Psalms 17

One that is deformed may look on beauty, and not be made beautiful. But the saints that so see God, as that sight shall transform them into his likeness (Psalm 17:15): When I awake I shall be satisfied with your likeness. Not that the saints shall partake of God's essence; for a…

3. God is a satisfying good. The soul cries out, I have enough (Psalm 17:15). I shall be satisfied with your likeness; a man that is thirsty, bring him to the ocean, and he has enough.

O engage God's power to help us to persevere; we engage his power by prayer. Let us pray to him to keep us (Psalm 17:5). Hold up my goings in your paths that my footsteps slip not.

In this life we do rather desire God than enjoy him: but what rich mercy will it be, to be fully possessed of God, to see his smiling face, and to have God lay us in his bosom? This will fill us with joy unspeakable, and full of glory (Psalm 17:15): I shall be satisfied, when I…

Who would have thought that Haman, who was so great in the king's favor, He set his seat above all the princes of the provinces, (Esther 3:1) yet for want of the bowing of a knee, he was dissatisfied; but in the kingdom of Heaven we shall be freed from these dissatisfactions. Th…

Suppose earthly kingdoms were more glorious than they are, their foundations of gold, their walls of pearl, their windows of sapphire, yet they are corruptible: but the kingdom of heaven is eternal, those rivers of pleasure run for evermore (Psalm 16:11). And that wherein the es…

Alas, if David and Peter who had a habit of grace, fell, for want of a fresh gale of the Spirit to hold them up, much more will they be in danger of falling, who have only the power of free will to hold them. Let us therefore sue to God for strength to keep us from sinning; pray…

So Christians must not be so in love with this world, as to forget or neglect the world to come. If they do, they are unworthy of it, and show themselves not strangers, as Abraham here was; but men of this world, who have their portion in this life, Psalm 17.14. In performing th…

Did God take care for hirelings, when their work was done not to stay any space of time, no not a night, and does he not fulfill this himself to his sons that serve him? Surely yes: he defers not, nor puts them off to the morning of the resurrection, as the Psalmist elegantly ca…

Children and all other relations are but common blessings, which God indifferently bestows upon his friends and enemies, and by the having or losing of them, no man knows either love or hatred. It is said of the wicked (Psalm 17:14), that they are full of children; indeed, and o…

This Spirit is the genius, the nature, and disposition of the world (1 John 2:16) and is all for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and these be the world's all things. Such a soul knows not the white stone, and the new name, nor can he smell the…

3. The perfection of all heavenly gifts both in soul and body. (1.) In soul — that is the heaven of Heaven (1 John 3:2): Now are we the sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be, but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him…

By whom? Even by God the righteous judge, who as he will utter their false accusations and slanders, so will he reveal the righteousness of the godly like the noon day, as it is said, (Psalm 17). This clause: in himself (to touch this also by the way) must so be understood that…

There is an elegant metaphor in the word ἐπισκιάσει, overshadow. The power of God, by which he guards and protects his own people, is frequently compared in Scripture to a shadow, (Psalm 17:8; 57:1; 91:1.) But it appears to have another and peculiar meaning in this passage.

The children of this world never think themselves safe, but when they fiercely revenge the injuries that are done them, and defend their life by the “weapons of war,” (Ezekiel 32:27.) But as we must believe, that Christ alone is the guardian of our life, all that remains for us…

It is not so much the possession that Providence gives us of such or such comforts, as the goodness and kindness of God in the dispensing of them, that engages a gracious soul to praise, Psalm 63:3 Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. To gi…

Sometimes likewise it is called God's hands, when it is the hand of a creature, it is God's hand in a creature's hand; God's hand when it is the hand of wicked men, God's hand when it is Satan's hand. So that place is translated (Psalm 17:14), Deliver my soul from the wicked whi…

By lions and leopards, we understand covetous, worldly men, who pursue the world to the destruction of themselves and others; so they are often called in Scripture (Psalm 57:4, etc.): 1. For their devouring, insatiable nature, that can never have enough, but always prey on other…

10. Consider yet further, treasures of glory are proportioned to treasures of grace in the heart: it is true, they that have least glory in Heaven shall want none, yet withal, it is very likely there shall be degrees of happiness, and they that have had most grace shall have mos…

When the undutiful rebellious son (in a story that I once read) dragged his father by the hair of the head to the house door, it qualified the anger of the old man, to remember, that just so far he had dragged his father; as it seems to have silenced Adonibezek, that he was now…

Says Christ, Father, I will, that those which you hast given me, be where I am, that is a blessing; but in Rev. 22:4 it is said, They shall see his face, and that is more, They shall know as they are known, 1 Cor. 13:12 It is the promise of the pure in heart, that they shall see…

And 1 Corinthians 3:22. All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Another Argument is, That God gives these Temporal Things to those he never gave his Christ to, and therefore there is no great matter in them: Indeed, to those, which in a little while, are…

What of men's speech is not manifestly evil in any of the other kinds, is the most of it naught this way; speech good to appearance plausible and fair, but not upright, not silver, but silver dross, as Solomon calls it, burning lips, etc. (Proverbs 26:23). Each almost some way o…

There is a two-fold right to these common blessings; a providential, and a covenant-right: Dominium Politicum fundatur in Providentia, our civil right to things is founded upon God's providence: But Dominium Evangelicum fundatur in Gratia; our gospel-right to things is founded u…

I confess indeed that these things do not always happen in a perpetual succession: many being born poor and afflicted, whom poverty accompanies all the way to the grave; on the contrary, many being wealthy from birth, transmitting their riches even to their posterity, and indeed…

As for me, I will behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness (Psalm 17:15). 2. Sincere and constant obedience is the evidence of our right to future blessedness.

That is the most that worldly things can afford us, a little bodily cheer. Psalm 17:14: You have filled their bellies with hidden treasures; there is the poor happiness of a rich worldling. He may have a belly full, and fare at a better rate than others do.

All the presence, the communion, the sight of Christ they get now, it is but mediate through the glass of the ordinance (1 Corinthians 13:12), and it is frequently interrupted, his face is many times hidden (Psalm 30:7), and it is not full as it shall be there (Psalm 16:11). But…

This great mystery of godliness, the more we look into it, the more will we wonder at the wisdom of God discovered in and through Christ Jesus. For external providences, to see how God answers prayers, how he brings about our mercies according to our wants in a way we know not (…

1. He that takes up his rest in this world, or any earthly thing, is but a higher kind of beast, and unworthy of an immortal soul. The beasts have an instinct that guides them to seek things convenient for that life which they have, and therefore a man does not follow the light…

Fourthly, another benefit that we have is many gracious experiences and manifestations of God vouchsafed to us in the way of obedience. In the present world God and believers are not strange to one another, a man that walks close with him will meet him at every turn (Psalm 17:15…

But in this portion there's contentment, we need no more but God, and there is nothing besides him worth our desire. Necessities that are not supplied by him are but fancies, it is want of grace, if we want anything else when we have God for our portion; (Psalm 17:14) From the m…

2. They manifest it in this, their contentedness with Him, though they are kept low and bare in outward things. Psalm 17:15. As for me I will behold your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness. It's enough for them to have the face of God, th…

2. By our patience and contentedness in the want and loss of other things for this thing's sake — want, if God's providence be so; loss, if occasioned by our adherence to truth. As for want, we have no reason to envy carnal men (Psalm 17:14-15): From men which are your hand, O L…

1 That damned sinners will be stripped naked, and deprived of all the good things they had in this life. Wicked men are called the men of this world (Psalm 17:14); they have their portion and consolation in this life (Luke 6:24 and 16:25). Many of them fare well, and prosper in…

Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied to him with their tongues, for their heart was not right with him (Psalm 78:34, verses 36-37). Hearken to my prayer that goes not out of feigned lips, says David (Psalm 17:1). 7. Afflictions and the pressures of o…

Woe to you rich men, for you have received your consolation. Hence it was that David made it his solemn prayer, Deliver me from the wicked, from men of the world which have their portion in this life, and whose belly you fill with your hid treasure (Psalm 17:14). The words, I th…

He plants holy desires in us — and will he not satisfy those desires which he himself has wrought in us? As in case of prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, he prepares his ear to hear (Psalm 17:1). So in case of spiritual hunger, when God prepares the heart to hunger, he…

Cast three worlds into the heart and they will not fill it; but the sight of God satisfies. Psalm 17:15: I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness. Solomon says the eye is not satisfied with seeing (Ecclesiastes 1:8), but there the eye will be satisfied with seeing.

Psalm 17:15. As for me, I will behold your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with your likeness. A reflection upon some foregoing verses of the Psalm, by way of Introduction to the Text.

The Blessedness of the Righteous, Discoursed from Psalm 17:15. By John Howe, Master of Arts.

But in the perfect state they shall be able to behold and delight in this glory constantly, with eternal satisfaction. "But as for me," says David, "I will behold your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness" (Psalm 17:15). It is Christ alone…

Hopeful: They also gave us a note of directions about the way, for our more sure finding thereof; but therein we have also forgotten to read, and have not kept ourselves from the paths of the destroyer. Here David was wiser than we; for says he, "Concerning the works of men, by…

2. The meditation of hypocrites' final falling away would make us earnest in prayer for perseverance. Hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not, Psalm 17:5. Lord, hold me up, that I may hold out.

On the supposition of the salvation of all men, the rich do by no means receive in this life their consolation; but they are to receive infinitely the greatest consolation in the future life. (Psalm 17:14): From men of the world, who have their portion in this life; plainly impl…

'God has bidden him,' said David (2 Samuel 16:10). If the blow comes from the hand of a wicked man, yet he sees that wicked hand in God's righteous hand (Psalm 17:14). And this apprehension is fundamental to all that communion men have with God in their afflictions, and to all t…