Psalm 43:4 Then will I go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy: yes, on the harp will I praise you, O God my God. I. IN WHAT MANNER WE SHOULD ATTEND UPON GOD'S ORDINANCES; IN IMITATION OF DAVID'S EXAMPLE. 1. He resolved to deal with God only by the intervention of an atonement. 2. He intended not to continue an idle spectator, nor to consider himself as such, during his attendance in God's tabernacles. Here is the market-place, where all that is truly valuable is exposed to sale by God's authority, and may be bought without money and without price. 3. He resolved to bring somewhat with him into God's tabernacles which he might offer upon His altar. And every Gospel worshipper, when he "comes into God's courts, ought to bring an offering with him." If you are duly affected with what He has done for you, nothing less will satisfy you than to offer yourself, and all your services, and all your talents, and all your possessions as a sacrifice of thanksgiving upon the Gospel altar. 4. tie would present his gift upon the altar, and expect the acceptance of it only in that way. When you present your supplications to God, remember that you can receive no gracious answer, whatever it is that you pray for, unless through Christ. And when you make an offering of yourself and your services to God, consider always that it is only for the sake of Christ and His atoning sacrifice that any of your offerings can be accepted. II. WHAT IT IS TO GO TO GOD HIMSELF AT HIS ALTAR OR IN HIS ORDINANCES. 1. A cheerful and ready forsaking of all sin. Our degree of intimacy with God in ordinances will always bear a proportion to our diligence and success in cleansing ourselves from sin. 2. A turning of our back upon the world and leaving it behind us. We must go to heaven, not by any local motion, but by an elevation of our hearts, affections and desires above the vanities of a present world; and setting them upon "the things that are above," "where Christ is at the right hand of God." 3. A believing acceptance of God Himself as the person's everlasting and all-satisfying portion upon the footing of His own gracious grant and promise. In that wonderful declaration, "I am the Lord thy God," so often repeated, God makes over Himself to us; as a portion, in the enjoyment of which we may be supremely blessed, even through an endless eternity. 4. An offering up to God all our desires in a way of fervent supplication. 5. A diligent searching after God, and after communion with Him in His ordinances. 6. An attendance upon God in ordinances with a view of being so much nearer to the full enjoyment of Him in the holy of holies above. III. IN WHAT RESPECT IT IS, ON WHAT GROUNDS, THAT GOD MAY DE CALLED HIS PEOPLE'S EXCEEDING JOY. 1. Why is God called His people's "joy"? (1) God is the author and the efficient cause of all the believer's joy. It is one of the fruits of His Spirit dwelling in His people. (2) God is the object of the believer's joy. 2. Why the believer's joy in God has the epithet "exceeding."(1) It exceeds all the joy that arises from the possession of any other, or of all other objects. All other objects are but the works of His hands. Therefore, that joy of which He is the object exceeds all that arises from other things, as far as the Creator is superior to the creature. (2) It exceeds all the grief, heaviness and sorrow incident to the child of God through the manifold trials and miseries of all this life. IV. INFERENCES. 1. All attendance upon Divine ordinances must be fruitless and unprofitable when persons are not concerned to come to Christ in ordinances. 2. No person comes really and acceptably to Christ who comes not, at the same time, unto God through Him. 3. In vain will any person attempt to come unto God, any otherwise than through Jesus Christ. 4. In this text we may. see who among us shall be acceptable worshippers in God's tabernacles; and particularly who will be welcome guests at His holy table to-day. Parallel Verses KJV: Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. |
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