Psalm 119:174

VjiRSE 174. — I have longed for thy salvation, 0 Lord; and thy law is my delight.

We now come to the second acceptation of the word “salvation,” as it implieth eternal salvation; and so the points are two: —

Doctrine I. — That we should vehemently long, and earnestly wait, for eternal Ufe.

Doctrine II. — That we should not only long for salvation, but delight in the way w’hich leadeth us to it.

For the first point, that longing for salvation is the duty and property of God’s children.

The reasons are taken from, —

1. The object of these desires.

2. The subject of these desires.

3. The use of these desires.

4. The state and condition of the present world.

1st, The object. The object of desire is good, considered as absent and not yet obtained good. All desire that it should be well with themselves. This desire is confused and general, not the hundredth part longeth after the true good: “Who will show us any good?” (Psalm iv. 6.) Some are carried by ambition, others by covetousness, others by sensuality: “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (I John ii. 16); and, “All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way” (Isa. liii. 6). As the channel is cut, so corrupt nature finds a vent. But now, God’s salvation is the true good, and ought to be desired, and will be desired, by all his children. It importeth a freedom from all misery, and an enjoyment of all good. There sin and sorrow shall be no more, and all tears shall be wiped from our eyes (Rev. xxi. 4). The blessed spirits above have none of our cares, and fears, and sorrows: we are sighing, and they are praising; we sinning, and they pleasing God; we full of infirmities, and they are perfect and without blemish, and in the full enjoyment of all good: “In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm xvi. 11); “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness” (Psalm xvii. 15). Alas! the preparations to this estate in the world, are far above the vain delights of the flesh, much more the pleasures there; these the soul longeth for. Though they are thankful for refreshment by the way, yet they long to be at home.

2ndly, The second reason is taken from the subject of these desires; and there we have, —

1. The suitableness.

2. The experience.

3. Our pressures.

1. The suitableness. They are suited to this happiness, wrought for this very thing (2 Cor. v. 5). Everything hath a propension to the place for which God framed it: it is the wisdom of God to put all things in their proper places, as every creature is placed in that element which is suitable, and answerable to its composition and frame; as fishes in water, fowls in the air. God’s children are framed for this very thing; therefore have an inclination and a tendency thither. As Heaven is prepared lor them, so in some measm-e they for it: “Afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. ix. 23); and, “Made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”’ (Col. i. 12). They grow more dead every day to the interests and concermnents of the animal life, and have a greater agreeableness to this happiness.

2. Experience: “Ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption; to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. viii. 23). A Christian here is unsatisfied, and longeth for a better and purer state of bliss and immortality, light, life, peace, joy. One drachm of grace is more precious than all the world: but yet it setteth them a longing for more. The first fruits show us what the harvest will be, and a taste what the feast will prove. Here we get a little knowledge of God, a sight of him in the ordinances, a twilight discovery of Christ, a look through the lattice (Cant. ii. 9), a little glance of his face. When neither doth he let the believers in to him, nor doth he come out to them, this glance maketh them long for more. So that, in effect, they send up the same message to Christ, which his mother and brethren did because of the press; “Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee.” Tell him, thou standest here without, but desirest to see him. So for the communion we have with Christ, it is but a taste; “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter ii. 3); but that taste is very ravishing and delightful. Here we get a little from him in an ordinance; but that little is as much as we can hold; but there he is all in all: here our holiness is not perfect, the seed of God remaineth in us; but thei-e it groweth up to perfection, as every spark of fire tendeth to the element of fire.

3. Our pressures and the miseries of the present life: “Groan, being burdened” (2 Cor. v, 4), We are pressed under a heavy weight, burdened both with sin and misery; and both set us a groaning, and a longing, as men in a tempest would fain be set ashore as soon as they can.

(1.) Sin, to a waking conscience and a tender, gracious heart, is one of the greatest burdens that can be felt: “Oh! wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. vii. 24.) If any had cause to complain of afflictions, Paul much more: he was whipped, imprisoned, stoned, in perils by land and sea; but afflictions did not sit so close to him as sins; the body of death was his greatest burden, and therefore did he long for deliverance. If others go away silently under their load, the children of God cannot; as light and love increase, so sin gi-oweth a greater burden to us. They cannot get rid of this cursed inmate, and therefore are longing for their final estate, when sin shall gasp its last. They long for the parting day, when, by putting off the flesh, they shall put off sin, and dwell with God.

(2.) Miseries. The children of God have not divested themselves of the feeUngs of nature, are not grown senseless as stocks and stones. The Apostle telleth us, that the whole creation groaneth, because it is under misery and vanity (Rom. viii. 20 — 22). It is a groaning world, and God’s children bear a part of the concert; they groan, and desire earnestly their full deliverance: “Few and evil are the days of the years of my pilgrimage,” said holy Jacob (Gen. xlvii. 9). Our days are evil; therefore it is well they are but few; that, in this shipwreck of man’s felicity, we can see banks, and shores, and a landing-place, where we may be safe. Here is our travail; but there is our repose: we should sleep too much here, and take up our rest, if sometimes we did not meet with thorns in our bed. 3rdly, The end and life of this longing and desiring.

1. It is an earnest desire; it maketh us industrious and stirreth up, and keepeth up our endeavours after another world:” For our conversation is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself (Phil. iii. 20, 21). Where there is a lively expectation, there men drive on a trade for another country. Desire is the vigorous bent of the soul, and so beareth us out under all the difficulties of obedience. If we do not desire, we shall not labour, nor seek it in the first place; and, if our desires be weak and feeble, they are controlled by every lust, abated upon every difficulty. Whatever gets your heart, that will command your endeavoui’s; for, as a man’s desire is, so is he.

2. To make us constant, notwithstanding troubles, reproaches, persecutions: “The violent take it by force” (Matt. xi. 12). They will have no nay; they must have it, whatever it cost them: though sore troubles and persecutions, yet, if we may get Heaven and glory at last, it is enough. But, where a thing is coldly and carelessly desired, everything puts us out of the humour.

4thly, The state and condition of the present world. It is called, “This present evil world” (Gal. i. 4). The pleasures of it are mere dreams and shadows; and the evils of it are many and real. God’s children are pilgrims here, and hardly get leave to pass through; as Israel could not get leave to pass through Edom. Sometimes they meet M’ith such bitter and grievous persecutions as make them weary of their lives; as Elijah requested for himself, that he might die; or as the spirits of the Israelites were filled with anguish, because of their hard taskmasters. God will give his people rest hereafter; but, before the rest cometh, they are sorely troubled: “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia” (1 Thess. i. 6, 7). Nay, the company that we go with to Heaven, are apt to fall out by the way, and to deal perversely one with another; unministering, imchurching, unchristianing one another, impaling, enclosing the common salvation, and justling one another out of the way to Heaven: so that the church, which should be terrible like an army with banners, marching to Heaven in order, in one whole body, is like an army in rout; and most are forced to get home in straggling parties. Now, every tender soul should long for God’s salvation, to get up to that counsel of souls, who, with perfect harmony, are lauding and praising God for evermore (Heb. xii. 23).

Use I. — Is to reprove them that are loth to leave this woeful life, and do not long and prepare for a better. God driveth us out of the world, as he did Lot out of Sodom; yet we are loth to depart: as if it were better to be miserable apart from God and Christ, than happy with them. Surely they are far from the spirit of true Christians, who would live always here are at home in the world, and cannot endure to think of a remove. There are two causes of this.

1. An unmortified heart.

2. An unsettled conscience.

1. An unmortitied heart. They are not yet weaned irom the world; their hearts are set upon satisfying the vile lusts of the hody; carry it as if their portion lay in this world (Psahn xv. 14). Sucking yet lipon the world’s dug, they have no longing nor desire for that happiness and glory w inch God hath provided for them that love him; they desire no other portion than what they have in hand.

2. And the other cause is an unsettled conscience. Some fear the state of the other world, rather than desire it and long for it. There are two degrees, not knowing for certain it shall go well with us, and not knowing for certain but that it shall go ill with us; both suppress this desire, especially the latter.

Use II. — Is to rouse up our languid and cold affections, that they may more earnestly be carried out after heavenly things: that we may seek after them with more fervency, and constancy, and self-denial.

The motives to press us are these: —

1. God giveth Heaven to none but those that look and long for it. Men may go to Hell against their wills; but none go to Heaven against their wills. In a punishment, there is a force offered to us, but not in a reward. We suffer what we would not, as Christ saith to Peter, Another shall giid thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not (John xxi. 18); but happiness must be embraced, pursued, and sought after. Well then, let the concernments of the other world more take up our hearts and minds; and stand as at Heaven’s gate, expecting when God will open the door and call you in. Christ will appear to them that look for him (Heb. ix. 28).

2. The children of God long to see God in his ordinances: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm xxvii. 4); and, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm xlii. 2.) “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary” (Psalm lxiii. 1, 2). Now, if there be so great and longing a desire to see the glory of the Lord in a glass, wherein so little of his glory is seen with any comfort and satisfaction, how much more to see him immediately, face to face! If a glimpse be so comfortable, what will the immediate vision of God then be? Surely, if this be salvation, every one of us should long for this salvation.

3. If it be not worth our desire, it is little worth. The estate being so excellent, such a complete redemption from all our troubles, so perfect, and so full a happiness in body and soul, will not you send a groan, or a hearty act of volition, after it? It is great ingratitude, that, when Christ hath procured a great state of blessedness for us at a very dear rate, we should value it no more. He procured it by a life of labour and sorrow, and the pangs of a bitter, cursed death; and, when all is done, we little regard it. Surely, if we choose it for our happiness, there will be longing and looking for it. No man will fly from his own happiness; a man’s heart will be where his treasure is (Matt. vi. 21). If you prize it, you will sigh and groan after it. The Apostle expresseth “a desire to depart and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Phih i. 23); voWu fiaWbv. If you count it better to be there than elsewhere, you will be desiring to be there, and longing to be there; for we are always longing for that which is better, chiefly for that which is best of all. There is the best estate, the best woik, the best company; all is better: if you count it so, it will be no difficult thing to bring you earnestly to desire it.

4. All the ordinances serve to stir up this longing after Heaven, and to awaken these desires in us. The word is our charter for Heaven, or God’s testament wherein this rich legacy is bequeathed to us; that every time we read it, or hear it, or meditate upon it, we may get a step higher, and our hearts more drawn out after heavenly things. In prayer, whether in company or alone, it is but to raise and act these heavenly desires; there we groan, and long for God’s salvation. In the Lord’s Supper, we come solemnly to put ourselves in mind of the new wine we shall drink in our Father’s kingdom (Matt. sxli. 29), to put a new, heavenly relish upon our hearts.

5. The imperfection of our present estate. “VVe are now imperfect, and straitened; like a fish in a pail, or small vessel of water, which cannot keep it alive: it would fain be in the ocean, or swimming in the broad and large rivers. So we are pent up, cannot do what we would; there is a larger estate, when filled up with all the fulness of God: that holiness we have now, maketh us look for it, and long for it; and surely holiness was never designed for our torment.

6. We are hastening into the other world apace; and therefore we more desire it. Natural motion is in principio tardior, in fine velocior; the nearer to fi-uition, the more impatient of the want of it. When a man is drawing home after a long journey, every mile is as tedious as two. We are drawing nigh to the other world; let us leave this willingly, not by force; let not trouble chase us out of it, but love and desire draw us out of it. God doth loosen our roots by little and little, that we may now be fit for a remove: the pins of our tabernacle are taken down insensibly, and by leisurely degrees. Now, as fast as we are going out of this world, we should be going into another; the inner man renewed day by day; that is, as it groweth more holy and heavenly. From our first renovation, we should be dyhig to this world, and settle our affections on a better: much more when God beginneth to call us home, then draw home as fast as you can.

For means to this desire and longing, there is necessary, —

1. A sound belief of this blessed estate, oi” a certain confidence of the truth of it: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven” (2 Cor. v. 1, 2). Not a bare conjecture, but a certain knowledge. Surely Heaven is amiable, and the object of our desires; if we be persuaded of the truth of it, we shall long after it.

2. A serious preparation for it: “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked” (2 Cor. v. 3). They have made up their accounts between God and their souls, sued out their pardon, stand with their loins girt and their lamps burning; then they long and wait when God will draw aside the veil of flesh, and show them his glory. A seafaring man desireth his port, especially if laden with rich commodities: where there hath been diligent preparing, there will be serious waiting and desirous expectation. While we make provision for our fleshly appetites and wills, we dream of dwelling here; we take it for granted they have no thought of removing to another place, who make no provision before their coming thither.

When a tenant hath warning to be turned out of his old house, he will be

providing another, and be preparing and making it ready, before he enter

upon it.

We now come to the second clause, “thy law is my delight.” DocTKiNE II. — That we should not only long for salvation, but delight

in the way which leadeth to it.

Here I shall speak to two things: —

1. That we must take the way that leadeth to it.

2. That we must delight in the way.

First, That we must take the way that leadeth to it.

1st, Partly because of the nature of God’s covenant, which is conditional. There is in it ratio datl ct accepti; something required, and something promised: “For thus saith the Lord, Unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant” (Isa. lvi. 4); “Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. x. 22); “And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said wall we do, and be obedient” (Exod. xxiv. 4). Surely, in the covenant of grace, God requireth conditions; it is not made up all of promises. Now, a condition is this, when one promiseth any good, or threaleneth any ill, not simply, but upon covenant: if the thing required be performed, or the thing forbidden be committed, the performance of the thing required is the condition of the promise; the doing a thing forbidden, the condition of the threatening: “And all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them. On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel” (1 Sam. xi. 1,2); and, “While the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an arabassage, and desireth conditions of peace” (Luke xiv. 32). Now, these conditions are twofold; making covenant, and keeping covenant.

1. The conditions as to making the covenant arise from the law of grace, or the lex remedlens, faith and repentance. Faith performed or omitted: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John iii. 36). So repentance performed: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your trangressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin” (Ezek. xviii. 30); omitted: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke xiii. 5).

2. Then conditions of keeping covenant, which is conformity to the law of God, or new obedience performed: “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm Ix.xxiv. II); omitted: “Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. xii. 14). Well then, upon the whole we thus judge, that it is not enough to desire God’s salvation, but we must also delight in his law: that is to say, we must repent and believe, and so begin our acquaintance with God in Christ; and we must also walk in the ways of God’s precepts, if we mean at length to be saved, and to enjoy the vision of the blessed God. That which is propounded conditionally, we must not presume on absolutely, and so make reckoning to go to Heaven as in some whiilwind, or as passengers at sea are brought into the harbour sleepuig, or to be crowned without striving.

2ndly, From the natvu-e of this longing and desire, which must be regular and according to the tenour of the covenant of holiness as well as happiness; and it must be strong, so as to overmaster contrary difficulties, lusts, and desires. Let us instance in Balaam: he said, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his”’ (Num. xxiii. 10). He saw that the state of a righteous man, at the end of it, is a blessed estate; and this he longed for. But there was a double defect in his desire: it was not regular. Balaam desired to be saved; but he did not delight in God’s law. He would be at the journey’s end; but was loth to take the way: there was a complacency and well-pleasedness in the end, but a refusing of the means. Again, this desire was but a flash, a sudden motion, occasioned by contemplation of the blessedness of God’s people, but no operative, transforming desire; a desire which the love of the wages of unrighteousness prevailed over. All men will long for salvation; but all men will not take a right course to obtain it: and so it is a wish rather than a desire, if we long for salvation, but have not a heart to use the means appointed thereunto. Where there is a true longing, there will be a using the means, and a using the means with delight. They that will not submit to these conditions, or snuff at these conditions as troublesome, they do not long for his salvation, nor delight in his law.

Secondly, That we must delight in the way that leadeth to glory; but, this argument being handled in other verses of this psalm, it is omitted here.