Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts! We are filled with the goodness of Your house, the holiness of Your temple. Sermons
I. Here is A CONFESSION DEFEAT. When we look within we find that, instead of all being right, all is wrong. This alarms us. We rouse ourselves to action. We resolve to live a new life of love and holiness. But the more we try the less we succeed. Our strength is weakness. Our purposes are broken off. Our best endeavours end in defeat. Instead of overcoming evil, we are overcome of evil. Instead of gaining purity and freedom, our case grows worse, and we groan in misery as the bond slaves of sin. Confused and confounded, our cry is, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" II. THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORY. Though we despair of ourselves, we must not despair of God. We know what God is, and what he has done for us, and therefore we turn to him with hope. Casting ourselves simply upon his mercy in Christ, we are able to grasp the gracious promise, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." God's love to us is a personal love. God's work in us is designed to make us pure from sin, and he will perfect it in the day of Christ. While we say, therefore, with grief and pain, "Iniquities prevail against me," let us with renewed hope proclaim, "As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. - W.F.
Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts. This psalm includes a thanksgiving for God's bounties in Providence, for the beauties of spring, and the natural supply of man's wants; but the privileges of the sanctuary are here made a special subject of grateful acknowledgment.I. THE PSALMIST HERE COMMENDS PUBLIC WORSHIP — 1. As a peculiar privilege. "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causest to approach unto Thee." The opportunity of enjoying such an approach is not given to all, but brings special responsibility to those to whom God grants it. 2. As an approach unto God. God is never far from us, but when we meet in His courts we are able more distinctly to realize His nearness to us. We often have a deep and glad sense of His presence. 3. As the finding a new home. "That he may dwell in Thy courts." There may be a reference here, as in other psalms, to the Levites who literally dwelt there that they might attend to the performances of the services; but the latter part of this verse implies that David claimed for himself a share in the privilege. The thought is — "we, as dwellers in the courts of the Lord, shall be satisfied." 4. As an abundant provision. Here the wants both of the mind and of the heart are met. 5. As a holy service. II. GENERAL REMARKS ON PUBLIC WORSHIP. 1. It is valuable for testimony. Christians thus witness for Christ, and confess their faith. 2. For its associations. What memories cluster round the sanctuaries where we have worshipped I 3. For communion 'with one another. Thus we are helped by association one with the other in the various acts of worship. 4. For the worship itself in its various parts — prayer, instruction, praise. Then, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and let us seek to make the highest use of the ordinances of religion. (Anon.) I. EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF THIS APPROACH TO GOD. 1. Consider what it is not. It is not bowing the knee, and saying a prayer, and putting on an appearance of seriousness at particular times; it is not going often to the house of the Lord, and coming and sitting before Him as His people; the humble, self-condemned publican, that stood afar off, approached nearer to God than the Pharisee, though he confidently pushed forward to the holy of holies. To approach Him is an act of the mind, not of the body. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him acceptably, must do it not merely with a bended knee, and a loud voice, and an uplifted eye, or a head hanging down like a bulrush. These things are comparatively indifferent; if unaccompanied with sincerity, they are worse than indifferent; they are offensive and abominable to God, who will be worshipped in spirit and in truth. II. IN WHAT DOES THE BLESSEDNESS OF APPROACHING TO GOD CONSIST? In the honour, the pleasure, the profit we enjoy. III. THE HINDRANCES TO SUCH APPROACH. 1. Sin, this destroys our communion with God until we repent and return to Him. 2. The world. 3. Satan. (S. Lavington.) I. IN FEELING THE JOYS OF DEVOTION. II. IN OBTAINING THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. III. IN FINDING A RETREAT FROM AFFLICTION. IV. IN THE ANTICIPATION OF A BETTER WORLD. As the mariner who has been long tossed on a troubled ocean, or detained in a foreign country, is desirous to revisit his native shore, and, when he first discovers the hoary rocks of the green isle rising with rugged grandeur above the waves, his eye beams with joy; so the saint who has been sojourning many a tedious year in a waste howling desert, pants to behold the beauty of paradise, and darts his eye radiant with rapture towards the delightful abode. (T. Laurie, D. D.) I. WHAT IS MEANT BY APPROACHING TO GOD. There was a time when the Lord came down and conversed with man, as one friend does with another, when no thunder, and lightning, and tempest accompanied him, and when no conscious guilt inspired the human breast with terror; and a time will come again, dark and disconsolate though our condition now be, when the veil shall be removed, and we shall so behold the glory of the Lord, as to be completely changed into the same image. Now, sin interposes a dark cloud betwixt us and our God, so that we can have but a very imperfect view of His glory and majesty. "We see as through a glass darkly." There are seasons, however, when the Christian is admitted, as it were, within the veil, when he sees the King in His beauty, and enjoys that delightful communion with Him, which is a foretaste of the heavenly bliss.II. WHEREIN THE HAPPINESS OF APPROACHING TO GOD CONSISTS. 1. It is the highest honour; far superior to every dignity, an honour compared to which all the pomp and splendour of earthly greatness dwindle into insignificance. 2. It is a pleasure. God is the chief good. He is the source of life, and joy, and happiness. To go, therefore, to Him, and draw our enjoyments pure from the fountain from which they flow, must be peculiarly gratifying to every person who can properly distinguish between good and evil. 3. It is highly profitable. III. OBSTACLES THAT PREVENT OUR APPROACHING TO GOD. 1. The corruption of our own heart. This may be regarded as the first and greatest of all, because while this continues unsubdued, we cannot advance a single step in our journey to heaven; whereas, if this be overcome, none of the rest will be able to obstruct our progress. 2. The world.(1) How many, oppressed with the cares of this life, are wholly unconcerned about the joys of the life that is to come!(2) How many are the slaves of unhallowed lusts! The world holds out to them the intoxicating cup of forbidden pleasures; they drink it, and the luscious draught diffuses its baneful influence over the soul.(3) How many are deterred from the service of God by the fear of suffering! They would willingly serve God if they could do it with safety; but they cannot think of submitting to difficulties and trials in His service. 3. Another obstacle in the way of our approaching to God, is Satan. He is the deceiver and the destroyer.Lessons — 1. They who do not approach to God will perish. 2. The value of the privilege we possess, of approaching to God in the ways of His appointment. 3. It is only through the mediation of Jesus Christ that we can approach to God. (John Ramsay, M. A.) A nervous clergyman, who could only compose to advantage when absolutely alone and undisturbed, left his door unlocked, and his little three-year-old child softly opened the door and came in. He was disturbed, and a little impatiently asked, "My child, what do you want?" "Nothing, papa." "Then what do you come in here for?" "Just because I wanted to be with you," was the reply. To come into God's presence and wait before Him, wanting nothing but to be with Him — how such an hour now and again would rest us.People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Approach, Blessed, Bring, Bringest, Cause, Causest, Choose, Choosest, Courts, Drawest, Dwell, Filled, Full, Goodness, Happiness, Happy, Holy, Inhabiteth, O, Resting-place, Satisfied, Selection, TempleOutline 1. David praises God for his grace4. The blessedness of God's chosen by reason of benefits Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 65:4 1065 God, holiness of 8609 prayer, as praise and thanksgiving Library Sin Overcoming and Overcome'Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.'--PSALM. lxv. 3. There is an intended contrast in these two clauses more pointed and emphatic in the original than in our Bible, between man's impotence and God's power in the face of the fact of sin. The words of the first clause might be translated, with perhaps a little increase of vividness, 'iniquities are too strong for me'; and the 'Thou' of the next clause is emphatically expressed in the original, 'as … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Praises and Vows Accepted in Zion Daily Bread. Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving Aron, Brother of Moses, 486, 487. "O Thou, that Hearest Prayer!" --Ps. Lxv. 2 Question of the Active Life But in Order that we Fall not Away from Continence... If, Therefore, You had not as yet Vowed unto God Widowed Continence... Prayer Malachy's Pity for his Deceased Sister. He Restores the Monastery of Bangor. His First Miracles. Religion Pleasant to the Religious. The Sovereignty of God in Operation Psalms Links Psalm 65:4 NIVPsalm 65:4 NLT Psalm 65:4 ESV Psalm 65:4 NASB Psalm 65:4 KJV Psalm 65:4 Bible Apps Psalm 65:4 Parallel Psalm 65:4 Biblia Paralela Psalm 65:4 Chinese Bible Psalm 65:4 French Bible Psalm 65:4 German Bible Psalm 65:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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