1.
Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.
2.
Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.
3.
Thou has proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou has tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
4.
Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.
5.
Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.
6.
I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.
7.
Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
8.
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
9.
From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
10.
They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.
11.
They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
12.
Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
13.
Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
14.
From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
15.
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
SATISFIED
‘I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.’
Psalms 17:15
Notice:—
I. The date of the satisfaction.—‘When I awake.’ The intermediate state is often in the Bible called sleep. It is a metaphor, chosen not to describe a state of unconsciousness, but to illustrate the peace and the calm of that blessed interval in which the soul and the body, separated for a while from each other, await their final summons. By and by the dews of the morning begin to fall. The quickening Spirit—the same that raised Jesus from the grave—begins to do His resuscitating work. The Sun of righteousness rises high in the heavens in His perfect beauty. By His attracting influence every body and every soul, re-knit, are drawn up to meet Him in the air. The date of which David speaks is the Easter morning of the first resurrection.
II. The nature of the satisfaction.—‘Thy likeness.’ (1) Take it, first, with the body. Like the body of Jesus we are to believe our new resurrection body will be. Only it will have passed through a great change: no longer carnal, but spiritual; not dull, but glorious; not a hinderer but a helper of the soul; framed and moulded in exquisite adaptation, first to hold a perfected spirit, and then to be as wings to execute all the pure and unlimited desires of the soul for the glory of God. (2) And as with the corporeal, so with the spiritual nature of man. ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ Everything assimilates to what it is conversant with. If a man dwells on any sin, he will grow to the type of the sin he broods upon; and if a man have his eye to Jesus, he will infallibly grow Christlike.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Satisfied when? “When I awake.” The moment of resurrection will be the first moment in our history when, in the fullest, amplest sense of the word, we shall be able to say, “I am satisfied! I have all that I can desire!” ’
(2) ‘There is a blessed moment coming when we shall awake to find ourselves in the very presence of God, changed into His likeness and enjoying His favour—we shall be recompensed and satisfied then. The treasures of this world cannot satisfy and will not last, but “when I awake, I shall be satisfied.” ’
(3) ‘Dr. Whewell had a great affection for the seventeenth psalm. It was read to him just before his spirit departed. With the words of our text ringing in his ears he fell into that sleep from which he was to awake in the likeness of Christ.’