A Breathing After God in Modern English

“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will 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” (Ps 27:4).

This psalm is partly a prophecy. It was composed after some great deliverance from some great trouble. The blessed prophet David had experienced God’s goodness answering the trouble he was in. In the first part of this excellent psalm, he shows three things: his comfort, his courage, and his care.

David’s Comfort

His comfort was entirely in the Lord, whom he describes with all the beauty and excellence of speech he can command. He presents the Lord to himself through borrowed terms: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, the strength of my life” (Ps 27:1). In this way he draws comfort from God, the spring of comfort, “the Father of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3-4). He labors to present God to himself in the sweetest possible way.

David sets God against every difficulty and distress. In darkness, he is “my light”; in danger, he is “my salvation”; in weakness, he is “my strength”; and in all my afflictions and troubles, he is the “strength of my life.” Here is the art of faith in every kind of perplexity: to be able to find something in God that answers every malady in ourselves.

David does not state this simply, but with holy triumph: “The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Ps 27:1). The question rises from a holy triumph that dares all other things to threaten him. “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1). This is one branch of his comfort.

The second branch and ground of his comfort is God’s goodness in the ruin and destruction of his enemies: “When the wicked, even mine enemies and foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell” (Ps 27:2). He describes his enemies first by their malice and then by their ruin.

First, his enemies were cruel enemies, bloodsuckers and devourers of flesh. We call such people cannibals. Indeed, when people without grace possess greatness and meet opposition, there is no approaching them. One person becomes a devil to another. Scripture calls them “wolves, that leave nothing till morning” (Zeph 3:3). Just as great fish eat up the little ones, great men make no more a matter of conscience of devouring other people than they do of eating bread. They have no more scruple about overthrowing and ruining people than about eating bread. “They eat up my people as they eat bread” (Ps 14:4).

Second, despite their cruelty, they were overthrown. David says, “When my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell” (Ps 27:2). Indeed, when God’s children are delivered, their deliverance is usually accompanied by the confusion of their enemies. God does two things at once because the particular troubles of his children come from enemies both inward and outward. He seldom, if ever, delivers them without also confounding their enemies. Thus David describes his own comfort in the Lord through the confusion of his enemies.

This will appear most clearly on the day of judgment. Then Satan and all who are led by his spirit, the whole malignant church, will be sent to their own place, and the church will be forever free from every kind of enemy. When the church is most free, its enemies are nearest to destruction. It is like a pair of scales: when one end goes up, the other goes down. When the church rises, down go its enemies. These, then, are the two branches of David’s comfort.

David’s Courage

His courage for the future appears in the third verse: “Though an host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” He imagines the greatest possible danger. Though an army of men should surround him, “my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me, in this I will be confident” (Ps 27:3). Here is great courage for the future.

Experience produces hope and confidence. David was not so courageous by nature. But through experience of God’s former comfort and help, his faith broke out like fire from smoke or the sun from behind a cloud. His meaning is, “Though I have been in such great perplexities, my experience of God’s goodness gives me such confidence for the future that I will not fear.”

Whoever sees God’s greatness and power by the spirit of faith sees everything else below him as nothing. Therefore, David says that he is not anxious about any future opposition, not even the opposition of an army. “If God be with us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31). He saw God in his power. Then, looking from God to the creature, he could say, “Alas, what is man?” When Micaiah had seen God sitting upon his throne, what was Ahab to him? Likewise, once the prophet David had seen God, he could say, “Though an host encamp against me, I will not fear,” etc. So we have seen his comfort in its two branches, along with his courage and confidence for the future.

David’s Care

What, then, is his care? That comes next. I will not analyze the psalm beyond the text before us. After setting out his comfort in the Lord and in the confusion of his enemies, and after expressing his courage for the future, he declares his care: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,” etc. This was his care.

David had enjoyed such sweet experience of God’s goodness and power as his light, salvation, and strength, particularly in God’s confounding of his enemies, that he considered how he might show his gratitude to God. He thought it most fitting to do this openly in the great congregation, in God’s church, among many others. Therefore, he says, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after still, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

The words of the text first describe the holy prophet’s care and desire in general: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that I will seek after.”

Then he specifies that desire. What is the one thing he desired? It was that “I may dwell in the house of the Lord,” with the added circumstance of time, “all the days of my life.”

The desire is first presented generally through its supreme object: “One thing have I desired of the Lord.” Its frequency and fervency are also shown: “I will seek after it still.” I have desired it, and I will not cease seeking it. My desire will not be a flash that is quickly kindled and quickly extinguished. No, “one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that I will seek still.” I will not rest until my desire is fulfilled. This is the general desire and the degree of its intensity.

The particular desire is “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord.”

Next come the grounds and purposes of his particular desire to dwell in the “house of the Lord.” He desires it first because it is God’s house. This is a strong argument for dwelling there. It is good to live where God dwells, where his angels dwell, and where his Spirit dwells, “in the house of the Lord.” This is one argument that moved him: “I desire to dwell there because it is the house of God.”

This desire is also described by its duration: “that I may dwell in the house of God all the days of my life,” until I am housed in heaven, where I will no longer need the ordinances I need in this world. “I desire to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

His second purpose is “to behold the beauty of God.” This was one reason he desired to dwell in God’s house. He did not want merely to feed his eyes with speculations and impressive sights, although there were indeed splendid things to see in the tabernacle. No, he possessed a more spiritual sight than that. He saw the inward, spiritual beauty of those spiritual things. The others were merely outward things, as the apostle calls them. His desire was, “I want to dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord,” especially the Lord’s inward beauty.

The third purpose of his desire is “that I may inquire in his temple.” He desired to dwell in God’s house because it was God’s house, to see God’s sweet and alluring beauty as it appeared in his ordinances, and to inquire more and more into God’s meaning. Divine things possess an unfathomable bottom and an endless depth of excellence. The more we know, the more we may know, and the more we seek, the further we may seek. These things do not merely satisfy our capacity but transcend it. Therefore, David desires to wade continually deeper into them, “to inquire in God’s temple.”

Thus we see the state of the verse. A general desire is presented: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after.” Then the desire is specified: to dwell in the house of the Lord, to see the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. These are its three purposes.

“One thing have I desired of the Lord,” etc.

Let us speak first of this desire as it is presented generally: “One thing have I desired,” etc. Then we will consider its increase, shown when he says, “I will seek after it still.” He desired it, and he would seek it more and more.

In this desire, consider first its object, “one thing,” and then the desire or seeking itself.

First, consider its object: “one thing.”

Question: Did holy David have only one thing to make the object of his desire? Was only one thing necessary? Alas, this poor life of ours is a life full of necessities. How many things our bodies need! How many things are needed for the dignity appropriate to our condition! How many things our souls need! It is a life of necessities. How, then, can he say, “One thing have I desired”?

Answer: He means that, by comparison, this is the one thing. I seek other things in their proper order and rank, insofar as they are consistent with the main thing, but I principally seek this one thing. All the rest will follow. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all the rest will be cast on you” (Matt 6:33). The best way to obtain all other things is to seek one thing first. Therefore, in heavenly wisdom, he says, “I desire one thing with an undivided desire.” I desire that more than everything else.

From this we may see that things differ in degree. God has established degrees among things in the world. Some things are good and some evil by his permission. Among good things, some are greater goods and others lesser goods. There are spiritual goods and outward goods. Among spiritual goods, some are means leading to spiritual good, while others are spiritually good in their own essence and nature.

The things that lead and prepare us are the means of salvation: the word, the sacraments, and membership in the visible church. The true spiritual good, the good we receive through these things, consists in faith, love, and inward spiritual strength. The prophet implies that things have different degrees when he says, “One thing have I desired.” That is, among this whole variety of things, he desired the best, which includes all the rest within it.

God has placed differences among creatures in order to exercise the wisdom he has given humanity, and he has given us a faculty for making a right choice among those differences. A person chooses rightly when he chooses as God chooses. God judges spiritual things to be the best things, and he gives them to his best friends. He knows they will make us good, supply every outward need, sanctify every state and condition to us, and last eternally. They are also suited to the spiritual nature of our souls. God knows this perfectly. Therefore, God has established spiritual things as the one essential thing, and when the soul has been made spiritual and bears God’s image, it chooses as God chooses.

“One thing have I desired.”

Question: But it may be asked again, why does he say “one thing”? He desired not only to live near the tabernacle but also to hear and see, to have the word read, and through it to receive grace. He desired a closer communion with God through grace, greater communion here, and fuller communion in heaven. Here is more than one thing.

Answer: I answer that it is all one. A chain has many links, yet it is only one chain. In the same way, all these things are one. David says, “I desire one thing.” What is it? I desire to live in God’s church and enjoy God’s ordinances. These will bring faith, fear, and the other graces. The Spirit accompanying the ordinances will be a spirit of faith, repentance, and grace. Through the graces of faith and the others that accompany the ordinances, I will have closer communion with God here and eternal, everlasting communion with God in heaven. All these are one because they are links in one chain. Therefore, when David says, “One thing have I desired,” he means the one thing that will bring all the others with it.

This is the aim of a gracious heart when it attends upon the means of salvation and lives within the church. Its purpose is not merely to hear for the sake of hearing and stop there, or to read for the sake of reading, performing it as a task and considering everything finished. Its purpose is to have the Spirit’s work joined with these activities, to receive the ministry of the Spirit in the gospel, to have the Spirit increase faith, and to have faith increase all the other graces. In this way, by grace, the soul grows into closer communion with God in Christ. This is the aim of every good hearer. Therefore, David speaks precisely when he says, “One thing have I desired.”

But let us say a little more about the object. Why does he say “one thing”?

First, it arises from the nature of God. The whole inclination and movement of our souls must be directed toward him. He will tolerate no wavering between two choices. The devil is content with half if we are willing to sin, because then he is sure of the whole. But God will have the whole heart. “My son, give me thy whole heart” (Prov 23:26), and “Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy soul” (Luke 10:27). The soul’s whole inclination and movement must be directed that way. Excellent things, unless we desire them above everything else, assert their own dignity. God asserts his dignity in this matter. He will not have us serve both him and Mammon (Matt 6:24). He will not have the heart divided.

Second, it arises from the nature of the soul. This is another reason David says “one thing.” When the soul applies itself to many things, it can do nothing well. Therefore, if I am to practice religion earnestly, “one thing have I desired.” A stream cut into many channels runs weakly and is unable to carry anything. Babylon was captured in this way. Its river was cut into many channels, and the conqueror could then cross them easily.

When the soul is divided into many channels and pursues this thing and that thing with an expenditure and concentration of care and effort, what becomes of its desire for the one necessary thing? The soul cannot pursue that thing with the strength it should have unless it fixes its mind on one thing. The human soul is finite. Therefore, it must gather its strength like a stream formed from many smaller rivers, which runs more strongly as they join it. The soul cannot desire the one thing as it should unless it brings all its smaller streams into that desire and makes it the principal one: to be saved in the world to come and, in this world, to enjoy communion and fellowship with God in Christ Jesus through the Spirit of grace and by using the appointed means. Unless this is the soul’s chief care, it gains no good while it remains so deeply occupied with other things.

Third, David sets out this “one thing,” to “dwell in the house of God,” to grow there in grace “as a cedar,” and to be a “tree planted there,” because of the very nature of grace, which unites other things to the main thing. The Spirit of grace sets heavenly and spiritual things before the soul’s eye in their greatness and excellence. Because the Spirit of grace sees that many things in this world are useful, it exercises a power that unites, joins, and subordinates them. It ranks all things so that they may agree with and assist the main purpose. Grace confines the soul to one thing.

After his fall, man “sought out many inventions,” as the wise man says (Eccl 7:29). He was not content with his condition while he stood but “sought out many inventions.” When man turns to created things, he does not know where to stop. No creature can provide a lasting support and rest for the soul. The soul is never quiet until it returns to God, and this is the one thing it desires.

When the soul is sanctified by God’s Spirit, it subordinates everything to this one thing. David desired many things besides this one, but not to the same degree. He desired them only insofar as they were consistent with his desire for this one necessary thing. Grace subordinates and ranks everything so that the best things have preeminence.

Therefore, he could rightly say “one thing,” because grace is disposed to rank everything under one purpose. This is a promise in the covenant of grace. God says, “I will give you one heart” (Jer 32:39). As soon as a person becomes a Christian, he has “one heart.” Before that, his heart was divided. It was fixed on many different objects, and God had the smallest share. The flesh had one share, one pleasure had another, and a different pleasure had another. But God says, “I will give you one heart.” That is, I will give you a heart that unites itself in desire for the best things and regulates everything else so that all becomes one. Then a person will “use the world as though he used it not,” so that the world serves the main purpose.

As I said, little streams help the main stream by running into it. In the same way, grace has power to subordinate everything in the world so that it may help the main purpose. “One thing have I desired,” and I desire other things insofar as they may help that main thing. Grace will teach us this art. It possesses a special skill in doing so.

Thus David rightly says, “One thing have I desired,” because of God’s nature, because the soul is finite, and because grace wisely orders everything. Grace aims at the principal thing and ranks everything else so that it may assist that purpose.

Application: This shows the vanity and baseness of every worldly person, who makes his secondary work his chief work and his chief work secondary. The “one thing necessary” is placed after everything else (Luke 10:42). Indeed, without grace, this is always the case. The first work of grace is to set the soul in order, subdue base affections, and sanctify the judgment. When grace has tuned and ordered the soul, the soul is then fitted to place the right value on things and rank them as it should. This is enough to explain the object itself in general: “One thing have I desired.”

Now I come to the affection itself, presented here by degrees.

“One thing have I desired, and that I will seek after.”

I have desired it, and I will continue to desire it. Desires are the issues of the heart. Thoughts and desires are the heart’s first offspring, its births. Thoughts breed desires. Thoughts in the mind or brain immediately strike the heart. They pass from the understanding to the will and affections. If we think of something as good, we desire it.

Thus thoughts and desires spring directly from the soul. Wherever they have strength and effectiveness, they set the outward person in motion. The soul’s desires are inward motions that stir up outward action until the desired thing is attained. Then there is rest. Desire stands in relation to the desired thing as motion does to rest. When motion reaches rest, it becomes quiet. In the same way, desire, which is an inward motion, stirs up outward action until the desired thing is accomplished. Then the soul rests in loving contentment and enjoyment of what it desired.

This desire was spiritual: “One thing have I desired of the Lord.” Holy desires arise from choice. A holy and wise desire, when it is not merely an idea, arises from choosing something good, for desire is simply the soul’s embrace of and union with a good thing. The understanding must first choose the good before the soul embraces it. The will carries the soul forward and advances it toward the good things that have been discovered. Desire therefore presupposes a choice of good things.

Choice presupposes that we esteem things before choosing them, and that esteem presupposes deliberate judgment. David’s desire, then, was not hasty or sudden. It arose from his sanctified judgment, which produced a holy esteem for these excellent things: the means of salvation, accompanied by the Spirit of God and containing such excellent comforts.

This desire presupposed right judgment, which led to esteem and then, above everything else, to a choice of these things over every other pleasure and possession in the world. At that time David lacked the comforts of his wife, children, and home. Yet he could say, “What do I care for these things? If I could enjoy the sweet, strong, and comforting presence of God in his ordinances, I could bear the absence of everything else well enough: my house, wife, children, and the pleasures and comforts of my country.” Therefore he said, “One thing have I desired.” His desire arose from a high esteem for and choice of the one thing of which he speaks.

I will briefly observe this point of doctrine, since I am hastening to the main subject:

The Spirit of God works effectively in the hearts of his children to stir up holy desires.

Nothing characterizes a Christian or marks one out so much as desires. All other things may be counterfeited. Words and actions may be counterfeit, but desires and affections cannot, because they are the soul’s immediate issues and productions. They come directly from the soul, just as fire itself cannot be counterfeit.

A person may ask his desires what kind of person he is. As the pulse of his desires goes, so goes his spiritual condition. Desires are far better indications than actions. A person may perform a good action that he does not love, and he may refrain from an evil action that he does not hate. But God is a Spirit and looks especially at the spirit. It is a good mark of a Christian when his desire is generally directed toward what is good, and the prevailing course, inclination, and tendency of his desire is good. “One thing have I desired.” The Spirit of God works effectively in stirring up such desires.

Question: But how shall we know whether these desires truly distinguish a sincere Christian from a hypocrite, and whether they are genuine?

Answer: We need go no farther than the text. Desires are holy and spiritual in the following ways.

1. They concern holy and spiritual things. “One thing have I desired,” says David. What was that? Was it to be rich and great in the world or to take revenge on his enemies? No, that was not the matter. It was as though he said, “I have many enemies, but God will deal with them and bring them down. What I desire is nearer communion with God. I desire to enjoy God’s ordinances.” His desire was fixed on spiritual objects, which showed that it was holy.

2. His desire was fervent. He says, “One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after.” It was not a blaze or flash that quickly appeared and quickly vanished. It was not a mere wish, a weak and ineffective desire. Its fervency showed that it was sound. David would not be quiet until the desired thing was accomplished.

3. It was constant. A person with such a desire will not be drawn away from it. Even the most wicked person in the world sometimes has good flashes, impulses, and desires. He sometimes cries, “Lord, have mercy upon me,” and offers other good, sudden prayers. But what is the prevailing inclination and tendency of his desires?

David’s desire was constant. It concerned spiritual things, was fervent and eager, and would not let him rest. What is natural is constant, and the same is true of what has become supernaturally natural. What becomes natural to a person in spiritual things remains constant, because nature is constant.

How does nature differ from artifice? Artificial behavior lasts only for a time. Teach a creature to act beyond its nature, and eventually it will display its natural qualities. Likewise, let a hypocrite play a part. If that part is not his nature, he will soon return to his natural behavior and reveal himself as a hypocrite again. Constancy and perseverance in good things, a settled course of good desires, show that the heart is good because the desire remains constant.

4. David’s desire was kindled by the love of God, not by base motives. Holy desires are kindled in the soul by the love of God. What does David say here? “One thing have I desired.” What was it? “To dwell in the house of the Lord.” What did he wish to do there? “To behold the beauty of God,” to see God in his excellence, beauty, and worthiness. His entire desire arose because his soul was captivated by the beauty of God’s house. The love of God stirred up this blessed desire in the prophet. It was therefore a holy and spiritual desire.

5. As holy desires spring from the love of God, so they tend toward the honor of God. What comes from heaven returns to heaven. Waters rising from a spring ascend as high as the place from which they came. In the same way, holy desires, kindled from heaven by a spirit of love, return to heaven. The love of God stirs them up, and through them the believer seeks God’s glory and honor and inward communion with him.

A person may sometimes desire holy things from merely natural motives. He may desire freedom from a particular sin or the possession of a particular grace, but not because he wants to honor God. Instead, he sees that grace might help him escape trouble or temporal judgment, or enable him to ingratiate himself with someone from whom he hopes to benefit. He therefore desires only as much grace as will advance his worldly intentions. He joins the world and God together.

These are not the desires that distinguish a Christian from anyone else. True holy desires spring from the love of God and proceed inwardly from the sincerity of the heart. The desired things please the person because they please God and possess loveliness in themselves. Such desires aim primarily at God’s honor and secondarily at our own good. This is a mark of good desires.

Thus, without going beyond the text, we can distinguish holy and heavenly desires from all others: “One thing have I desired, and that will I seek,” etc.

Let us therefore examine our desires and the prevailing inclination of our hearts. Desires issue from the will and affections, and they reveal the condition of the soul more than anything else in the world. Springs in low places are discovered by the mists and vapors that rise from the ground. People conclude that a spring lies below because they see the vapor ascending. In the same way, the rising of holy desires reveals a spring of grace within the heart.

Let those who mourn in Zion and have some evidence of grace, though they are not as good as they wish to be, look into their hearts. What is your desire? What is the prevailing inclination of your soul? When a person is converted and turned to God, what has been turned? Above all, his mind, judgment, and esteem of things have changed. His mind has been transformed, and with it the desire, inclination, and direction of his soul.

If someone asks him about the prevailing aim of his whole life, his answer is, “Oh, that God might be glorified, that his church and cause might prosper, and that others might be converted!” This is the inclination of his soul. It is not that he might become great in the world and ruin those who stand in his way, for such a desire reveals a corrupt hypocrite. The prevailing inclination and direction of the soul show what a person is.

Because I do not want anyone to be deceived in this matter, take one further sign as a substitute for all the rest. It also comes from the text: “One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after.” David would seek it not only through prayer but by using every available means. Indeed, he was never at rest until he was settled again in Zion. Even then he did not rest until he had obtained materials for the temple and secured a place for God’s honor “to dwell in” (Deut 12:11).

If our desires are not the desires of the sluggard, they will produce endeavor. We see this in David’s desire: “One thing have I desired, and that will I seek.” He used every means to enjoy sweet communion with God.

The sluggard craves and has nothing. In the same way, many spiritual sluggards crave and have nothing because they do not express their desire through their endeavors. Wherever desire is genuine, there will be effort. Desire springs from the will, and the will is the appetite of the whole person. The understanding alone does not carry the person forward; the will does. When the will is determined to have something, it carries all the faculties with it. Thus, when desire is genuine, it stirs up all the powers and faculties to perform their duty and seek the possession and accomplishment of what is desired.

Those who claim to have good desires toward God but live scandalously and negligently, taking no pains with their souls, possess only the sluggard’s desire if they make no effort to remove obstacles and hindrances. We may know that the desire for something is genuine when a person labors to remove whatever stands in its way, if he can. If the obstacles are not impossible to remove, he will remove them if he is able.

Some people make excuses, saying, “There is a lion in the way” (Prov 26:13), when they could remove the obstacle if they were willing. Such people have no true desire, for true desire is accompanied by the removal of every possible hindrance to the thing desired.

Question: But let me resolve one question. How shall I know whether my desire is strong and mature enough to give me comfort?

Answer: If the desire for grace rises above the desire for any earthly thing, so that a person can say with David, “One thing have I desired,” it is a good sign. If he can say, “I desire freedom from sin as a greater blessing to my soul than freedom from any calamity,” then his desire may comfort him.

Indeed, a person can never receive comfort from his desire until it has risen to this height. No one will ever come to heaven who does not desire the things that lead to heaven above all earthly things. Nor will anyone escape hell who does not consider it worse and more terrible than every earthly misery. God brings no fools to heaven who cannot discern the difference between things.

Let us understand, therefore, that our desires are of little value if we have some desire to be good but a greater desire to be rich and important in the world or to possess some particular position. If our desire for these things is stronger than our desire to find favor with God, or if we hate poverty, disgrace, deprivation, and other troubles more than we hate sin and the hell to which sin leads, it is a sign that our judgments are corrupt and our desire is not purely spiritual. Such a desire does not correspond proportionately to the worth of the thing desired.

David says, “One thing have I desired.” His desire carried him swiftly toward the “one thing necessary,” above everything else whatsoever. You have now seen from the text the distinguishing marks of true desires as opposed to false ones. I need add no more if we consider what has been said.

If we find these holy desires within ourselves, let us take comfort. “God will fulfil the desires of them that fear him” (Ps 145:19). Holy desires are the offspring of God’s Spirit, and not one of them will be lost. God regards them: “My groanings are not hid from thee” (Ps 38:9), whether they are groanings in trouble or desires for grace.

There is not the least motion stirred up in the soul by the Spirit of God that does not prevail with God in some measure, according to the measure of worth within it. Therefore, if God has stirred up holy desires within us, he will advance those desires. God will regard his own work, and “to him that hath shall be given” (Matt 13:12).

Nehemiah prays, “Lord, be merciful to thy servants, that desire to fear thy name” (Neh 1:11). This is a plea we may bring to God: “Lord, I desire to please you.” As Scripture says, “The desire of our souls is to thy name, O Lord” (Isa 26:8).

Sometimes we fail and cannot act with the zeal and earnestness we should. Yet we may say, “The desire and inclination of our souls is toward your name.” A Christian may plead with God, “Truly, our desires are toward your name, and we make some corresponding effort. Our desires turn more in that direction than toward anything else in the world.” This is a good plea, though our corruptions greatly hinder us and pull us back.

So much for the act directed toward this object: “One thing have I desired.”

Of whom does David desire it? Of the Lord.

“One thing have I desired of the Lord.”

His was not a blind desire for the thing. It was a desire directed toward the right object, toward God, who could fulfill it. Holy desires are desires of which we are not ashamed, but which we dare to open before God himself in prayer. What a Christian desires as a Christian, he prays for, and what he prays for, he desires. Otherwise he is a hypocrite.

If a person prays, as Augustine did in his Confessions, for God to free him from temptations while remaining unwilling to part with their enticing bait, he prays without truly desiring. Many people pray and say, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matt 6:13), yet run into temptation. They feed their eyes, ears, and senses with vain things. You know well enough what those things are. Their lives consist of satisfying their lusts, and yet they pray, “Lead us not in temptation.”

Many people also desire things for which they dare not pray. They desire to be wicked. But what a Christian desires, he prays for. David could say, “I sincerely desire to be in the house of the Lord. I desire it from the Lord and present my request to him. What I ask him for, I also earnestly desire.”

Learn this briefly from the passage:

When God stirs up holy desires within us, turn them into prayers.

A prayer is more than a desire. It is a desire presented to God. Let us turn our desires into prayers. That is the way for them to prosper.

“One thing have I desired of the Lord.”

We should make all our desires known to God so that we may continually maintain our acquaintance with him. We continually need to desire grace, the mortification of our corruptions, and freedom from the various evils that oppress us. However many desires we have, let them become so many prayers. Let us turn our desires into prayers to God and so maintain our acquaintance with him.

We shall never come away from God without a blessing and comfort. He never sends away empty anyone who comes into his presence with a gracious heart and knows what he desires. Making our desires known to God in prayer also brings peace. It brings “peace that passeth understanding” (Phil 4).

Suppose God does not hear our request by granting what we ask. Even then, “The peace of God which passeth understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds.” When we present our requests to God with thankfulness for what we have already received, the soul will find peace. Therefore, let us turn all our desires into prayers so that we may maintain perpetual communion and acquaintance with God. Oh, what a profitable and comforting acquaintance it is!

A person’s frequent approach to God with his desires is evidence and a sign of a good conscience. It shows that he is not following a wicked course, for then he would not dare appeal to God’s presence. Sore eyes cannot endure light, and a wounded conscience cannot endure God’s presence. It is therefore good to come often into his presence. Doing so shows that the heart does not cherish iniquity. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear my prayers” (Ps 66:18). Coming often into God’s presence is evidence of a good conscience. But I will not enter into the whole subject of prayer.

Next we see David’s earnestness: “I have desired it of the Lord, and I will seek after it.”

It is as though he said, “I will continue to follow God.” Here we see his importunity in prayer, his fervency, constancy, and perseverance. As the apostle exhorts, David persevered in prayer (Eph 6:18). “I will seek after it.” He would seek it in prayer and through every good means. He would do what he could.

Thus we see one necessary quality of prayer: it must be accompanied by perseverance and importunity. God loves persistent petitioners. Although we may find such people troublesome, God loves them.

We see this in the parable of the widow (Luke 18:1-8). There God condescends to compare himself with an unrighteous judge who “cared neither for God nor man.” Yet the widow’s persistence moved even that judge to regard her.

The poor church of God is like a widow with her hair hanging loose about her. People say, “This is Zion, whom none regardeth.” Yet this widow, the poor church of God, together with every individual member, persistently appeals to the Judge of heaven and earth. Will he not pay far more attention to the persistence of the children whom he loves and delights in, who “call upon him day and night”? (Ps 102:2). Will he not regard their petitions when even an unrighteous judge responds to the persistence of a poor widow?

We see the excellent fruit of persistence in our blessed Savior and here in David: “I will seek after it.” It is as though David said, “I will not take no for an answer.” Scripture therefore exhorts us not to keep silent and to give God no rest: “You that are the Lord’s remembrancers, keep not silence, give him no rest.”

Like Jacob with the angel, let us wrestle with God and not leave him until we receive a blessing. Like the woman of Canaan, let us continue following him and take no refusal. Beloved, this is a blessed kind of forcefulness: when we press our requests upon God and will not take no for an answer, but renew petition after petition and desire after desire, never stopping until our petitions are answered.

Can the hypocrite always pray? If you want a comforting mark that distinguishes a hypocrite from a true Christian, take it from this question: Will the hypocrite always pray? He will pray sometimes, but if God does not answer him immediately, he gives up. God’s children, however, always pray when the basis of their request is good.

If they see the excellence and necessity of a thing, together with its loveliness, usefulness, and attainability through the appointed means, they need nothing more. They will never give up.

This explains the petitions, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). But can we do God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven? Does God’s glorious heavenly kingdom come while we remain here on earth? No, it does not. Yet the soul guided by the spirit of prayer does not rest at this or that degree of grace. It continues praying until it reaches heaven.

“Thy kingdom come.” The soul says, “I have grace now, but I desire glory.”

“Thy will be done.” It says, “I desire to do your will as your saints in heaven do it. Though I cannot yet do so, I desire it. I will give God no rest but will continue praying until all my prayers are answered in heaven. Then I shall truly do God’s will as it is done in heaven.”

Thus we ought eagerly and constantly to persevere in our desires until they are fully satisfied. Otherwise, we are only hypocrites.

I urge you to take this duty more seriously than we have done. Never stop seeking God for grace, for strength against our corruptions, for his church, for the prosperity of the means of salvation, and for everything else for which we have sound grounds to pray. Let us never stop until we see that he has answered our desires.

When he has answered our desires, let us continue to desire more, for this life is a life of desires. Heaven is the life of accomplishment. There all our desires will be accomplished and all the promises fulfilled, but not before. This is a life of desires, and we must remain in a state of desire and prayer until we are in heaven.

Question: Why does God not immediately accomplish our desires?

Answer: There are several reasons.

1. First, he loves to hear the desires of his servants. He loves to be petitioned because he knows that it is good for us. The music most pleasing to God’s ears is the sound of a soul coming to make requests of him, especially requests for spiritual things. These are the things he most delights to give and knows to be most useful and best for us. This pleases him so wonderfully that he does not grant the request immediately. Instead, he leads us onward so that he may continue to hear more and more from us.

2. He wishes to keep us in perpetual, humble subjection to and dependence upon him. He does not grant everything at once but leads us forward by yielding a little at a time, thereby keeping us humbly dependent upon him.

3. He intends to exercise all our graces. The spirit of prayer exercises every grace. We cannot pray without exercising faith, love for God and his church, and sanctified judgment to discern the best things for which to pray. Prayer also exercises mortification: “If I regard sin, God will not regard my prayers” (Ps 66:18). A spirit of prayer puts every grace into exercise. Therefore, to keep all our graces active, God does not answer us immediately.

4. He wants us to set a high value upon what we desire and seek. If we received it immediately, we would not esteem or value it so highly.

5. He delays so that we may use it better when we receive it. We use things as we should when we have obtained them with great difficulty. When we have prevailed with God through great persistence, we keep and preserve his gifts as we ought.

These and similar reasons may be given, and you can easily understand them yourselves. Therefore, let us not be offended by God’s gracious way of dealing with us if he does not answer our desires immediately. Let us continue praying.

If the spirit of prayer is continued within us, that spirit is far better than the particular thing we ask for. God often answers us in a better way by giving us a spirit of prayer. By increasing the spirit of prayer within us, he increases all our graces.

What is it that we want? Perhaps this or that particular grace. But when God gives us a spirit of prayer, he answers us with something better than the particular thing we requested, for every grace is exercised in prayer. He will answer us in one way or another.

But I will not speak at length on these points. You have seen the holy prophet’s affection toward that one thing: “One thing have I desired.” He not only desired it but turned his desire into prayer. He prayed to God, and he did not pray merely once or twice. He continued seeking until God was pleased to grant it.

Objection: But David was assured of the thing for which he prayed. Why, then, did he need to pray for it? He had a promise: “He shall prepare a table before mine enemies, my cup doth overflow” (Ps 23:5-6).

But what does that have to do with this? Those are matters of this life. Yet David also says that God will be good to him in the things of the life to come and throughout all the days of this life: “Doubtless the lovingkindness of the Lord shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord.”

David confidently expected to dwell in God’s house and to have God’s loving-kindness follow him all the days of his life. He was assured of it, yet he still sought and prayed for it here.

Answer: I mention this to show that assurance of receiving a thing does not remove earnestness in prayer. Daniel was assured that God would deliver the Jews from Babylon (Dan 9:4 and following). He had read Jeremiah’s prophecies and knew that the appointed time had been completed. Yet we see what an earnest prayer he offered.

Christ knew that God heard him in all his desires and that, as God’s only Son, he would receive every good thing from his Father. Yet he sometimes prayed for whole nights, and the whole of John 17 is one of his excellent prayers.

Assurance of receiving a thing therefore does not remove prayer to God. Indeed, it strengthens prayer. God fulfills his promises for the future in such a way that he fulfills them through prayer. He wills that we should seek him for the promised blessing.

I may know from this that God will fulfill his future promises to me if he has given me a spirit of prayer concerning them. If I pray for perseverance to the end, asking God to grant me grace to live within the church and grow up like a cedar, surely God intends to grant this. He has given me holy and gracious desires, which he would not have given unless he intended to give the thing itself.

The promise encourages me to pray because I know my labor will not be lost. I pray because I have a promise that I will receive, and I know the promise is given on this condition: “But I will be sought unto of the house of Judah for this” (Ezek 36:37).

If we receive something without having sought it in prayer, we generally cannot use it with comfort unless it comes as the fruit of our prayers. We do not offer a separate prayer for every particular thing we receive from God, but those things must at least come as the fruit of the general prayers we present each day. Otherwise, we cannot take comfort in them. God may give things through his general providence, as he fills “the bellies of the wicked with good things” (Ps 17:14). But if we would have particular things work for our good, we must receive them from God as the fruit of prayer.

Thus David seeks and desires the very thing he had been promised: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek.”

“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord.”

David had stated his desire generally before: “One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after,” with all my might. What is that one thing? He now specifies it:

“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

His desire is not merely to enter God’s house, but to dwell there and remain. Nor does he wish to stay only a little while, but “all the days of my life.”

At that time, the house of God was the tabernacle, or sanctuary. The temple had not yet been built. David desired to be near the tabernacle and to dwell in the sanctuary, the place of God’s worship. The tabernacle, which was then the house of God, contained the ark, the mercy seat, the Most Holy Place, and other types of many glorious things in the New Testament. David desired to dwell there, near the ark in God’s house, because God manifested his presence there more fully than in other places.

In various passages of Scripture, the ark bears God’s name because God gave his answers from the ark, at the propitiatory or mercy seat. The people came there to learn his will, and there he gave his answer. He is said to dwell between the cherubim. Two cherubim stood over the mercy seat, and God is said to dwell between them (Exod 25:22). That is, he was present there to answer the high priest when the priest came to inquire of him. David knew very well that God had granted a more special presence in the tabernacle than anywhere else in the world. Therefore he said, “I desire to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

We use the word house for the people within it, provided those people are properly ordered. Otherwise, it is a confusion and not a house. The members of our household do not come into it by chance. There is an established order, with a governor and others under government, and its members are voluntarily joined together. In the same way, the church is an ordered, voluntary company of people, some appointed to teach and others to be instructed. For this reason it is called a house.

It is called the house of God because he is present there, just as a man delights to be present in his own house. It is the place where God has appointed that people should meet him. A man is ordinarily found in his house. There he receives those who seek him and reveals his secrets. He rests and lodges there. Where is a man more familiar than in his own house? What other place does he take such care to protect and provide for? He also stores his treasures and jewels there.

In the same way, God stores all the treasures of grace and comfort in the visible church. We may speak with him in the church as we speak with a man in his house. There he grants us sweet meetings and mutual spiritual kisses: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” (Song 1:2). A man’s house is his castle, as we say, and he will protect and provide for it. God will certainly protect and provide for his church.

David therefore calls the tabernacle, which was the church at that time, the house of God. Applied to our own times, particular visible churches under their own pastors, where the means of salvation have been established, correspond to the tabernacle. Such churches are now God’s tabernacles. The Jewish church was a national church. There was only one church, one appointed place, and one tabernacle. But God has now established particular tabernacles. Every particular church and congregation gathered under one pastor is a distinct and independent church of God. Our national church, the Church of England, is likewise a particular church distinct from the churches of other nations because it is under a civil government that does not depend upon any foreign prince.

By calling the church his house, God shows the special regard he has for it. Though God is present everywhere, he is present in a different manner in his church. Consider the soul’s presence in the body. The soul is present in every part, yet, insofar as it understands, it is especially in the brain, and insofar as it is the fountain of life, it is in the heart. It has offices and functions in every part, but in its special rational function, as it reasons and engages in discourse, it is in the brain.

So, to accommodate our understanding, God is everywhere, but he is especially in his church as he sanctifies, pours out his blessings, and reveals his secrets. God is everywhere, yet he is present in heaven differently from other places. He is there gloriously. Likewise, although he is everywhere on earth, he is present in the church, the heaven upon earth, in a different manner from elsewhere. He is there as in his house, protecting and providing for his people as his family. He remains there through his ordinances and takes pleasure and delight in them. God delights in his church and in the children who attend upon his ordinances. “Where two or three are met together, I will be in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). When God’s people meet together in the church, God is present among them. This is why the tabernacle then, and the particular churches that now correspond to it, are called the house of God.

Let us learn our duty from this, as well as recognize our comfort. Since the church is God’s house, let us conduct ourselves properly and decently in the house of God. Those responsible for God’s house should purge it of all who defile it, so that God may continue to delight in dwelling there and we may give him no cause to depart from his house.

“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord.”

The act David desires is to dwell in the house of the Lord. He does not wish to enter it for a day or a short time, merely greet it, and then leave it. He wants to dwell there forever. We see from this that Christians have a constant love for the best things and a constant desire to dwell in the house of God. You may think it strange that this holy man wanted to dwell continually in God’s house. But consider the lasting extent of his desire: it reached even to heaven itself. He desired “to dwell in the house of God for ever.”

For what purpose?

1. I desire to dwell in the house of God so that I may dwell forever in God’s love and in his care for me in Christ. I do not desire merely to remain in the place where the church meets, as though that were the end of the matter. I desire to dwell in God’s love and care, and in his gracious regard for me.

2. I also desire to dwell in my love for him, to “abide in his love,” to remain in faith, and to abide in Christ. A person must not merely remain in God’s house and go no further. We must abide in God’s love, and remain in our own love, care, faith, and dependence upon him. We must make God our dwelling place, living, walking, and abiding in him. As John says, we are to “dwell in God” (1 John 4:13), not merely in God’s house, but in God himself.

The highest aim of all David’s desire was to abide in heaven forever. The desires of God’s people never rest until they reach their proper center. There they are quiet. In heaven all desires come to rest. Fire never rests until it reaches its element above, and heavy bodies do not rest until they reach their center below. In the same way, holy desires, which are movements of the soul, do not rest until they reach their center, the place of rest.

We should therefore understand David’s desire to dwell in the house of the Lord as a desire to dwell forever in God’s care, love, and protection. He wished to dwell in love, faith, and dependence upon God, with the whole current of his soul, for as long as he lived. Afterward he would abide in heaven, where there are “pleasures for evermore” (Ps 16:11).

Therefore, whenever we have thoughts and desires for grace, comfort, and the other blessings of God while we are here below, let us extend those desires to their final end, heaven itself. There all desires will be accomplished and all promises will receive their complete fulfillment. It is a poor thing to desire only to live in the church militant, as though that were the end. No. This is the comfort of God’s people: their prayers and desires, together with endeavors suited to those prayers and desires, all lead them to heaven, where they receive their full accomplishment. They therefore have a constant desire to dwell in the house of God.

1. The first reason is that the soul in this world is never fully satisfied with the good things of God’s house until it reaches heaven. This life is a life of desire and longing. In this world the church is only betrothed to Christ; the marriage will be consummated in the next. Therefore, the church continually desires greater communion with Christ, both in his ordinances here and forever in heaven.

2. Remnants of corruption also remain in us. They deaden and dull our service and drive us to actions that grieve both our own spirits and the Spirit of God. For this reason we need a continual supply of the Spirit. We desire to dwell in the house of the Lord because corruption remains within us until grace has fully driven it out.

3. There is always more to receive in the house of God. We never become full. The soul has a marvelous capacity because it is a spiritual essence. It is capable of receiving more grace and comfort than we can possess in this world. Therefore we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” A Christian desires to dwell in the house of the Lord here until he comes to dwell in heaven, when he is transferred from the temple on earth to the temple above.

God has appointed a ministry for the edification of the church (Eph 4:11 and following). He did not appoint it merely to constitute the church, as some think and say, as though preaching must first constitute a church and prayer afterward edify it. Oh, let both go together! “God gave gifts to men” so that the church might be increasingly edified. As long as further building remains necessary, the ministry remains necessary. David therefore desired to “dwell in the house of the Lord.”

4. The special reason for his desire was that he knew God was present in his own house, and no good thing can be lacking where God is present. It is God’s presence that makes everything sweet and comfortable. What makes heaven heaven except that God is there? If a Christian soul were among angels, it would not desire angelic comforts if God were absent. If all the delights in the world were present, it would not care for them unless God were present. Heaven would not be heaven without the presence of God.

God’s presence in a dungeon or a lions’ den makes it a paradise, a place of pleasure. His presence makes every condition comfortable. Without God’s presence, the greatest comfort in the world is nothing. Why do holy people esteem the church? Because God is present there. Wherever God is present in the communion of saints, and especially in his ordinances, we should value those things because of his presence.

What makes hell hell? There is no presence of God there, no testimony of his presence, but only “utter darkness.” What makes human life comfortable? There is some presence of God in everything. His presence is found in food, drink, and friends, so that a person may say, “Oh, here is a good God; here is some manifestation of God’s presence.” Even the vilest reprobate in the world has some testimony of God’s presence. He tastes something of God in one thing or another. Though he does not see God in it, but like a beast is swallowed up in using the creature, God still shows himself to him through some comfort.

But when God removes every manifestation of his presence from a person, that is hell itself. What is hell but the place where there is no presence of God? When there is no communion with the chief good and the fountain of goodness is removed, a person is left in darkness and horror. That is hell, as we see in the rich man (Luke 16:19 and following). It is the presence of God that makes things comfortable. Heaven is the enjoyment of nearer and nearer communion with him.

Therefore, let us labor to enjoy God’s presence in his ordinances so that we may have a heaven upon earth. Let us desire increasingly to delight in them until we come to heaven, where every desire will be accomplished and desire itself will cease. Because David knew that God was present in his church, he said, “Oh, that I might dwell in the house of God all the days of my life.”

From this, observe the constant disposition of God’s children. It is a torment to carnal people to watch with Christ for one hour. “Could you not watch with me one hour?” he said to his disciples (Matt 26:40). It is a torment to them to listen to God or sanctify the Lord’s Day. Alas, such things cannot agree with their carnal dispositions.

But God’s people possess a deep and lasting desire: “One thing have I desired, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord.” People who lack depth of grace are like comets. They blaze for a time, but when they are no longer fed by vapors from below, they soon break apart. Fixed stars, however, remain continually in the firmament and do not wander. A true Christian is like a fixed star. He is firmly established in his desire: “One thing have I desired, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” God confirms that desire and says amen to it, as I will have occasion to emphasize later in the application of the latter part of the verse.

“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord.”

“To behold the beauty of the Lord.”

This was another ground of David’s eager, constant, and unsatisfied desire “to dwell in the house of the Lord”: he wished to “see the beauty of the Lord,” that is, the delight and sweetness of God. The word beauty is too narrow to express the fullness intended by the Holy Spirit, namely, the pleasantness and delight found in God. Understand the word in this broad sense. It may describe the object of every inward and outward sense.

Delight is the most comprehensive word for this pleasantness. In his ordinances, God is not only beauty to the eye of the soul, but ointment to its sense of smell, sweetness to its taste, and all in all to every power of the soul. God in Christ is therefore delightful and sweet. David desires “to see the beauty of the Lord.”

This clause presents two things: the object and the act.

It teaches, first, that God is beautiful. His beauty is seen especially in his ordinances and his church, in “the beauty” of God’s house. Second, it is a Christian’s happiness to see and partake of God’s beauty, and by the Spirit of God the Christian esteems it as such. Sight here signifies full enjoyment. One sense stands for all the others, for sight may represent all the inward and outward senses. Beauty does us no good if we have no eyes to see it. All is lost to us. David therefore desired to dwell in the house of the Lord so that he might “see the beauty of the Lord.”

I will not discuss the beauty of God at large, considering each of God’s excellencies separately. The text points especially to God’s beauty as it is revealed in his ordinances and his church. A person might speak gloriously and extensively about God’s own excellence. God’s wisdom is wonderfully excellent and beautiful, as we see in the ordering of all things. His power is wonderfully beautiful, as are his mercy and all his other attributes.

All this is true. But what benefit is it to us that God is infinitely beautiful in himself if he is not beautiful to us in Christ and in his church? We will therefore come to what the holy prophet particularly intends by “the beauty of the Lord.” God is especially beautiful in his church and ordinances, and this was the ground of David’s desire. Every beautiful thing attracts love. It is no wonder that he desired to dwell in the house of the Lord, because the beauty of the Lord, the most excellent beauty of all, was there.

The beauty of the Lord consists especially in those qualities of God that awaken love, namely, his mercy and love. These make everything else in the church beautiful.

What makes God’s power sweet to his children? What makes his justice sweet when it confounds their enemies and gives due rewards? What makes his wisdom sweet as it wisely reconciles justice and mercy in Christ? His grace and love make all these things lovely. That love set his wisdom to work devising a way to reconcile justice and mercy through Christ Emmanuel, God and man.

Therefore, grace is the most beautiful thing in God. When Moses desired to see God’s glory, how did God describe himself? “Jehovah, Jehovah strong, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, full of kindness” (Exod 34:6). If we wish to see the glory of God, we find it displayed most clearly in grace, mercy, loving-kindness, and such sweet attributes. Grace makes everything in God amiable to us. We can now think of his justice without fear because it is fully satisfied in Christ. We can think of his power with comfort because it works for our good by subduing all our enemies. No attribute, however terrible in itself, is anything but sweet and amiable to us because God looks graciously upon us in his beloved Son.

This grace, love, and mercy of God shine toward us in the face of Christ, the Beloved. As I have shown from another passage, “We all behold the glory of God as in a glass” (2 Cor 3:18). That is, we behold the love of God in Jesus Christ through the mirror of the gospel. We must not consider God abstractly and simply, but God in Christ, for every other conception of God is terrible. God will not be seen by the eye of the soul or known except in Christ.

God in the Messiah is exceedingly delightful in his house. The beautiful grace of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). God is so gracious and merciful that his justice must be fully satisfied, and it is satisfied only in Christ. Once justice has been satisfied, God in Christ looks upon us graciously. God is therefore beautiful to us in his mercy and grace as they are revealed in Jesus Christ, and as he looks upon us in the face of his beloved Son.

There are two objects of religious worship: God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and Christ as Mediator. The beauty of both is wonderful in the church and wonderfully directed toward it. This beauty is most apparent in God’s ordinances within the church.

Christ is “altogether lovely” (Song 5:16). In Christ, God is our Father and is reconciled to us, so we can think sweetly of him. Christ is “altogether lovely, the chief of ten thousand.” In the Song of Solomon, the church describes him particularly, considering his head, arms, breasts, eyes, and every excellence. “His lips drop myrrh” (Song 5:13). She considers each excellence of Christ, dwells upon it in meditation, and then sums them all up by declaring that Christ is lovely.

What makes beauty except a pleasing mixture of different colors, such as white and red blended sweetly together? What excellent beauty appears when justice and mercy are so sweetly joined in Christ! We see God’s justice fully satisfied so that his mercy may now flow freely toward us. If we entered fully into the love of God, the most beautiful and amiable grace of all, we would find an ocean: the love of God in Christ and the love of Christ toward us.

Christ was never lovelier to his church than when he was most disfigured for his church. “There was no form nor beauty in him” when he hung upon the cross (Isa 53:2). Yet what beauty a guilty soul saw there! It saw its surety enduring the wrath of God, overcoming all its enemies, and nailing the law to his cross.

This should endear Christ to us above everything else. He should be dearer to us because he was made vile and low for us. He should be most lovely in our eyes when he appeared least lovely in himself, disfigured beneath the burden of our sins. We should consider those times especially. The world is most offended by the very thing in which a Christian most rejoices. Paul says, “God forbid that I should joy in anything but in the cross of Christ” (Gal 6:14). We likewise should especially rejoice in and love Christ crucified.

This love of God in Christ, and Christ’s love for us, is expressed at length in the Scriptures, proclaimed through the ministry, and sealed by the sacrament. The subject is too vast for me to enter deeply here. I can give you only a touch and taste of it.

What makes the house of God so beautiful, then, is the revealed love of God and Christ, together with the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the church. Consider the persons of the Trinity. God the Father, who has revealed himself as a Father in Christ, is among the people of God in the church. God the Son is there, and the Holy Spirit is there dispensing grace and comfort. The presence of the king makes the court, and the presence of God in the church makes it as glorious and excellent as it is. “Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God” (Ps 87:3).

The church is also beautiful because angels continually attend our assemblies and observe how we conduct ourselves. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are present distributing grace and mercy, and the blessed angels are also present as pure instruments of God. For this reason, images of cherubim were woven into the curtains and hangings of the tabernacle, showing that angels attend the church, especially when it is gathered.

God has a greater regard for the church gathered together than for any single member. Individually we are temples, but the church is especially the temple when it meets together. The cherubim in the tabernacle curtains represented the angels’ attendance upon the church. They are servants appointed to do good to the church, and they are also fellow students with us. They study the mysteries of salvation: the beauty of God and his wonderful, transcendent love, grace, and mercy toward his church. “The angels pry into the mysteries of salvation” (1 Pet 1:12). They study these blessed mysteries with us. In this way, something of God’s grace and mercy toward the church is revealed to them that they had not known by experience before.

The church is likewise beautiful because of the church itself. God’s people are beautiful, for order is beautiful. It is an orderly sight to see many people gathered together and submitting themselves to God’s ordinance. “The glory of a king is in the multitude of subjects” (Prov 14:28). It is glorious for God to have many subjects meekly meeting together to attend his pleasure. An army is beautiful because of its orderly and well-arranged ranks. In this respect also the church is beautiful.

More especially, the means of salvation make God’s house beautiful. Besides God’s presence, there are solemn public prayer, the Word, the sacraments, and the government that should purge the church. Together they make God’s church beautiful and lovely. All God’s ordinances within his church delight the spiritual senses.

1. The ordinance of the Word is wonderfully delightful, “sweeter than the honeycomb” (Ps 19:10). This is especially true of the ordinance that unfolds the Word, namely, the Word preached. Preaching is like opening a box of sweet ointment. While the box remains closed, its sweet fragrance does not fill the house. But when the box is opened, its fragrance spreads throughout the whole house.

The public unfolding of the Word is the opening of this box. It is also the lifting up of the bronze serpent. If the serpent were not lifted up, the wounded person could not look upon it. When Christ is lifted up through this ordinance, every wounded soul may look to him. Preaching the Word raises the banner of Christ’s love. As the Song of Solomon declares, Christ’s love displayed like a banner draws people after him. When Christ’s beauty is unfolded, it draws the wounded and hungry soul to him.

Preaching the Word displays the sweet love of God in Jesus Christ. This makes the ministry so sweet. Through the ministry, each child of God receives his or her proper portion. God’s ministers are stewards appointed to distribute comfort and reproof to those to whom each belongs. When every person receives an appropriate portion, God’s ordinance becomes beautiful. The waters of life are drawn from the spring of Scripture and directed to each individual’s use.

The Word is sweet when it is applied, for the nearer good things are brought home to us, the more delightful they become. Preaching reveals the “riches of Christ.” Great riches may be shut up in a treasury, but the ministry opens that treasury. As Paul says, it lays open “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8). The ministry of the Word is ordained to open this treasure to God’s people so that they may know what riches they possess through Christ.

The end of the ministry is to win the people’s love for Christ. Ministers come between the bride and the bridegroom to bring about the marriage. They reveal what brings about the betrothal here and its consummation in heaven. They woo people for Christ and “beseech them to be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). This is the ministry’s purpose.

The church is beautiful because it possesses this ordinance, which brings God and Christ together with his people and binds them to one another. Scripture contains rich mines, but those mines must be dug up. The ministry serves to dig them up. God has therefore set apart the ministerial calling to reveal what belongs to his people. In this respect, through the ordinance of the ministry, God is beautiful in his house.

2. The sacrament is also sweet and delightful. There is wonderful beauty in it, for there we taste the love of God and the love of Christ. They condescend so far as to seal our faith by the sacrament, helping our souls through our bodies and using outward things to teach us what nourishes our souls. That nourishment is the death of Christ, which satisfies divine justice.

To consider and spiritually digest this is wonderfully comforting, as food is comforting to the body, but incomparably sweeter. We continually need to taste this spiritual food because our daily sins and failures create a daily necessity for Christ. God has appointed such means that, in the sacrament, he feeds us with Christ’s own body and blood.

Christ judged that he could not sufficiently manifest his love unless he told us that he would give himself to us and make himself wholly ours. He says in effect, “You shall have me, my body and blood.” In the sacrament we truly partake of Christ’s body and blood, just as truly as we partake of the bread and wine. Our souls receive spiritual growth through Christ and his benefits just as our bodies receive growth through the outward elements.

Christ feeds us with himself. He values the souls purchased with his blood so highly that he considers no food good enough for them but his own body and blood. What gracious and sweet love this is! He is the one who invites us, the banquet to which we are invited, and everything else we need. He invites us to himself.

3. There is also loveliness in all the other ordinances belonging to the church, including its good order and government and the removal of offenders. Church discipline is like the snuffers in the sanctuary, used to trim and cleanse the lights. People who live in open scandal should therefore be removed. The lights must be trimmed, the temple cleansed, and scandals taken away so that God’s house may be more beautiful.

Open swearers and blasphemers are blemishes upon God’s house. Those who live in scandalous sins are spots in the assembly. They are leaven, and this leaven should be purged out. Where this discipline operates vigorously, the church possesses great beauty. When these matters receive proper attention, they act like bonds, nerves, and sinews, joining and holding the church together. They make a church wonderfully lovely. Neglecting them makes it like an overgrown garden.

Thus, through the ordinances of the Word and sacrament and through the government that ought to be exercised, the house of God is a beautiful place.

4. The praise of God is also comforting, sweet, and delightful. It is marvelously sweet when everyone joins as one person to hear, pray, sing hymns and spiritual songs, praise God, and receive the sacrament together. How lovely this is to a spiritual eye! Every Christian possesses an individual beauty, but their beauty is more excellent when they all meet together.

Consider the Milky Way in the heavens. It is formed by the combined light of a multitude of little stars, producing a glorious radiance. If every poor Christian has a beauty individually, what beauty appears when they all meet together! There is not only beauty, but strength. The prayers and praises of such people offer a holy violence to God and may obtain anything from his hand.

When the many rays of a burning glass converge at one point, they intensify the heat and set an object on fire. In the same way, when many sweet and strong desires for spiritual things meet together, they bind God. The prayers of the church possess not only beauty, but strength.

In Christ’s own estimation, his people are lovely. He loves to see his church, especially when its members are gathered together. “Let me see thy face, and hear thy voice, thou that hidest thyself in the clefts of the rock” (Song 2:14). He greatly desires to see his children and hear them speak, especially when they present themselves before him.

Harmony is sweet and pleasant. It is also harmonious to compare the former state of the church with its present state. David lived under the Old Testament, yet through it he saw the New. In the same way, we should see the Old in the New, comparing them and recognizing shadows in their substances and types in their truths. Everything in the church gives a particular delight.

5. God’s gracious, amiable, and sweet beauty also appears in his house, the church, through the evidence of his love in protecting and providing for it. “They shall not need a wall,” he says in Zechariah. “I will be a wall of fire” (Zech 2:5). God takes special care of his congregation. “God dwells in the congregation of the righteous” (Ps 82:1). He has his dwelling and special residence where his name is called upon.

This becomes even clearer when we consider all the sweet privileges and comforts found in God’s house. God is not only beautiful in himself, but also in the privileges the church receives from him. All our beauty and excellence is borrowed. The church shines in the beams and beauty of Christ. Consider a few of the privileges the church receives through him.

1. In the golden chain of salvation, we see sweet and amiable love in every link. What wonderfully sweet love God shows throughout it!

2. He calls people out of the wilderness of the world and the kingdom of Satan to become his children. What marvelous love it is for him to single us out from the rest of humanity and make us Christians; then, as Christians, to lead us to profess the truth; and then to make that profession sincere.

What wonderful love God displayed in calling us and thereby opening his eternal purpose to us! When his Spirit and ministry draw us to God, the good pleasure that was hidden in God from eternity is disclosed to the soul. Here we see the amiable love of God.

3. Then come the pardon and forgiveness of sins and our justification. What wonderful grace appears in the forgiveness of sins, in adoption as God’s sons and heirs, and in becoming “fellow-heirs with Jesus Christ” (Rom 8:17). Because of this, angels become our attendants.

What beauty we possess in justification! We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, that perfect righteousness which can answer God’s justice, and much more Satan’s accusations and the troubles of our own consciences. Because the righteousness of the God-man satisfies divine justice, it will also satisfy the conscience and answer Satan’s temptations. It is a spotless garment. Satan can find no hole in that glorious clothing, the righteousness of Christ. If we possess Christ’s wardrobe, we will be beautiful in what we receive from him and will shine in his beams.

4. Consider also sanctification. How amiable God is in this privilege! He sets his image upon us, makes us new creatures, and conforms us to his Son. Before, we were like devils, full of malice and base affections. Now God, by his Spirit, forms a new temple in which his Spirit may dwell and sets his own stamp upon us. What wonderful beauty this is! The church of God is the house where God forms new creatures and impresses his stamp upon them.

The graces belonging to the church of God are wonderfully delightful. “Wisdom makes a man’s face to shine” (Eccl 8:1), and there is no true wisdom outside the church. Everything else is darkness and folly. The same is true of every other grace. The graces are the Spirit’s anointing, his oil. They make people sweet and delightful to God, to the church, and to one another. God’s people are anointed with the oil of gladness and grace. It first ran upon Christ’s head, as the oil ran upon Aaron’s head, and then descended to the skirts, reaching even the humblest Christian.

The beginning of glory is also found here, for God does not reserve everything for the life to come. He distills a few drops of glory beforehand. Even in this world, we see God’s beauty wonderfully displayed in the beginning of glory. After justification and the beginning of holiness worked in our nature by the Spirit, we receive inward peace of conscience, joy, and comfort amid every kind of distress. We possess not only the oil of grace, but the oil of comfort.

Oh, the comfort belonging to God’s children! They are not merely members of the visible church, but truly belong to the church itself. They belong to the visible church in such a way that they are also members of the invisible church. Every comfort in God’s book belongs to them. Thus we see the wonderfully sweet privileges we possess throughout every stage of salvation in God’s house and in God reconciled to us through Jesus Christ.

Indeed, God is so lovely toward those who belong to him, his church and people, and he is so good to Israel, that in the end he makes everything work for their good. “All things work for the best to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). He establishes a covenant between them and everything that happens. All the efforts of Satan and his instruments, and all their schemes, will therefore turn to the church’s good. When they think they are doing the greatest harm, they do the greatest good. So sweet, good, and gracious is God.

“Glorious things are spoken” of God’s people (Ps 87:3). Consider the church as a visible and mixed congregation, and glorious things are spoken even of it. It is the house of God. As a visible church it contains “vessels of honour and dishonour” (2 Tim 2:20). It is also the field containing “tares and the wheat” (Matt 13:24 and following), yet it remains God’s field. Even considered visibly, it bears a glorious name because of the good within it, and especially because of the wheat.

But consider the church of God as the company of his children gathered through the means of grace, dwelling in the visible church and enjoying its visible means. They are the house and temple of Christ, “the temple of the Holy Ghost, the body of Christ, the spouse of Christ.” They are God’s delight and are spiritual kings and priests. The most glorious things possible may be said of them.

Every other excellence in the world is largely a title and shadow. It may possess some small reality, but compared with the excellencies of the church, it is scarcely worthy to be called real. Solomon calls it “vanity of vanities.” Compared with the church’s excellence, everything else is nothing.

I might speak at length about these matters, but it is enough to give you this general account of the delights and excellencies of God’s house, “the beauty of the Lord.” We see the loveliness of God in Christ, in his ordinances, and in the privileges, graces, and comforts received through those ordinances.

Beloved, the church of God is truly a paradise. Since we were cast out of the first paradise, the church of God has become a second paradise, and heaven itself will be the third. This paradise, the church, is a nursery of young plants that in due time will be transplanted from here to heaven. The first paradise contained the tree of life (Gen 3:22); the church contains Christ, the true tree of life. Paradise had waters, streams, and rivers (Gen 2:10); in the church “is a river that makes glad the city of God” (Ps 46:4), with streams of grace and comfort flowing through God’s church.

Within the church, we are like plants beside rivers of water that bear fruit in season (Ps 1:3 and following). The first Psalm speaks of the blessed people who live in the church: “Blessed is the man that meditates in the word day and night,” attending upon God’s ordinances. He is “planted as a tree by the waters’ side,” and his leaf is always green.

What food compares with the food given to us in the Word and sacraments, Christ himself feeding us for eternal life? What clothing compares with the clothing of justification, when Christ clothes our poor, naked, beggarly souls? What riches compare with the riches of God’s graces and comforts? What strength compares with that found in the church for overcoming our own corruptions and lusts? What beauty compares with the image of God shining upon and stamped into his children?

What company is as sweet as the company of those we meet on earth in holy exercises and with whom we will live forever in heaven? What company compares with that of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and angels whom we enjoy in the church? What conversation is as sweet as the conversation of God, as we hear him speak in his Word and speak to him in prayer? The church of God is therefore a likeness of heaven upon earth.

We should consequently love the beauty of God’s temple and sanctuary. We have even greater reason to do so because everything in the present age of the church is revealed in a more glorious manner than it was in David’s time.

When David saw the beauty of God’s sanctuary, he saw it only in shadows. When he looked upon the mercy seat, he thought of Christ, the true propitiatory and mercy seat. When he looked upon the high priest, he thought of Christ, the true High Priest. When he thought of Canaan, he was reminded of heaven, of which Canaan was a type. When he saw the sacrifices, he thought of Christ, the true sacrifice for our sins. When he thought of offerings and incense, he thought of the sacrifice of thanksgiving. When he thought of the Passover, he thought of Christ, the true Passover, whose blood is sprinkled upon our souls so that the destroying angel has nothing to do with us.

David saw all these things in shadows; we see them openly. Our condition in this later age of the church is therefore more glorious than his. Our desires should be stirred up all the more because we possess the substance instead of the shadow.

In David’s time the Spirit was given only in drops, but since Christ’s coming the Father has poured out the Spirit. Then the boundary of the church was narrow; now it has been enlarged. Then there was only one church, the national church of the Jews. Then the service of God was wonderfully burdensome and costly, but it is not so now. There are many such differences. Everything is brighter and clearer now than it was then.

Since we possess even more reasons than David did to commend the frequent gathering of the congregation, we should make it our desire all the more “to dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of our life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.”

Question: If there is such beauty in the house of God, what shall we think of those who see no beauty there at all, and who find no delight or contentment in God’s house?

Answer: If they would consider it, this reveals that they have no spiritual senses at all. As Augustine says of those who complain that they cannot taste and relish these things, surely you lack the spiritual palate needed to taste them. What do swine care for sweet marjoram or roses? They care more for a dunghill or a puddle. What do base, filthy swine in human form care for these things? They care more for pleasures and similar things that allow them to spend their lives like beasts.

When we speak of the delights, delicacies, and excellencies of God’s house, we speak to those whom we wish and hope have spiritual senses suited to these things. Every creature delights in its proper element. These things are the element of a Christian. Beetles delight in dirt, swine in mire, and fish in the sea. Humanity has its element here, and spiritual things are the proper place of a Christian insofar as he is a Christian. This is the place in which he delights. I speak to such people.

They can affirm in some measure that “one day in the house of God is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Ps 84:10). One hour spent unfolding the sweet mysteries of salvation is worth twenty-four hours in other employment. They are so captivated by this sweetness that they would be content for God to take them out of the world while these sweet things are being unfolded. When they hear the promises of salvation opened, even by a poor, weak man, the ministry so ravishes their hearts that they are content to go to heaven at that very time. It convinces them so deeply of the excellence of religion. It is to such people that I speak of the beauty of God.

David desires here to behold God’s beauty, to see and consider God’s excellence in his church. For true delight, several things must come together. First, there must be something sweet in the thing itself. There must also be a power in the soul capable of apprehending it, and an affection in the soul toward that good thing. If the affection is dull, then however beautiful and sweet the things may be, and even if there is power to apprehend them, they are nothing to us without affection. Finally, arising from that affection, there must be pleasure and contentment in the thing when we possess it. All these belong to delight in what is beautiful and pleasant.

David desired to see. He knew there was beauty in the presence of God, in his ordinances, gifts, and graces. But he desired to see and contemplate these things so that the faculties and powers of his soul might correspond to them. As they were excellent, so he wished to have a corresponding power in his soul. Then he had affections that carried this power of his soul toward them: “One thing have I desired.” And when he enjoyed them, he felt corresponding pleasure and delight. We see how he expressed his delight when he danced before the ark. We also see what a psalm he composed merely upon intending “to build the temple” (Ps 132). He had a wonderful joy. Our joy and pleasure in something when we possess it correspond to our delight in it.

To experience this pleasure more sweetly, David desired to see the beauty and the things found in God’s house. Of all the senses, sight has a quality above the rest. It is more spiritual, more refined, and more capable, for a person may see many things at once, and it is a quick sense. Sight also has this privilege: it stirs the affections more than any other sense, even more than hearing, which is a duller sense. Things seen stir the affections more than things heard. David therefore desired to see the beauty of God’s house so that he might be captivated by it. Love comes through sight.

David had spiritual eyes, and he desired to feed his spiritual sight with the best possible object, for human happiness lies in this. What constitutes a person’s happiness? It is the union of the most excellent object with the most excellent power and faculty of the soul, together with delight and contentment in it. David desired to see the beauty of God in his house so that his soul might be ravished by the excellence of the object, and so that the highest powers of his soul, his understanding, will, and affections, might be fully satisfied and enjoy complete contentment.

Since the fall, all our happiness lies outside ourselves. It is derived from God in Christ and drawn from God’s promises in the Word. God will be seen in Christ, and God and Christ will be seen in the mirror of the ordinances until we come to heaven. There we shall see “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). All our happiness is now obtained by looking outside ourselves upon the love of God, as it is found in the ordinances. David desired to see the beauty of God. God’s love is diffusive: it spreads and communicates itself to his church through the ordinances. Knowing this, David desired to receive more and more of this diffusive, abundant, and transcendent love of God.

Question: But how shall we come to have the desires David had, desires to see the beauty of God?

Answer: In a word, we must have spiritual senses. The spiritual life of a Christian is furnished with spiritual senses. He has a spiritual eye and a spiritual taste with which to relish spiritual things, a spiritual ear with which to judge holy things, and spiritual feeling. As every form of life has senses and motion suited to it, so does this excellent life. We should therefore labor to have this spiritual life quickened in us, so that we may have keen sight and taste for heavenly things and may smell the ointment of Christ: “For the sweetness of thy ointments the virgins run after thee” (Song 1:3). The soul has senses corresponding to those of the body. Let us ask God to cleanse all our senses and to reveal himself in Christ more and more through the ordinances.

Paul calls this the “Spirit of revelation” (Eph 1:17). Let us pray that in his ordinances God would reveal his lovely love in Christ, shining upon us in the face of his Son. The Spirit must help us see the beauty of God. Even when we have spiritual senses, we cannot see unless the Spirit gives us spiritual light. Therefore, let us ask God to give us spiritual senses suited to spiritual light.

When God made the world, light was the first creature. Why? So that all the excellence of creation might be discerned by light. However many excellent creatures God might have made, if light had not revealed them, where would his glory have been? In the same way, there are many excellent and beautiful things in Christ, including wonderful grace and comfort. If these are revealed in the Word but we have neither the senses nor the light to perceive them, if there is no light in our understanding, then God will be deprived of his glory and we of our comfort.

Light makes beautiful things beautiful to us. A blind man cannot judge colors, nor can a deaf man judge sounds and harmony. A person who has lost his taste cannot judge sweetness. There must therefore be senses, and the Spirit of God must reveal these things to us.

Likewise, let us labor more and more to see our own deformity, for then we shall see Christ’s beauty more clearly. Let us desire to know our own vileness. The Spirit of God reveals these two things together. By the same light he reveals our own deformity and need, and the beauty and excellence of God in Jesus Christ. Each sharpens our perception of the other. Whoever would see the height, breadth, and depth of God’s love in Christ must see the height, breadth, and depth of his own corruption, together with the misery it brings outside Christ.

It is good for us every day to consider these two objects: the misery of the human condition outside Christ, and the excellence we now possess in Jesus Christ; the loveliness of Christ toward us, and the lovely condition we have in him. He delights in us as we delight in him. Considering this, together with the loathsome, terrible, and fearful condition outside him, will keep us closer to Christ. It will also make us value the ordinances more, so that we may grow increasingly in faith and in the knowledge of Christ until we come to fullness in him.

Present to the eyes of your soul God in Christ in the relationships he has taken upon himself, especially that of a Father in Christ. Let us benefit from the beauty presented to us in the gospel, particularly when it is unfolded in the ministry, because Satan has a special policy of presenting God and Christ to us otherwise. Especially in times of temptation, he presents God as a judge sitting upon his throne and as a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). It is true that God is so outside Christ, but in Christ he has taken the relationship of a father and looks sweetly upon us as sons.

Christ must be considered in the sweet relationship of a Savior, and the Holy Spirit in the sweet relationship of a Comforter. The Word was all written for our comfort if we believe, and the sacraments nourish us for eternal life. Let us present these things beautifully to the soul. This will strengthen faith and cherish affection, so that Satan cannot rob us of our comfort or say to us, “What are you doing, you unclean and loathsome creatures? Why do you come to the sacrament and to the holy things of God?” His accusation is true if we intend to remain as we are. But as soon as our souls desire to come to God, and there is a divorce between us and our sins and we desire to leave them, let us entertain every sweet conception of God that we can.

We see in Revelation that Laodicea was lukewarm, which is a hateful condition. Yet Christ says, “Behold, I stand and knock, if any man open to me, I will come, and sup with them” (Rev 3:20). What astonishing love, to come to those who were in such a lukewarm state! He was ready to cast them out. His stomach was burdened with them. Yet he says, “I stand at the door and knock.” If any of those lukewarm professors would open, he would come and dine with that person and refresh him with the refreshments of God.

Likewise, when the church slighted and offended Christ, he still courted his church: “My locks are wet with the dew of the night” (Song 5:2). Oh, marvelous patience! Despite her lukewarmness and neglect, Christ does not give up. Let us not entertain harsh conceptions of God in Christ, but labor to present these truths sweetly in our meditations.

This is the wisdom of a Christian: to have sights of faith, that is, to present different things upon which faith may work and thereby strengthen itself. Let faith have a sight of God in Christ as a gracious Father. Let it have a spiritual sight of Christ sending ambassadors who court us and plead with us to be reconciled. Let it have a sight of the joys of heaven, which we shall afterward possess in full. Let us think of these things and present them to our souls. Through meditation, let us also present to our souls the excellence, royalty, and privileges of God’s children, who are the most excellent people in the world. These sights, through which faith helps itself, are an excellent means of making us love the beauty of God’s house. But before I proceed to further particulars, I will briefly answer two or three objections.

Objection: Some will object, “Why, in these glorious times of the church, must we place so much importance on the ordinances? In darker times there was greater need of them, and so forth.”

Answer: I will not answer at length, but only in a word. The more God reveals himself and his excellent things here, the more we should express our thankfulness by laboring to grow in knowledge. There is such breadth in these things that we can never have enough of them. We also have a daily need for spiritual things, for comforts and graces, and all these are conveyed through the use of the appointed means. A Christian cannot be without them any more than he can be without his daily food.

Objection: “But why must we be as eager and earnest for these things as some people are? Is attending now and then not enough?”

Answer: Are we better than David? See how earnest he was in Psalms 84 and 42: “As the hart panteth after the rivers of water, so my soul thirsteth after thee, O God” (Ps 42:1; Ps 74:2). There is a presence of God in his ordinances of which other people are unaware. Believers feel a presence reaching their spirits, which they greatly love and which deeply affects them. If they lack the presence of God, as David did here, they become wonderfully discouraged. When good Nehemiah heard that matters were not going well with the church, he became sad. We also see how David responded when he was, as it were, banished from God’s house and ordinances. But I will not dwell on these objections.

Objection: Some think they may just as well read good books and sermons at home instead of coming to the ordinances.

Answer: But David loved the ordinances; he loved the place. Could he not have reflected upon what he had heard before? Could he not have received help from the prophets? Yes, but there is a blessing in the gathering itself: “Where two or three are met together, I will be in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). Christ also walks in the midst “of the golden candlesticks” (Rev 1:12). There is a more powerful and gracious presence in the actual assemblies of God’s people.

Suppose you could do much good in private while treating the public ordinance with contempt. Such study is cursed. It is like manna that stank when gathered out of season. When it was gathered at a time when it should not have been, it decayed. There is a curse upon study and upon knowledge gained when we should be attending the public means. Mere knowledge will not bring anyone to heaven, for the devil has knowledge. What saves is sanctified knowledge that takes hold of the affections.

What makes us good? It is the Spirit working with the ordinance. Will the Spirit work when we neglect the ordinance? The claim is only a pretense. Such people spend their time in other ways, and it is to be feared that they do not spend it so well. But even supposing they did, no good ever comes from this neglect. It may enrich their knowledge and make them more devilish, but it cannot make them holier. Holiness comes from the Spirit, and the Spirit works through his own ordinances. That is enough concerning this and the other objections relating to the beauty of God.

I will raise no further objections except those with which Roman Catholic spirits commonly trouble some people, and I will answer a few of them briefly.

Objection: They trouble us about our churches. They say, “If your particular churches were truly churches of God, and if you could establish that claim, then you might delight in them. But you are heretics and schismatics. Your churches are not true churches.” In this way they trouble sincere Christians who are less informed. They especially ask, “Where was your church a hundred years ago, before Luther’s time? Your church is a recent invention, and your congregations are nothing but assemblies of heretics.”

Answer: Beloved, what makes a church catholic, a branch of the catholic church that we confess in the Creed, is the catholic faith. The faith and truth that are the church’s seed are produced by the Word of God. Wherever the Word and the catholic truth of God are found, there is the church, a branch of the catholic church.

The faith we believe is related by blood, as it were, to the earliest churches. What do we believe except what is drawn from the Testament and the primitive church? Indeed, if our opponents were modest, their own confession could be made to acknowledge that we are more catholic and that our doctrine is more catholic than theirs. Why? That which agrees with the ancient truth and with the “faith once given,” as Jude says in verse 3, runs through all ages (Jude 3). The beliefs in which we agree with them are more universal and catholic than those which they hold apart from us. They are catholic with respect to every age: the times before Christ, Christ’s own time, and the time of the apostles. What the Roman Catholics themselves hold in common with us is more catholic than what they hold separately.

In the matters on which they differ from us, and for which we regard them as heretics, they differ from the Scriptures and from the church of the first six hundred years after Christ. Many of their teachings arose only recently. In our doctrines, therefore, we agree both with the Roman Catholics and with the primitive church. What do we hold that they do not also hold? But they add destructive traditions. We hold the Scriptures. They hold the Scriptures and traditions as well. We hold two sacraments. They add five more. We hold Christ to be the Mediator. They make the saints mediators too. They hold everything we hold, but add their own patchwork to it.

Our doctrine is therefore more catholic, because we have the evidence of Scripture for everything we teach, and we can call our opponents themselves to support what we hold. Where they differ from us, they have neither Scripture nor antiquity. Their distinct teachings are only a collection, a mass of things of their own. But I will not dwell on this point.

They then ask, “Where was your church before Luther’s time? Where was it two hundred years ago?” It was where their church was. Our church existed among them, in their very midst. Their fires, inquisitions, and persecutions bear witness to it. They found our church readily enough.

But let me make this a little clearer. Consider the church of God generally, including both the good and the bad within it and the means of salvation that they possessed in some measure. It may be called a kind of visible church, though an exceedingly corrupt one. Considered in this way, our church, meaning those who possessed our religion, was the best part of that church during its decline.

In a lump of gold that has not yet been refined into bullion, there is gold mixed with a great deal of earth. Taking the whole lump together, we call it gold. But when it has been refined into bullion, we call it separated gold. In the same way, our church in the midst of Roman Catholicism was like gold mixed with unrefined earth. There were many Roman churches, and ours was in their midst, like the temple within the court. The true church existed within the visible church.

There were many people who held the teachings of the gospel and who, especially in the hour of death, rejected Roman Catholic errors. There were also some afterward refined like bullion, including the Waldenses, who formed a separate body of people. Besides them, other holy men and women grew in grace by hearing something of Christ in sermons and receiving something of him in the sacrament. They rejected what was bad and received what was good. Besides the lump containing gold, there was some refined gold even when Roman Catholicism was at its height. Such people were called Waldenses and by similar names. There was always a body of people who held the truth against the Roman church.

I am sorry to mention these matters in a discussion intended more directly for edification. Our churches, then, are refined churches. They are gold separated from the dross of Roman Catholicism. The Roman church is a corrupt visible congregation, while ours is a refined one.

To put an end to these objections, let us come closer to our own situation. We must establish the legitimacy of our particular congregations and show that we are bound to attend them. We must also guard against every objection the devil and the flesh may raise to make us cease loving our particular congregations. For this purpose, consider these three or four rules briefly.

First, there has been a church from the beginning of the world in which God has been worshiped. Christ is a King, and he must have a kingdom. Belief in a catholic church is an article of our faith, and there cannot be an act of faith without an object. I have faith and believe in a visible church. Therefore, there must be a church. There has consequently been a church from the beginning of the world. This is an article of our faith.

Second, the principal mark by which this church is known is the truth of God. The truth of God, revealed through his Word and ordinance, is the seed of the church. The sacraments and church government are joined to it, though the Word is the most necessary. These three were symbolized in the ark. There was the law, signifying the Word; the pot of manna, signifying the sacrament; and the rod, signifying discipline. These were, as it were, types of the church’s three marks.

The Word, however, is the principal mark, for it is the seed of the new birth. Wherever the Word has been proclaimed, with an ordered ministry of teachers and a people submitting themselves to it, there is a church, though it may be weak in other respects. A man is still a man even if he lacks the ornaments of a man, and a city without walls is still a city. Suppose there is weakness in some matters. As long as the vital parts of the church remain, it is a church.

The third thing I observe, to clarify this point and move quickly to matters of greater edification, is that abuse does not abolish proper use. Neglect or abuse does not remove the true use of things. Suppose Scripture is abused in many ways, the sacraments have many additions, and these things are not kept perfectly pure. Such abuses still do not abolish their proper use, for otherwise we would destroy the causes from which the things themselves arise.

The conclusion, then, is this: although something blameworthy may be found in every visible church, and although there may be some errors, we must nevertheless adhere to a visible church. The church has always existed, and we are to recognize it by these marks. If the Word of God is taught there, we must necessarily adhere to it. “God added to the church such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47), meaning the visible church. Those who are saved must be saved in submission to the visible church. But I do not wish to speak at length about these matters. This should provide satisfaction.

Application 1: If we ought to submit to God’s ordinance in the visible church and, as it were, enter the ark, for the visible church is called the ark, or else be drowned and perish, what shall we think of those who are cast out of the church by excommunication? Excommunication is intended for their good, but their condition is nevertheless very bad because they are cut off from the house and beauty of God. Their condition is miserable.

The condition of those who depart on their own, as apostates do, is even worse. Some are cast out, while others apostatize and go out. They fall away from the church of God to the Roman harlot, to Babylon, because they are dazzled by that church’s pomp and do not see the spiritual beauty of God’s ordinances among us.

What shall we think of those who ought to join visible congregations but willingly excommunicate themselves? Such are schismatics and profane separatists who refuse to attend when they could. They do this partly because they do not want their consciences awakened and partly because they want to give the flesh liberty for other activities at that time. Some are cast out, some go out, and some excommunicate themselves. They share the disposition of the devils, who did not wish to be “tormented before their time” (Matt 8:29). They think they may hear something that will awaken their consciences, and they are extremely unwilling to have conscience awakened. Instead, they intend to have all their torment at once.

All such people are in a woeful condition. If the gracious presence of God is found in the church above every other place in the world, as we see from David’s desire “to dwell in the house of God, that he might see the beauty of God,” and if there is beauty in the divine ordinances, how miserable are those who are cast out or who go out! How miserable are those who tear themselves away from the church or willingly excommunicate themselves like wild creatures!

They are worse than Cain. He grieved when he had to depart from the presence of God and fell into a desperate state of mind. These people are worse than he. Though they have free access to the ordinances of God, they continue in a wild and lawless course and neglect every means God has sanctified to bring them to heaven.

Application 2:

Let us come closer now and put ourselves to the test. How can we know whether we have benefited from the beauty of God’s house and truly love it? Many people come into the visible congregations. As Noah’s ark held both clean and unclean animals, so the church contains many who are in it, as waste matter is in the body, but are not truly of it.

We can easily discover whether our attendance is fruitful and we heartily love the beauty of God in his ordinances, comforts, and graces, as David did. As I said before, sight produces affection. We can tell from our affections whether we have seen God’s excellence in his ordinances. No sense stirs the affections as powerfully as sight does, especially the affection of love.

How, then, can we know that we love God’s ordinances?

Love, more than any other affection, is difficult to conceal. We will boldly profess what we love, and when we possess it, we will rejoice and delight in it. Consider how David rejoiced in God’s ordinance and danced before the ark. No other joy could compare with it. He preferred it above every other joy he possessed. It was a surpassing joy.

We also meditate often on what we love and enjoy. “Oh how I love thy law! my meditation is on it continually” (Ps 119:97). Our minds naturally return to it. We are therefore exhorted to think about God’s word, to keep it before our eyes, and to set it before us throughout our daily activities so that we may meditate on it at home and away. Moses provided such helps. Where there is love, there will be meditation. Those who love the good things of God will often have their minds upon them.

There will also be zeal for the holy things of God. A person will not endure seeing them disgraced but will speak in defense of God’s ordinances, holy things, and religion. Those who allow religion to be betrayed in the company of base and carnal people, without saying a word for it, have never seen the beauty of God’s house.

Those who have seen God’s beauty and felt the comforting delights of his house can defend it against every opponent. From their own experience of the comfort they have felt, they know that good is both received and done there. They can tell others what “the Lord hath done for their souls” (Ps 66:16), and what he has done within their souls. They can tell how their graces have been strengthened and what comfort they have felt. From their own experience, they can defend all God’s ordinances.

Do we not see every day that under God’s ordinance, even when it is administered by weak men, the blind receive sight, the spiritually deaf hear, and the spiritually mute learn to speak and pray to God? The dead, those dead in sin, receive life. Do not all these things demonstrate the excellence of God’s ordinance, which gives spiritual life and spiritual senses? Those who were once dead in sinful ways but have experienced the power of God’s Spirit working with his ordinances can testify to their excellence. Those who cannot defend these things from any experience of their own have never received any good from them. By these and similar evidences, we may test the truth of our affection and discover whether we have truly seen this beauty.

Question: What should we do if we find that we have received little comfort or strength from God’s word and have not seen its beauty? What course should we take?

Answer:

1. Keep waiting. Continue to wait at the pool for the angel’s stirring (John 5:4). In time God will reveal his power through his Spirit. If he does not reveal his goodness at first, he will do so eventually. Therefore, let us continue to use every means God has appointed. We should also hold this as a rule: God’s Spirit is an excellent worker, and he works only through his own instruments.

2. Come to the ordinances in a spirit of faith, precisely because they are God’s ordinances. God will reveal himself in one excellence or another. He will reveal some comfort or grace, something useful to our souls that will build us up to eternal life. Let us come with particular faith that he will do this.

Our faith must answer God’s promise. God has promised that “where two or three are met together in his name, he will be in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). He has promised to bless all his ordinances. Therefore, let our particular faith answer his ordinances: “Lord, I go to your house to hear your word and receive your sacrament in reverent fear of your majesty. I come in a spirit of faith, expecting you to fulfill the purpose of your own ordinance.” This gives the ordinance marvelous effectiveness. If we go with particular faith, we may be certain that God will be as good as his word. We must take this course if we are to see the beauty of the Lord.

3. As I said before, let us often think about these spiritual excellences. Let us balance and weigh things in our thoughts. Love arises from judgment and from esteeming the goodness of something, and such esteem arises from sound judgment. Therefore, let us labor to judge things rightly and see them as they truly are.

Apart from the God-man, Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. He knew the value of spiritual things and of everything else in the world. What verdict does he give? The whole purpose of human life is “to fear God, and keep his commandments” (Eccl 12:13). How highly he commends wisdom (Prov 8:1 and following)! Every precious thing is nothing in comparison with the wisdom of God’s word.

But what does Solomon say about other things? He had experienced them all and tried to extract the very essence of everything the creature could give. Yet he said that all was “vanity and vexation of spirit” (Eccl 1:2). His conclusion is, “Trust my experience.” Therefore, let us weigh the good we receive, or may receive, through God’s blessed ordinances against every other thing.

Oh, the beauty and excellence of spiritual things! It surpasses every other kind of beauty. What is outward beauty? It is only a lump of well-colored earth. What are gold and all its luster? Only refined earth. What are all honors and splendid worldly delights? Only a puff of smoke. They are nothing. In a word, they are vanity, as experience proves every day.

But “the word of the Lord endureth for ever” (1 Pet 1:25). The comforts and privileges we receive through God’s word endure forever. Their comfort is especially powerful when outward comforts fail us most, even on our deathbeds. When the conscience awakens and presents us with our former life and the guilt of many sins, what will comfort us then? Will splendid clothing, an attractive appearance, or a high position and great honor comfort us? Those things may instead increase our grief, since they may have been instruments of sin.

No, what will do us good is being able to say, “I heard such comfort in a particular sermon. I heard such good things read, and such good things entered my mind. I experienced God’s Spirit working at this or that time.” These things will testify that God’s Spirit accompanied his ordinance and fastened something upon our souls. They will comfort us when nothing else can.

Let us often compare everything else with the beauty of God and his ordinances, counting all else as nothing beside them. Holy Moses saw beauty and glory in God’s despised people while they were making bricks. He saw that they were the people upon whom God had set his delight and that God’s church was among them. When he saw this, he despised all the glory of Pharaoh’s court and considered the worst thing connected with religion, its “reproach and shame,” better than all the pleasures of sin (Heb 11:24-26).

Beloved, the bitterest things in God’s ordinance are better than anything in the world. What is the bitterest thing in God’s ordinance? Reproof. Yet reproofs are like precious balm. If God’s ordinance confronts our particular sin, exposes it as an enemy, and warns us that it will destroy our souls if we continue in it, then sends us away to examine ourselves, that reproof will be like precious balm. Through it, our souls will be saved.

If we suffer reproach and shame for religion, it will be like a crown. Holy Moses considered the reproach of Christ better than the treasures of Egypt (Heb 11:26). If the worst and bitterest things in God’s ordinance are so sweet, what must its best things be? Consider the comforts of religion: peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, and eternal glory in heaven. How excellent must religion be when even its shame and disgrace are to be preferred above everything else?

Blessed Paul weighed things in the same way. He was an excellent man and possessed excellent privileges in which he might have gloried. Yet he said that he counted them all “dung and dross” in comparison with the excellent knowledge of Christ that he possessed (Phil 3:8).

Our blessed Savior, who was the most qualified of all to judge, taught that everything should be sold for the pearl, that is, for the field in which the pearl is, so that we might buy it and obtain God’s ordinances. He considers the person who sells everything for it to be wise. When Martha and Mary welcomed him, Mary sat at his feet to hear him explain God’s truth. Christ said that “she chose the better part” (Luke 10:42).

If we will believe him “in whom all the treasures of wisdom are,” then according to his judgment, “Mary chose the better part.” He said, “One thing is necessary.” In this he affirmed David’s choice: “One thing have I desired.” Christ likewise said, “One thing is necessary.” Compared with that one thing, everything else is unnecessary and may be spared. Thus we see how we may come to love God in his ordinances and behold the “beauty of holiness,” the beauty of God in his sanctuary.

4. Two things are necessary if we are to see beauty: the object must be revealed, and we must possess sight. Therefore, let us ask God to reveal himself more and more through his ordinances and to give us spiritual eyes with which to see him. Sometimes he hides himself in his ordinances so that we cannot see the beauty of holy things. Let us ask him to reveal himself and remove the veil that stands between us and holy things, grace, and comfort. Let us ask him to remove that spiritual veil, reveal himself to us, shine upon us in Christ, show us his love, and give us spiritual eyes with which to see him.

Prayer is an excellent preparation before we come to the ordinances. While we are there, and often as we attend upon them, let us lift our hearts to God and ask him to reveal his truths to us.

Many veils stand between us and holy things: error, ignorance, and unbelief. Let us ask God to take them all away and shine so clearly upon us by his Spirit that we may see him more plainly. Objects exert a special influence when they are clearly perceived. A person may clearly see and feel by the Spirit that God is at peace with him. He may clearly see and feel the comfort of forgiven sins and of any promise that is unfolded. Such a clear perception powerfully influences the affections, bringing comfort, peace, and joy.

This is one sign that we are benefiting from God’s ordinance: the truths revealed there influence our daily prayers and produce peace, comfort, and spiritual strength against temptations and corruptions. Everything accomplished through the ordinance comes by the Spirit’s power. We should therefore pray that God would join his Holy Spirit to the ordinance, reveal his secrets to us, and make that revelation effective in our souls, so that grace and comfort may be distilled through the ordinances into our souls. Prayer must accompany the ordinances because an ordinance is empty in itself unless the Spirit accompanies it.

Reasons to Seek God’s Beauty

1. Let this stir us up more and more to see the beauty and glory of God in his ordinances. Scripture speaks not only of God as delightful and beautiful in his ordinances, but as glorious. The ark is called the “glory of God” (Exod 40:34). The knowledge of God in Christ is glorious knowledge, and the gospel is called a “glorious gospel” (1 Tim 1:11). This alone will make us truly glorious. These things place glory upon our souls. Paul calls it “the glorious grace” (Eph 1:6).

What a glorious thing it is when, through God’s ordinance, a weak person receives power against the strong devil and all the “gates of hell” (Matt 16:18). A poor creature of “flesh and blood,” through some virtue distilled by God’s Spirit through the ordinance, may receive strong faith in the promise of forgiveness. He may gain faith in the promise that all such things will turn to his good and that God is reconciled to him in Christ. Then all the gates of hell will not prevail against that weak soul.

What glorious grace it is when, through attending upon God’s ordinance, a poor soul gains strength over corruptions and sins to which others remain enslaved and which they cannot overcome. When people see the spiritual beauty in God’s ordinances, they lose their taste for all the other things with which others are infatuated, even those who possess greater natural abilities than they do. What a glory of grace this is! Therefore, let us attend upon God’s ordinances with all fear and reverence, so that God may be glorious in us by his Spirit and strengthen us against Satan and our beloved corruptions.

2. Let us remember what our souls were made for. What purpose is more fitting for our souls than to dwell in meditation upon the beauty of God? What were our souls made for, if not for excellent things? And where is true excellence found except in God’s ordinances?

Was the soul made merely to study disputes and quarrels between one person and another in our particular callings? Was it made merely to gain a little wealth that we may perhaps leave to a wasteful generation afterward? Our souls are the most excellent things under heaven. The world is not worth one soul. Souls were purchased with the blood of the Son of God, and in his judgment, the world is not worth a soul. Were they made for such earthly things? No.

Our souls were made for union and communion with God in his ordinances. They were made to grow into nearer communion with God by his Spirit and daily increase in knowledge and affection, in love, joy, and delight in the best things. Our souls were made for those things that will make us gracious here and glorious forever in heaven.

It is a great disorder when we study and care only for earthly things while thinking lightly of things that are incomparably best in the judgment of God, of Christ himself, of Solomon, and of every godly person.

3. Let us be all the more stirred up to love these things, lest God depart from us. The glory of God departed from the temple before Jerusalem was destroyed (Ezek 11:23). In the same way, the glory of God, meaning a visible sign of his glory, may depart from a church. God’s beauty and excellence depart when we do not esteem them.

If anything in the world will cause God to leave a church, as he left the Jews and may leave any particular church, it is our failure to value the heavenly things we possess. God will always have a universal church in the world, but he is not bound to England, France, or any other country. He may leave us because we do not prize the blessed liberty of meeting him in his ordinances and do not take care to make good use of them, gaining grace and comfort against the evil day.

No matter how lightly we esteem these things, God places a high value upon them. If we do not value them, he will deprive us either of the ordinances themselves or of their power and beauty. Therefore, if we desire God to continue both his ordinances and his blessing and power within them, let us make the best use of them to gain grace and comfort.

A person has made great progress in religion when he has gained a high esteem and sanctified judgment of the best things. Perhaps he finds himself dull and lifeless and complains of it. Yet if God shines upon him enough that he can approve and defend the best things, if they touch his affections so that the inclination of his soul turns toward them, if he cannot remain long without them and finds much comfort through them, then even though much corruption remains, these things indicate a good temper and condition of soul.

Above every other disposition, let us preserve that spiritual disposition by which the soul is fitted to the things of God. The things of God’s Spirit are holy and excellent. When a corresponding taste and relish for them has been produced in the soul, there is a happy union between the soul and those things.

We may recognize the powerful effect of holy things upon the soul by the grace they produce. We see it when the soul develops a taste suited to them, longs for them, delights in them, and improves them to the best advantage. Such a person never lacks evidence of being a good Christian.

Ask a Christian, “What is the best evidence of salvation and that you belong to God?” Christ says, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27), and Scripture says, “As children new born, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet 2:2). A person may know that he is a true child of the church if he desires the sincere milk of the word so that he may grow better, holier, and more comforted. If he delights in God’s voice in the ministry and is drawn in this way to God’s truth and ordinances, it is a comforting mark of a good Christian.

There are other, more hidden evidences at times, but this is a good and comforting ordinary evidence. David comforted himself wonderfully with it: “Oh! how do I love thy law” (Ps 119:97). Oh, that we could say as he did, “Oh, how I love your law and your truth!” Oh, that we could marvel at our own affections and delight in this beauty of God, as David says here: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, and 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,” etc.