If we explain these delightful words with an eye to the gospel church in Christ Jesus, then the sense will be lovely: for this will be to offer God the Father praise, in and through Christ, our great High Priest, our Altar, our Sacrifice. And to such the blessings of the Spirit are here most graciously promised, to lead and to guide into all truth, in beholding, and accepting, and rejoicing in God's rich and free and sovereign salvation by Jesus.
REFLECTIONS
READER! it is always profitable, by making comparative statements between the law and the gospel, to behold the gracious mercy of our God in the one all-sufficient, all-perfect sacrifice of God's dear Son. Not indeed, that any other sacrifice was, or could be intended to take away sin: for neither the blood of bulls, nor of goats, possessed any efficacy to this end; but were shadowy representations of Him, who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But while we here behold the Jews resting in the means, and forgetting the end, taking up with the shadow, and overlooking the substance; let you and I be very jealous over our own hearts as Christians, that we do not fall into the same error. And is there not danger, even now under a gospel dispensation, if we rest in any ordinance, however delightful it may be in itself, and forget the Lord of the ordinance? If I go to the table of the Lord, and in partaking of that feast upon a sacrifice, I forget that it is the sacrifice of Jesus's body and blood, and not the feast upon it, that is the means of my soul's acceptance with God? And are not all unworthy communicants of this kind? Doth not the Lord speak to all profane, to all self-righteous characters, as in this Psalm? Doth he not solemnly remonstrate, in a yet more especial manner, to such as minister in holy things, if they minister with unclean hands, and without an eye wholly to Jesus: What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? The Lord impress, both upon minister and people, a due sense of these things, that both may so offer the sacrifice of Christ and his righteousness, as that they may thereby glorify God the Father, who hath set forth his Son as a propitiation through faith in his blood; and in their own souls be so sweetly taught of God, as to have clear views, and rich enjoyments of the salvation of God.