My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness (Psalm 63:5).[1]
It
is a great mercy to enjoy divine ordinances in their purity; but it is a
greater mercy to have our souls feasted in them. And we should not content
ourselves with an external attendance, without drawing near to God in the
institutions of his grace. The pure ordinances are precious to believers, and a
day in his courts is better to them than a thousand; but they are not satisfied
with the enjoyment of these ordinances, without enjoying their God and their
Redeemer in them; and this is one thing by which they are distinguished from
hypocrites and formalists.
David
was in a wilderness, and deprived of the public institutions of religion, when
he composed this Psalm: he was detained by persecution from the courts of God;
and we find him expressing his high esteem and vehement desire of them. But it
was not merely the external ordinances his soul desired; he thirsted after that
communion with God which he had formerly experienced in his courts. He
therefore says, in the first and second verses, ‘O God, thou art my God, early
will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a
dry and thirsty land, where no water is: to see thy power and thy glory, so as
I have seen thee in thy sanctuary.’
And
as he had an ardent desire for this privilege, so he had an assured and
well-grounded hope of it, which he expresses in verses 3, 4, 5: ‘Because thy
loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I
bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be
satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips.’
In
the words which I have chosen as the subject of discourse, the Psalmist
expresses his humble expectation of having his soul feasted in the sanctuary. I
intend, first, to show how the Lord satisfies the souls of men as with marrow
and fatness; and, secondly, to point out the reason which believers have to
conclude that they shall be thus satisfied in the ordinances of divine worship.
I
will endeavour, then, in the first place, to show how the Lord satisfies the
souls of men as with marrow and fatness. And, in general, it may be observed,
that he imparts such satisfaction by condescending to hold communion with them.
This is the feast which our Lord promises to every sinner who opens his heart
to receive him: ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me’ (Rev. 3:20). This was also the banquet to which the spouse of Christ
was admitted, when she said, ‘He brought me to the banqueting-house, and his
banner over me was love’ (Song 2:4).).
More
particularly, 1. The Lord satisfies the souls of his people as with marrow and
fatness, by feasting them with the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. The Son of
God became incarnate, shed his blood, and fulfilled all righteousness, that he
might be food for our souls. ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us’
(John 1:14).
And
in his incarnate person he is living bread to us, bread that gives spiritual
and eternal life to our souls, and effectually prevents them from perishing.
Hence these declarations of our Lord himself: ‘I am the living bread, which
came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever:
and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I
will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed’ (John 6:51, 54, 56).
It
is the mercy of sinners to have this heavenly food presented to them in the
gospel; for in the mountain of the Gospel-church the Lord hath made unto all
people a feast of fat things, and of wines on the lees; of fat things full of
marrow, and of wines on the lees well refined. And God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son. But it is the distinguished privilege of
believers to have their souls feasted with the flesh and blood of Christ, and
thus to be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.
The
Lord feasts a sinner with the flesh and blood of Christ, when he first reveals
his Son in him, when he calls him into the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord and gives him faith in his person and righteousness. Then the soul eats the
flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of God, and so he dwells in Christ, and
Christ in him. And afterwards the Lord feasts the believer, by favouring him
with renewed manifestations of the glorious person of Christ, as an incarnate
God, and of the suitableness and excellency of his righteousness; by enabling
him to make fresh application of Christ to his soul; and by assuring him of his
interest in his person and righteousness. Sometimes the Christian is enabled to
say, with the assurance of faith, ‘My beloved is mine and I am his.’ ‘He loved
me and gave himself for me.’ And this is to eat the bread of God, and to drink
the wine which cheers the heart of God and man.
[1] Fraser was born near Inverness in 1745. Sermon was preached
before the dispensation of the Lord's Supper at Auchtermuchty, February 5th,
1792
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