Psalms 16

The garland made of flowers of Paradise fades not (1 Peter 5:4). I have read of a river which they call the Day-River, in which time it runs with a full torrent, but at night it is dried up; such are all earthly comforts, they run with a full stream all the daytime of life, but…

The things which are not seen are eternal. Psalm 16:11: At your right hand are pleasures for evermore. Who can span eternity?

If there be but one God, then let us take heed of setting up more gods than one. Psalm 16:4: Their sorrows shall be multiplied, that hasten after another God: their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. God is a jealous God, and he will…

O how rich are they who have the infinite God for their portion! Well might David say, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly heritage (Psalms 16:5). We may go with the bee from flower to flower, but we shall…

When grace is crowning it is not so much to be content, but when grace is conflicting with inconveniences, then to be content is a glorious thing indeed: for one to be content when he is in heaven, is no wonder, but to be content under the cross, is like a Christian. This man mu…

A man that has assurance has enough: in one Savior all the gems needed for salvation flourish. He has the riches of Christ's merit, of his love, an earnest of his glory, he is filled with the fullness of God — here is enough, and having enough he is content (Psalm 16:5): The Lor…

In the chief good, there must be first delectability, it must have something that is delicious and sweet: and where can we suck those pure quintessential comforts which ravish us with delight, but in God? In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima, imo rapitur; at God's right hand…

5. To make God to be a God to us, is to fear him (Deuteronomy 28:58): That you may fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord your God. This fearing of God is, 1. To have God always in our eye (Psalm 16:8): I have set the Lord always before me. And (Psalm 25:15): My eyes are…

2. There is but one omnipotent power. If there be two omnipotents, then we must always suppose a contest between these two; that which one would do, the other power being equal would oppose, and so all things would be brought into a confusion. If a ship should have two pilots of…

Better lose our seeing than our hearing, for faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). To have an ear open to God, is the best jewel on the ear. 4. The tongue. David calls the tongue his glory (Psalm 16:9). because it is an instrument to set forth the glory of God: the soul at firs…

Sixthly, the saints shall be fully crowned with the enjoyment of God forever. They shall be in his sweet presence, in whose presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). And this shall be forever.

An eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). The saints shall bathe themselves in the rivers of divine pleasure; and these rivers can never be dried up (Psalm 16:11). At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Sic vivendum est tanquam in conspectu, Seneca. Let us set David's prospect before our eye (Psalm 16:8). I have set the Lord always before me. Seneca counseled Lucilius, that whatever he was doing, he should imagine some of the Roman Worthies beheld him, and then he would do noth…

This is a sin that enrages God, and makes the fury come up in his face (Ezekiel 38:18). Search through the whole book of God, and you shall find no sin God has followed with more plagues, than idolatry (Psalm 16:4). Their sorrows shall be multiplied, that hasten after another Go…

I will write my name upon him, as the son bears his father's name: What an honor and dignity is this. 2. God confers honorable titles upon his children: 1. He calls them the excellent of the earth (Psalm 16:2), or the magnificent, as Junius renders it. They must needs be excelle…

There is all that is truly glorious, transparent light, perfect love, unstained honor, unmixed joy; and that which crowns the joy of the celestial paradise, is eternity. Suppose earthly kingdoms were more glorious than they are, their foundations of gold, their walls of pearl, t…

Faith makes God our portion, and so in him we have enough. Psalm 16:5: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a goodly heritage. Faith by a divine chemistry extracts its chief comforts out of God.

The real belief of a deity gives life to all religious worship: the more we believe the truth and infiniteness of God, the more holy and angelic we are in our lives. Whether we are alone or in company God sees us; he is [illegible], the heart-searcher; the belief of this would m…

They who lose the Heavenly Kingdom, lose God's sweet presence, the ravishing views and smiles of God's glorious face. God's presence is the diamond in the ring of glory; (Psalm 16:11) In his presence is fullness of joy. If God be the fountain of all bliss, then to be separated f…

2. The holy unction, God has anointed us with the graces of his Spirit: grace is a seed of God, a blossom of eternity; the graces are [illegible], Damascen, the impressions of the divine nature, stars to enlighten us, spices to perfume us, diamonds to enrich us; and if God has a…

Secondly, he had also a respect herein to his creatures; for, he made that heaven, therein to reveal his majesty and glory to his reasonable creatures, Angels and Men: and (by showing them his glory) to glorify them. For in God's presence is the fullness of joy, Psalm 16 last ve…

The same also was David's practice. Psalm 16:3, All my delight (says he) is in the Saints that dwell on the earth. This fruit of Moses' faith, does discover unto us a grievous fault, which reigns in this age; to wit, the neglect and contempt of the communion and society of Saint…

Now follow the consolations: first this very point of God's special providence is a great comfort to God's church: for the Lord moderates the rage of the devil and wicked men, that they shall not hurt the people of God. David says, The Lord is at my right hand, therefore I shall…

Your joy no man takes from you. Divine joy is but begun in this life, it is perfected in glory; here is but the tuning of the instrument, the sweet consort is reserved for heaven; here the saints do but sip of the cup, there they shall drink of the rivers of divine pleasure for…

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked — Jeremiah 17:9. O it is as necessary as it is sweet, that we and our inner thoughts confer together every night — Psalm 16:7. We should call our hearts to account every evening and say: 'O my heart, where have you b…

Use 3. The third Use serves to humble believers who have anything of the work of grace, and so, to work them up to thankfulness to Him that has imparted aught of it to them: Is there any of you that have grace, who has made you to differ from others? It was not yourselves but fr…

This will be clear if we consider these things. 1. The person that suffered — he was not an ordinary, or rather not a mere man, but God-man; as is clear (Acts 2:27), cited out of (Psalm 16), where it is said, You will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer your Holy…

Secondly, observe that the Messiah had to come to the grave and be buried; it was so designed, foretold, and prophesied of him: 'He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.' Hence the Apostle (Acts 2:30, citing Psalm 16:8) gathers that as there was a neces…

Though by being man He became of no reputation, and a veil was drawn over the declarative glory of the Godhead in His person for a time, yet He remained still the Son of God, and glorious in Himself, and it cannot be but He that is God must be glorious in His exaltation, when th…

Answer: If this were presumption, then all we have said of the warrant of the Gospel to believe is to no purpose; Christ never counted it presumption to desire and endeavor in His own way to believe on Him for attaining of life through Him; to desire heaven and peace with God, a…

He was not as man in his intellect, wise, or desirous to be wise (as Adam and Eve, and men now are taken with the disease of curiosity) above what was fit: so neither were his affections above banks; he saw the blackest and darkest hour that ever any saw; suppose all the sufferi…

No danger of sunburning or summer-scorching, or winter-blasting: all morning without twilight, all noon-day without one cloud for eternity, is joyful: light, and day, and summer, flowing immediately from the Lamb, is admirable. 10. (1) Joy, (2) full joy, (3) fullness of joy, (4)…

Yet Antinomians are not ashamed to pretend Calvin's name and authority for their opinion, when Calvin in a learned Treatise refuting the Libertines of his time does clearly condemn the Antinomians of our time, and proves from the necessity of sanctification that we are not freed…

In the other Prophets you shall find Christ still comforting himself against his condemnation at his death, with the thoughts of his Resurrection which he foresaw as shortly to follow after it; as here in Isaiah he comforts himself with these hopes of his being justified after t…

Moreover, let me add this, that although the Spirit rested on him here without measure in comparison of us; yet it may be safely said, that the Spirit in respect of his effects in gifts of grace and glory, rests more abundantly on him in heaven, than he did on earth, even in the…

Our hearts should be shut up against the thoughts of any other thing, and confined only to the object to whom we direct our worship. I reason thus, if a Christian foresees the Lord before him in all his ways, and keeps always as in his eye and presence, surely he should set the…

This which the disciples had, was but a little glimpse, and taste of the life to come. This must needs be so; it is called joy (Matthew 25:21): Enter you into the joy of your Lord, and fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11): In your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand t…

The second action of the spirit is to engender good motions, cogitations, and inclinations, agreeable to the will of God. Thus David says that his reins did teach him in the night season (Psalm 16). And the prophet Isaiah says, your ear shall hear a voice saying, here is the way…

The rest are bastards and not sons, they are (it may be) in the house, but not of the house: for true saving faith, does characterize those that are of the family of faith; even as fanatical dreams, fantastical opinions, allegorizing of the literal sense of the scripture, denyin…

And yet no doubt but the Prophet alludes to that place of Moses, by whose mouth God had promised to be the lot and portion of his people, that they might content themselves with him alone. According to which also David says, The Lord is my portion and my inheritance (Psalm 16:5)…

We need not wonder that Peter was so captivated by the loveliness of what he beheld, as to lose sight of every other person, and rest satisfied with the mere enjoyment of it; as it is said in the psalm, In thy presence is fullness of joy, (Psalm 16:11.) But his desire was foolis…

The restoration of God's image in human nature was the ground on which God renewed his covenant with Noah and restored mankind's dominion over creation (Genesis 9:1-2) — had God not designed to renew his image in our nature by Jesus Christ, and as the foundation thereof to take…

The sobriety of their spirits, the regularity of their workings, their gracious composure, the meekness, humility, denial of self, the sensible refreshing, the mighty strength and vigor which has accompanied such enjoyments, sufficiently proving to them that they did not hug an…

God has renewed them, and stamped his own image upon them, and made them partakers of his holiness. They are more excellent than their neighbors (Proverbs 12:26); yes, they are the excellent of the earth (Psalm 16:3). They are lovely in the sight of the angels; and their souls a…

So that if Plato when he was near his death, could bless God for three things, namely, That he was a Man, and not a Beast: that he was born in Greece; and brought up in the time of Socrates: much more cause have you to admire Providence, that you are Men, and not Beasts; that yo…

4. Observation. That it is incumbent to the believer who has chosen Christ, sometimes to boast in him, and in a lovely and holy way to vaunt and boast (if we may so speak) of him above all, so are we commanded, to glory in his holy name (Psalm 105:3), and this is one of the ways…

Every one that loves him that begat, loves him also that is begotten of him, says the Apostle (1 John 5:1), because of the likeness he bears to his heavenly Father: and the more express this resemblance is, the more intense, and the more endearing should our affections be. We ou…

Secondly, let us consider what it is to take the name of God. I answer briefly: to take the name of God is no other than to make use of it, either as the object of our thoughts, or the subject of our discourses: and so we find this phrase used, (Psalm 16:4) "I will not take up t…

He told her he desired to live till fire and faggot came, and above all he would gladly die a martyr: she said if he died now he should have a crown; he answered, but if he died a martyr he should have a more glorious crown: yet he was not unwilling to receive his crown presentl…

For the first, you must observe and obey the wise man's counsel, throughout the Book of Proverbs, to converse with the wise. David professes himself to be a companion of those that fear God, and he, though a great king, esteems the saints more excellent, than all his courageous…