Psalm 17:15 As for me, I will behold your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with your likeness. The Psalmist has a morning in his view unspeakably desirable and glorious. How are we to understand his words of mystic devotion, and ecstasy, and hope? Not, surely, of the following, morning in the. Psalmist's life. The singer does not merely look forward to a deliverance from his present sorrows and sufferings. That is John Calvin's interpretation. It is, however, difficult to find a worthy meaning, unless we think of the sleep of death and the radiant morning of eternity which is to follow. It may seem strange to listen to so definite a statement of the everlasting future at so early a stage in the revelation. But a devout man who is in communion with God, and who knows the delights of that matchless friendship, will reach up now and then to the conclusion that the communion and friendship are destined to survive the present world. Let us single out some of the elements of this blessedness, this satisfaction. I. THERE IS THE BEATITUDE OF THE SENSES. We may believe that there is aggrandisement, expansion, growth in store for our senses. Have we not hints of it already? In the Christian life on earth these bodily faculties are sometimes marvellously quickened and sharpened. II. THERE IS THE BEATITUDE OF THE MIND. We think; we study; we seek after truth, and find it. It is one of the highest glories of our manhood that it is so governed by the passion for knowledge, and so resolved to grow in wisdom. Our minds, once we have learned to sit at the feet of Jesus, are admitted to new marvels and delights. We are scholars in the most blessed school. We grow not only in knowledge, but in holiness and trust and love. But much continues to be veiled and covered even from the sanctified intellect. In the hereafter we shall understand. What an awakening it will be for our intellect! III. THERE IS THE BEATITUDE OF THE MEMORY. Such a weird and tremendous power is our memory. It retains our past, storing up our experience, letting nothing slip out of its tenacious grasp. And it reproduces our past, summoning it all back again when it chooses, to scourge as it did Manasseh, to solace and strengthen us as it did St. Paul. Memory can never be the bringer only of good tidings to God's people in this life. Memory is too precious a chamber of the soul to be scattered and destroyed. What will make its words only good and comfortable in heaven is, that it will live there in the perpetual presence of Christ. IV. THERE IS THE BEATITUDE OF THE CONSCIENCE. We carry about with us a faculty which is at once a mirror of right and wrong, and a law enacting royally the path in which we ought to go, and a tribunal condemning us sternly and terribly for our wandering from the straight road, and a voice of God Himself within our breast. A priceless and momentous possession indeed, but an exceedingly troublesome one to many of us. V. THERE IS THE BEATITUDE OF THE HEART. It is the heart which loves. But what heart has gained its end and arrived at its goal? There is no satisfied heart. In the city of God all hearts are satisfied. Heaven is the heart's harbour made after the weary and stormy sea. (A. Smellie, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. |
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