were being laid on. Patiently and assiduously did
that noble artist labour, toiling by day, and almost by night, bringing out
his prophets and sibyls and pictures wondrous for their beauty and
significance, until the work was done. The day before it was done, if you
had gone into that chapel and looked up, what would you have seen? Posts,
planks, ropes. lime, mortar, slop, dirt. But when all was finished, the
workmen came, and the scaffolding was removed. And then, although the floor
was yet covered with rubbish and litter, when you looked up, it was as if
heaven itself had been opened, and you looked into the courts of God and
angels. Now, the scaffolding is kept around men long after the fresco is
commenced to be painted; and wondrous disclosures will be made when God
shall take down this scaffolding body, and reveal what you have been doing.
By sorrow and by joy; by joys which are but bright colours, and by sorrows
which are but shadows of bright colours; by prayer; by the influences of the
sanctuary; by your pleasures; by your business; by reverses; by successes
and by failures; by what strengthened your confidence, and by what broke it
down; by the things that you rejoiced in, and by the things that you mourned
over—by all that God is working in you. And you are to be perfected,
not according to the things that you plan, but according to the divine
pattern. Your portrait and mine are being painted, and God by wondrous
strokes and influences is working us up to his own ideal. Over and above
what you are doing for yourself, God is working to make you like him. And
the wondrous declaration is, that when you stand before God, and see what
has been done for you, you shall be "satisfied." Oh, word that has been
wandering solitary and without a habitation ever since the world began, and
the morning stars sang together for joy! Has there ever been a human
creature that could stand on earth while clothed in the flesh, and say, "I
am satisfied?" What is the meaning of the word? Sufficiently filled;
filled full; filled up in every part. And when God's work is complete, we
shall stand before him, and, with the bright ideal and glorified conception
of heavenly aspiration upon us, looking up to God, and back on ourselves,we
shall say, "I am satisfied:" for we shall be like him. Amen. Why should we
not be satisfied?— Henry Ward Beecher, in "Royal Truths," 1862.
Verse 15. "When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." He
speaks here of the resurrection; he calls it an awaking, for you know death
is called a sleep. "Those that are asleep in the Lord shall rise first."
He had spoken before of those that had put their happiness in the comforts
of this life, suitable to their bodies, to the animal state of their bodies;
that is clear by the fourteenth verse, "Deliver me from the men that are
thine hand, O Lord, who have their portion in this life, whose belly thou
fillest with thy treasure: they are full of children, and leave to them
outward things," bodily things. "But as for me," saith he, "I will behold
thy face in thy righteousness" (there is the vision of God which is his
happiness in his soul): "and I shall be satisfied when I awake" (when I rise
again), "with thine image." It is not the image of God only upon himself
that he means here. Why? Because that doth not satisfy a holy heart, but
it is that image of the invisible God which the human nature of Jesus Christ
is, who, in opposition to all these outward pleasures, will be all in all to
us; he is a spiritual creature, his human nature is spiritualised, made
glorious, and our bodies shall be made spiritual likewise. "The body is
made for the Lord, and the Lord for the body," and this when they are both
raised up; Christ is raised up already, and because he hath ordained the one
to be serviceable to the other, he will also raise up our bodies; and when
he doth raise me up, saith David, though other men have their bellies full
here, and have animal pleasures they delight in; yet when I shall awake at
latter day, and shall see this image of thine, shall see thy Son, I shall be
satisfied: "When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thine image."— Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." In
this Psalm holy David's afflictions are neither few nor small; his
innocency that is wounded by malicious slanderers, his life that is in
jeopardy by deadly enemies that compass him about; his present condition
that is embittered unto him by the pressing wants of a barren wilderness,
while his foes live deliciously in Saul's court. And yet under the weight
and combination of so many sore evils, David carries himself as one that is
neither hopeless nor forsaken, yea, lays his estate in the balance against
theirs, and in this low ebb of his, vies with them for happiness; and at
last shutting up the Psalm with a triumphant epiphonema, concludes himself
to be by far the better man. "As for me, I will behold thy face in
righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness."
They, 'tis true, enjoy the face of their king, whose favour is as a cloud of
latter rain promising a fruitful harvest of many blessings, "but I," saith
he, "shall behold the face of God in righteousness," whose lovingkindness
is better than life, clothed with all its royalties. They have their
bellies filled with hidden treasure, having more than a common hand of
bounty opened unto them; but I have more gladness put into my heart, more
than in the time that their corn and wine increased. They have their
portion in hand, and as being men of this world; but I have mine laid up in
the other: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." In
these words we have his and every believer's eternal happiness in the other
life, set forth in three particulars as a most effectual antidote against
present troubles and temptations that arise from the malice of wicked men
against them.— William Spurstow.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." The
saints in heaven have not yet awaked in God's likeness. The bodies of the
righteous still sleep, but they are to be satisfied on the resurrection
morn, when they awake. When a Roman conqueror had been at war, and won
great victories, he would return to Rome with his soldiers, enter privately
into his house, and enjoy himself till the next day, when he would go out of
the city to re-enter it publicly in triumph. Now, the saints, as it were,
enter privately into heaven without their bodies; but on the last day, when
their bodies wake up, they will enter into their triumphal chariots.
Methinks I see that grand procession, when Jesus Christ first of all, with
many crowns on his head, with his bright, glorious, immortal body, shall
lead the way. Behind him come the saints, each of them clapping their
hands, or pouring sweet melody from their golden harps; all entering in
triumph. And when they come to heaven's gates, and the doors are opened
wide to let the King of glory in, how will the angels crowd at the windows
and on the housetops, like the inhabitants in the Roman triumphs, to watch
the pompous procession, and scatter heaven's roses and lilies upon them,
crying, "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth." "I shall be satisfied" in that glorious day when all the angels
of God shall come to see the triumphs of Jesus, and when his people shall be
victorious with him.— Spurgeon's Sermons.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied . . . . . with thy likeness." Let a
man who is thirsty be brought to an ocean of pure water, and he has enough.
If there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough
to satisfy us. The soul is but finite, but God is infinite. Though God be
a good that satisfies, yet he does not surfeit. Fresh joys spring
continually from his face; and he is as much to be desired after millions of
years by glorified souls as at the first moment. There is a fulness in God
that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness that the soul still desires. God
is a delicious good. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul
with pleasure; there must be in it rapturous delight and quintessence of
joy. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur: the love of
God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is unspeakable and full of
glory. If there be so much delight in God, when we see him only by faith (1
Peter 1:8), what will the joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to
face! If the saints have found so much delight in God while they were
suffering, oh, what joy and delight will they have when they are being
crowned! If flames are beds of roses, what will it be to lean on the bosom
of Jesus! What a bed of roses that will be! God is a superlative good.
He is better than anything you can put in competition with him; he is better
than health, riches, honour. Other things maintain life, he gives life.
Who would put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a feather
against a mountain of gold? God excels all other things more infinitely
than the sun the light of a taper. God is an eternal good. He is the
Ancient of days, yet never decays, nor waxes old. Daniel 7:9. The joy he
gives is eternal, the crown fadeth not away. 1 Peter 5:4. The glorified
soul shall be ever solacing itself in God, feasting on his love, and sunning
itself in the light of his countenance. We read of the river of pleasure at
God's right hand; but will not this in time be dried up? No. There is a
fountain at the bottom which feeds it. Psalm 36:9. "With the Lord is a
fountain of life." Thus God is the chief good, and the enjoyment of God for
ever is the highest felicity of which the soul is capable.— Thomas Watson.
Verse 15. "When I awake," etc. The sincere Christian is progressive,
never at his journey's end till he gets to heaven; this keeps him always in
motion, advancing in his desires and endeavours forward: he is thankful for
little grace, but not content with great measures of grace. "When I
awake," saith David, "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." He had
many a sweet entertainment at the house of God in his ordinances. The
Spirit of God was the messenger that brought him many a covered dish from
God's table, inward consolations which the world knew not of. Yet David has
not enough, it is heaven alone that can give him his full draught. They say
the Gauls, when they first tasted of the wines of Italy, were so taken with
their lusciousness and sweetness, that they could not be content to trade
thither for this wine, but resolved they would conquer the land where they
grew. Thus the sincere soul thinks it not enough to receive a little now
and then of grace and comfort from heaven, by trading and holding commerce
at a distance with God in his ordinances here below, but projects and
meditates of that holy land and blessed place from which such rich
commodities come, that he may drink the wine of that kingdom in that
kingdom.— William Gurnall.
Verse 15. "When I awake." How apt and obvious is the analogy between
our awakening out of natural sleep, and the holy soul's rising up out of the
darkness and torpor of its present state into the enlivening light of God's
presence? It is truly said so to awake at its first quitting these
darksome regions, when it lays aside its cumbersome night-veil. It doth so
more perfectly in the joyful morning of the resurrection-day when mortality
is swallowed up in life, and all the yet hovering shadows of it are vanished
and fled away. And how known and usual an application this is of the
metamorphical terms of sleeping and awaking in Holy Writ, I need not tell
them who have read the Bible. Nor doth this interpretation less fitly
accord to the other contents of this verse; for to what state do the sight
of God's face, and satisfaction with his likeness, so fully agree, as to
that of future blessedness in the other world? But then the contexture of
discourse in this and the foregoing verse together, seems plainly to