Psalms 45:12

The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift,

Gentile sinners coming into the Church and presenting themselves a free-will offering to the Lord upon the Gospel altar

I. Some things implied in the words.

1. That whatever be the outward lot and condition of a person or people, before the Lord is pleased to visit them with a dispensation of the Gospel, their case is truly melancholy, and affecting. When it is said, “the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift,” it supposes that her then present state was a state of distance from God and the ordinary means of gracious intercourse with Him.

2. That it is by the special providence of God that persons or nations are brought into the fellowship of the Gospel.

3. That it is a very great privilege to have a place in God’s house. Those who are within the Church enjoy all the ordinary means of salvation.

II. The gift which persons present to the Lord in the day of their effectual calling.

1. Men give themselves to the Lord in the day of their regeneration and effectual vocation. This is the principal gift, and that without which nothing which they can present to Him can possibly be accepted. What is it for persons to give themselves unto the Lord? We answer--

(1) It is to give up the soul in all its powers and faculties to the Lord, to be employed in His service.

(2) They likewise give up their bodies to the Lord. The eye to behold His works, and look into His Word, so as to affect the heart. The ear to hear and listen to His voice; the hand to work with an eye to His glory; the feet to run His errands; and the tongue to speak to, and for, God, and confess Him before the world.

(3) All that the man is, and hath, is contained in this gift.

III. Speak of persons presenting that gift unto the Lord.

1. Mention some things imported in a person or people, their giving themselves to the Lord.

(1) This exercise of a person or people, their giving themselves to the Lord, imports their discerning, and taking up the ground and warrant that they have to do so, and that is, the Lord’s giving and making over Himself to them in the word of grace and promise as their God in Christ.

(2) A person or people, their giving themselves to the Lord, imports an humble and hearty acknowledgment that they have formerly been under the power and dominion of other lords and lovers (Isaiah 36:13).

(3) It imports a real persuasion of His having an undoubted right to them and their services.

(4) It has in it the person’s withdrawing his allegiance from his former lords and lovers; his revoking and calling back the gift which he lind made of himself and his service to Satan, the god of this world.

(5),It imports a cordial embracing and receiving a God in Christ as their God and portion, Their taking the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as their God and Father, according to His promise (Jeremiah 3:19).

(6) It imports an unshaken purpose and resolution, through grace, to keep by the Lord and cleave to Him for better and worse.

2. Inquire for what ends and purposes persons give themselves to the Lord in the day of their effectual calling.

(1) Sinners give themselves to the Lord in the day of their effectual calling, their hearts being touched by grace, in compliance with the end and design of the glorious Gospel, which is to bring sinners that are ready to perish in the far country of a natural state home to God, as their God and Father in Christ.

(2) With an eye to their own safety.

(3) That they may be henceforth employed in His service (Acts 9:6; Psalms 116:16).

(4) To be led and guided through an ensnaring world by the good skill of His hand.

(5) That He may keep them by His almighty power, through faith unto salvation (1 Peter 1:5).

IV. Illustrate the truth of the doctrine,

1. Though there were none who set themselves in greater opposition to the Lord Jesus and the grace of God manifested in Him than the Jews, yet three thousand of them were added to the Church in one day (Acts 2:37).

2. The success which the Gospel has already had among the Gentile nations.

V. Use.

1. For trial and examination.

(1) If you have really given yourselves to the Lord, “you have accepted of God in Christ for Himself, and that without making any conditions about peace and prosperity and freedom from trouble in this world”; but you gave yourself to Him without any reserve.

(2) If you have really given yourselves to the Lord, it was with much affection you did so (Jeremiah 2:2). If you have given yourselves to the Lord, it was in a marriage-covenant.

(3) If you have given yourselves to the Lord, you cannot fail to admire His love and condescension to you in His giving Himself to you, in the word of grace and promise, and determining you to give yourselves to Him.

(4) If you have given yourselves to the Lord, you will be frequently recognizing that deed; yea, it will be habitually in your minds, and often upon the imagination of the thoughts of your hearts.

(5) If you have given yourselves to the Lord, you have a high esteem and valuation of Himself, and of everything that stands connected with Him.

2. For consolation to all who have been determined to give themselves to the Lord. They are in a state of happy condition; they have made the Most High their habitation; and therefore no real evil can befall them, neither any plague come near their dwelling.

3. For exhortation.

(1) As for you, then, who have been determined, by grace, to give yourselves to the Lord, we exhort you to bless the great and glorious name of the Lord your God, that He hath been graciously pleased so to shine into your hearts as to give you the saving knowledge of Himself, and bowed your rebellious wills unto a cordial yielding of yourselves unto the Lord, and so hath caused you to enter into His sanctuary which He hath sanctified for ever. We exhort you to be ever mindful whose you are, and to whom you have devoted yourselves and your services. When Satan, the world and the remaining corruptions of your flesh would seek to entice and draw you aside from the service of God, be exhorted to tell them that you have opened your mouths to the Lord, and that you cannot, and, through grace, will not, go back. We exhort you who have really given yourselves to the Lord to use your best endeavours to excite and influence others to go and do likewise. (T. Bennet.)