Therefore my heart is glad.
Christ joyful in suffering
The remainder of this Psalm we are to consider as spoken by David in reference to the Messiah, of whom he was both a prophet and a type.
I. This passage reminds us of the sufferings of Christ. Old Testament types, promises, and predictions describe Christ as a suffering Saviour. The view of Him thus given through the medium of prophecy is completely realised in His actual history. Well may such an emphasis be laid on the sufferings and death of Christ; for this was the instituted method of redemption.
II. This passage affirms the constancy and cheerfulness with which Christ was to bear His sorrows. “My heart is glad, and my glory,” that is, my tongue, “rejoiceth:” So said David, personating the Messiah; and all this was realised in Messiah’s actual deportment. Remarkable was the constancy and cheerfulness with which our blessed Saviour bore His sufferings. And we cannot but admire the character in which this excellence was so conspicuously displayed. To our admiration of His unequalled magnanimity we must add the more valuable tribute of our gratitude; for it was in love to our souls that His engagement to suffer and to die had its origin. If we ought to love Him, because He so loved us, oh how deep seated should our affection be!
III. What was it supported and cheered our Saviour in the midst of His sufferings?
1. He “set the Lord always before Him,” as the great object of His regard.
2. He was cheered by the assurance that “God was at His right band.” The arm of Jehovah was stretched out for His stay and deliverance.
3. He was supported by the hope of a resurrection of life and blessedness. (A. Thomson, D. D.)
My flesh also shall rest in hope.
Dying welt and comfortably
Doctrine: That it is a sweet, desirable, and Christlike way of dying, to be inwardly willing and joyful, and outwardly triumphing and praising God, from a confidence and hope of His promises.
I. Grounds of comfort.
1. Your God will be with you, and at your right hand, that you shall not be moved.
2. Death is your friend, to bring you to rest. Jesus has, by His death, removed everything from your death that is legally penal and a curse.
3. You shall be raised again to everlasting glory and happiness.
4. Your Lord after the judgment will present you faultless before the presence of His glory.
II. The foundations upon which these consolations against death are built.
1. The Psalmist looks to the acts of Christ’s mediation as the foundation of all His consolations against death.
2. These consolations are certain in themselves, and to you, from the promises of the covenant of grace, and are founded on them.
III. You must do your part, that you may be comforted, rejoice and triumph when you come to die.
1. You must have faith to believe these reasons of comfort.
2. You must have a lively hope in exercise. What must you do?--
(1) Come speedily out of a state of nature into a state of grace.
(2) Impartially and accurately examine your state, whether in Christ or not.
(3) Live a life of faith.
(4) Keep your consciences pure and void of offence, both towards God and man, and labour to be holy in your lives and conversations.
(5) Be much in the exercise of love.
(6) Live with your hearts weaned from a present world.
(7) Carry well towards the Spirit of joy and comfort, and keep communion with Him. He is the Comforter.
(8) Be frequent in actual preparation for death--promises ready, evidences ready, experiences ready. (James Robe, M. A.)
Immortality
This is an idea which has been growing in the Old Testament. Now and again some word has been interjected into the story that did not seem to belong to it, or was of another quality--a word with a colour, a flush, as if light from an unknown source had struck upon it and lighted it up into new beauty. Job had said one or two words for the explanation of which we must wait; the Psalmist now speaks of his flesh resting in hope, of his soul not being left in an unseen place, and of the Holy One not seeing corruption To impair the doctrine of immortality is to strike at the goodness of God. In denying immortality we may be said to deny the Creator. We cannot treat immortality as a doctrine only; it is really part of the Divine nature. Given God, and immortality in some form is a necessity. Has He created us simply to let us die? Has He given us all these gifts merely to mock us at the last, by allowing us to drop into oblivion and nothingness? Does He permit us to climb to the very door of heaven, and to hear the songs that are sung inside, simply that He may thunder to us--You cannot have part or lot in this inheritance; your destiny is obliteration? Some argument must be founded upon instinct, impulse, yearning, longing, speechless unconsciousness. When we are all, body, soul, and spirit, lifting ourselves up to Him, is it like Him to deny the aspiration? Or like Him to give us that further movement which will connect us consciously with His own eternity? To this latter faith I incline. God has not created aspiration which He cannot satisfy. There is more in us than we can tell, and to these wordless impulses God sends this revelation of immortality. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The flesh and its three states
We would speak on the fortunes of the flesh in its three stages of existence.
I. On this side the grave. Note the word “also.” It carries our thought back to the higher joy of the soul. Neither the essence of sin nor of glory is in the flesh at all. We therefore do not exclude the soul, but rather make it the great centre of all, though we speak more of the flesh. The Redeemer shall satisfy our whole nature. There is no danger, ordinarily, of our forgetting the flesh. It makes its presence predominant enough. Nothing but the regenerated spirit can keep it under. How we admire the heroic deeds of those who in some holy struggle for liberty or for love assert the superiority of the spirit over the flesh. They can die, die in torture, and that gladly, by the power of the spirit within them. But yet the Gospel does not forget even the flesh. How all the natural feelings are deeply touched. This is an argument for the after life of the body. How close is the link between the soul and the body. How they act and react on one another. It, therefore, can never be a matter of indifference to the soul what becomes of the body. And our Lord became flesh, was incarnate, and He has taken it, now glorified, permanently into union with His Godhead. We have no hint that He will ever put it off. It is the same human body which was nursed at the heart of an earthly mother, and which hung upon the Cross in death. Therefore, how can we despise the body? And the hope of the flesh is bound up even with the glory of God Himself. For He did not, at first, mean those bodies to die. There was no death in His counsels. That came by sin. Thus the Divine will was contradicted by Satan. But redemption was to undo Satan’s work. Yes, each one may cry out in joy, “My flesh also shall rest in hope.”
II. In the grave. It is a state of rest. The word implies both labours past and repose present. Hence “sleep” is the condition in which faith loves to regard the body in the grave. And like as in sleep, the body in the grave is free from pain and toil, from sin and suffering, from want and weariness and all pining. And it is a state of unconsciousness, so far as the flesh is concerned, an unconsciousness of the very state in which it lies. The resurrection will appear to follow instantaneously upon death, as our awaking after deep sleep seems to follow close upon our falling asleep. And like sleep, it is but for a while; there will be an awakening. The principle of life is held in abeyance: in sleep, by a natural change; in death, by the immediate will of Him who has all life to give and withhold as He wills. What a holy and loving charm do these thoughts throw around even the decaying flesh: what a light upon the grave.
III. Beyond the grave. It is far more easy to realise with something like precision the future glory of the flesh than that of the spirit. And yet even the body’s glory is far more than we can conceive, because we have no experience of a body free from the penalties of sin. But we have known, at times, fulness of life, of buoyant vigour, and of such pleasure in movement and living that we have been filled with delight. Imagine that eternal. And add new capacities and powers. (Edward Garbitt, M. A.)