There are few things more eminently desirable for a saint of God than the being able to say, I am satisfied. It is the gist of the psalmist's word, "My cup runneth over." Yet how few in this day of Christianity are abreast with the psalmist in this; how few are they who thoughtfully and thankfully sum up their present portion as believers in this one word, "satisfied." But, do we reflect upon the dishonor we do to Him who bought us with a price, when we exhibit the contrary, imputing to Him as we tacitly do that He has failed us in that which He counseled concerning us? For may we not conclude that this was distinctly implied in that which He undertook? Nor was it a trivial or unworthy task. We may put the proposition thus: I will take a poor, restless, wayward thing, willful and fitful, repining, disquieted, and discontented (which are distinct marks of man's fallen nature) and I will make him satisfied. And this, not by changing his character, improving his circumstances, gratifying his desires, or pandering his foibles, but by imparting an altogether new life, introducing altogether new tastes, and opening an altogether new field of occupation and enjoyment. And the same shall constitute a fitting and adequate expression now, as well as an eternal testimony, not only of God's ability to bless, but of His supreme delight in so blessing.
Now this He effects in a threefold way, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. First, by what He does for us; second, by what He is to us; and third, by what He makes us to be to Himself. It is a real discovery when a saint for the first time sees that His perfect love has done its very best for us. This is not the finding peace, but after peace is really known and enjoyed, there is a fuller discovery (have we all made it yet?) that that love which is perfect in itself -"so sweet, so full, so free" -that love which is so boundless and so changeless that it can never be enhanced or diminished, "love that no tongue can teach, love that no thought can reach," has bestowed upon us first of all, all that love could give! And not stopping there, it is really rendering to each of us a personal and incomparably devoted service which, having its foundation laid in the travail of His soul on Calvary, is being made good to us all along the way in this day of grace, by His session at the right hand of God in brightest glory! With enraptured hearts we gaze upon Him there, invested with heaven's highest dignity, enthroned in majesty, and crowned with glory and honor! How can we accept that He has won these new glories for Himself and will regale His own heart by sharing them with His bride through eternity, and yet not recognize that by the very love that He bears us, He has made it a necessity to Himself that besides the one incomparable work that He wrought on the cross, He should render to us every personal service that His thoughtful, tender interest in us could suggest as we pass through these toilsome scenes and difficult times? Scenes and times, however, which constitute that suited training ground which lies between our first knowledge of His grace and the fruition of it in endless glory.
Is there a circumstance in our path, that is no circumstance to, and has no place before, Him? Is there an exercise of our hearts that does not equally, though in a preeminent way, move His own? And can it be that one member suffering, all the members suffer, and one honored, all rejoice, and yet the Head be unaffected? On the contrary, as a Man in the glory, Head of His body the Church, He could say, "Why persecutest thou Me?" It told upon Him; it fell upon Him, and it does so still. And He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. "He knows what sore temptations are, for He has felt the same." If I have a sorrow which He cannot share with me, and sympathize in, clearly I am at fault; it is an unholy sorrow! If He have a joy that I share not in, equally am I at fault; for said He not, "That they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves"? Oh! to be more in positive, practical communion with Him as co-sharers, He with us and we with Him, for God has "called us unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ." And should we, alas, sin, we have, blessed be His name, the ever-prevailing advocacy of the righteous One with the Father for our restoration; as when we sin not, there is the abiding priesthood to maintain us before God, according to the measureless value of the righteous work which He sacrificially wrought once for all. Thus there are, 1) His work of the cross, dying unto sin and bearing our sins; 2) His present service in priesthood and advocacy; 3) His personal interest, as devoted, as profound, in all that concerns His saints. He knows us by name, calls us by His voice, draws us by His love, participates in our sorrows, shares with us His joys, leads our praises, and deigns to give us His company, lighting up our path with the sweet sunshine of a favor and affection which is better than life. In presence of such self-sacrificing, devoted, unselfish love, can I possibly say that I am not satisfied with what He does for me? Shall we not, on the contrary, lovingly and gleefully attest, With the finest of the wheat He has fed me, and with honey out of the rock has He satisfied me?
But this introduces the second branch of our subject, for who but He is the finest of the wheat, and who but He the honey out of the rock? He satisfies us by what He is to us Himself. But have we really accepted this? Do we allow that God has ability to find an object that shall fully fill our hearts for time and eternity? And is that object a competent one to satisfy every divine desire of the soul by its intrinsic and extrinsic excellence? How surpassingly marvelous, when we come to think of it, is the fact that God, whose profound satisfaction in the Son of His love we adoringly behold, has caused the same divine satisfaction to repeat itself in each devoted, loving heart that is tutored to find its joy and delight in Him. It is no little thing to hold habitually before our hearts a happy and established conviction that we have Him personally as ours. A husband may• do many things, yea, all that love and generosity could suggest, for the relatives of his wife; but she only could say, He is mine! And did he expend all that he possessed on them, it would not alter this patent fact nor change its character in the least. Whatever he did for them, were the service or sacrifice ever so great, could not in the remotest degree weaken or disturb her sole title to say, He is mine! This is our blessedness as to Him. He is ours. The world is indebted to Him for benefits it as much fails to recognize as to repay. Old Testament saints and saints millennial shall appreciate His grace and favor, and no less spread His glory and His fame. Heavenly intelligences too, those angelic beings that never sinned, shall raise aloud the voice, saying, "Worthy is the Lamb." But of all animated beings, none have the title which we have, to say, He is ours! It is the bride's unique title in the Bridegroom. He loves the Church and has given Himself for it. If then He be thus personally and only ours, how calculated is this to draw out toward Himself those responsive affections to which such an endearing and intimate relationship by its very nature gives rise! Holy, elevated affections, as sacred as sweet, which so exalted and excellent an object would fain inspire in our hearts in an ever deepening degree to the exultation of His own. And what is this but the divine affection reproduced in us? The loving answer to that which moves His own heart to exercise itself by night and by day in every loving, tender, thoughtful way, evincing unwearied consideration and solicitude for us in the vicissitudes of the daily path, and promising to itself an untold and crowning joy in sharing with us His own happiness forever! Ah! did we but know Him in all the peerless excellence of His Person, the altogether lovely, should we not freely fully own He has indeed, most truly, satisfied us with Himself?
But there is a third way in which He satisfies us; namely, by what He makes us to be to His own heart. No earthly figure can express this. A man may take himself a wife from the gutter, or adopt a street-Arab as his child, first imparting physical cleansing, fitting attire, moral training, and liberal education; but he can never start at the point where God has started with us, for He begins in making us a new creation. Nor this alone; He gives us a new and divine relationship, constituting us as sons of God, the very relationship of Christ to the Father. And, further, He unites us eternally, by giving us the Holy Spirit, to Christ Himself in glory. Thus we have new creation, divine relationship, and eternal union as the threefold cord which binds us to the glorified Man on high. And now His heart here and there discloses the deep delight He has in what He has made us to be to Himself; and how much He thinks of us—His friends, His brethren, His body, His bride, the partner of His throne, and the sharer of His glories and His joys for all eternity! Is it not enough?
May every saint of God gratefully and joyfully own that He has satisfied our souls as with marrow and fatness; and therefore our mouths praise Him with joyful lips!