Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
Not only in Christ is there the perfect supply of all these necessities,
but also that fulness _becomes ours_ on the simple condition of desiring
it. The thirst for the living God in a man who has faith in Christ
Jesus, is not a thirst which amounts to pain, or arises from a sense of
non-possession. But in this divine region the principle of the giving is
this--to desire is to have; to long for is to possess. There is no wide
interval between the sense of thirst and the trickling of the stream
over the parched lip; but ever it is flowing, flowing past us, and the
desire is but the opening of the lips to receive the limpid and
life-giving waters. No one ever desired the grace of God, really and
truly desired it; but just in proportion as he desired it, he got
it--just in proportion as he thirsted, he was satisfied. Therefore we
have to preach that grand gospel that faith, simple, conscious longing,
turned to Christ, avails to bring down the full and perfect supply.
But some Christian people here may reply, 'Ah! I wish it were so: what
was that you were saying at the beginning of your sermon, about men
having religious depression, about Christians longing and not
possessing?' Well, I have only this to say about that matter. Wherever
in a heart that really believes on God in Christ, there is a thirst that
amounts to pain, and that has with it a sense of non-possession, that is
not because Christ's fulness has become shrunken; that is not because
there is a change in God's law, that the measure of the desire is the
measure of the reception; but it is only because, for some reason or
other that belongs to the man alone, the desire is not deep, genuine,
simple, but is troubled and darkened. What we ask, we get. If I am a
Christian, however feeble I may be, the feebleness of my faith and the
feebleness of my desire may make my supplies of grace feeble; but if I
am a Christian, there is no such thing as an earnest longing
unsatisfied, no such thing as a thirst accompanied with a pain and sense
of want, except in consequence of my own transgression.
And thus there _is_ a longing imperfect in this life, but fully supplied
according to the measure of its intensity, a longing after 'the living
God'; and that is the state of a Christian man. And O my friend! that is
a widely different desire from the other that I have been speaking
about. It is blessed thus to say, 'My soul thirsteth for God.' It is
blessed to feel the passionate wish for more light, more grace, more
peace, more wisdom, more of God. That _is_ joy, that _is_ peace! Is that
_your_ experience in this present life?
III. Lastly, there is a perfect longing perfectly satisfied; and that is
heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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