2 Samuel 23:39

REFLECTIONS

How sweet are the last words of dying saints. And how doubly so when they are sanctified to lead to JESUS. Reader! amidst all the trying dispensations in the life of the patriarch David; yet observe what confidence in covenant engagements can do, to give a soul comfort and holy joy. David's troubles were so many, so grievous, and so complicated, that it is quite proverbial when we speak of the man, to speak also of his sorrows; LORD remember David and all his troubles. But oh! how enviable the trouble that is sanctified! How coveted the situation which JESUS blesses. He saw the day of CHRIST, like another Abraham, afar off; as a morning without a cloud. He comforted himself in the assurance of the covenant, which was ordered in all things and sure. And he could, and did, take all the consolation of it as the whole of his salvation, and the whole of his desire, whatever outer circumstances in his life arose to exercise his mind.

Blessed JESUS! give my soul, like David, to see thee to be the whole of the covenant; and in thee, and thy finished redemption-work, fix the whole of my desire. Let a throne of grace witness for me, that I would seek life with all its dependencies; life temporal, and life eternal; wholly as David did upon the ground of the Covenant, the everlasting Covenant, through thy blood and righteousness. In all the actions of my life, and with my dying breath, I would say as David; It is all my Salvation and all my desire. And oh! thou dear Redeemer! As all my hopes, my expectations, are from thee in thy covenant righteousness, without an atom of anything of mine to add to it; LORD give me grace to live as I hope to die, in making these my constant study and delight, my songs of rejoicing in the house of my pilgrimage. To JESUS would I daily, hourly come; in him be found. To him would I cleave. With him would I walk; venturing upon CHRIST, resting in him, and hanging upon him. And as it is said, they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's house, so would I the whole of my salvation. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.