_Secondly_, The words of the text discover to us an earnest longing after divine ordinances, and the presence of God in them. This abundantly appears also in several parts of this psalm: How mournfully doth the Psalmist complain, and what a painful sense he expresses of his long absence from the house of God! _verses_ 3, 4. What a sweet and sorrowful recollection he makes of past seasons of delight in worship? _My tears have been my meat day and night,—my soul is cast down and disquieted, I remember when I went with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise_; but now God seems to have _forgotten me_, ver. 9. How earnestly doth he breathe after the sanctuary? Psalm lxiii. and lxxxiv. to _see thy power_, O God, and _thy glory, as he had seen it there_. He borrows metaphors and similitudes from some of the most vehement appetites of nature to signify his strong desires after God; _my flesh thirsteth for thee, even fainteth for the courts of the living God_. And this is the blessed temper of a christian, when in his right frame; he is never satisfied when quite restrained from divine ordinances, whether by persecution, by banishment, by the unreasonable laws of men, or by afflictions and weaknesses laid on him by the hand of God. He thinks over again those seasons wherein he enjoyed the presence of God in worship, and the recollection of them increases his desires of their return. He watches every turn of providence, and hopes it is working towards his release: When he sees the doors of his prison begin to open, he is ready to break out of confinement, and seize the pleasure of public worship: He thinks it long till he appears before God again. “I have chosen God, saith he, for my highest good, for my everlasting portion, and I would willingly often resort to the place where God hath promised to communicate his blessings, and where I have so often _tasted that the Lord is gracious_.” Remarks on the second head.—I. How very different are they from the temper of David, who enjoy public ordinances continually, and are weary of them? Who appear before God frequently on the Lord’s day, and yet cry, _what a weariness is it, when will the Sabbath be gone_; Mal. i. 13. and iii. 14. Amos viii. 5. When shall we return to the world again? What is the reason of this great aversion to divine worship among those who call themselves christians? Truly the greatest part have nothing of christianity besides the mere name: Some are stupid sinners, and have no sense of divine things; and they think it is all lost time: They have no need to come before God, but that it is the custom of their country, or of the family where they live, and they must do it; they do not know how to spend the hour elsewhere without reproof and censure: Or they come merely to see, and to be seen, as is the fashion of the land.