God's Inheritance in Saints

Psalm 149:4

The Lord takes pleasure an 1 finds delight in those that run to do His bidding.

I. The Lord cares nothing for the strength of a horse or for the rapidity with which a man's legs can carry him from place to place; but He loves to see a meek and humble believer trusting Him. That delight begins with the repentance and with the true sorrow for sin, the sorrow according to God. There is a godly element in sorrow.

II. God is the highest and the holiest of beings. He is in heaven; He is enthroned there; that is His proper throne and His proper shrine; but there is one dwelling-place for the sake of which He will come down from heaven—that is, when He sees a humble and a contrite heart, where there is reverence for His Word and a trembling and holy fear—not a servile fear, but a filial fear, like that of a child to a father.

III. It is very common for people to say that the angels rejoice over every returning sinner. Whose joy is it? Not the angels' joy, it is God's joy, and the thought is that God is so full that He cannot contain His joy, and so the whole of the heavenly hosts are marshalled, and He says, 'Share My joy,' and the great heart of God overflows and they hold up their cups to catch the overflowing of the infinite chalice of the love of God.

IV. It is a great thing to have Christ's compassion when you have fallen. Is it not a greater thing to have Christ's sympathy when you stand, and is it not worth while to fortify ourselves against all the assaults of the devil when we remember that we can change the feeling of compassion in Jesus Christ over our fall to one of delight and sympathy over our victory?

—Arthur T. Pierson, Homiletic Review, 1904, vol. XLVIII. p. 378.

References.—CXLIX. 4.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 98. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 120. CXLIX. 9.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints' Days, p. 444. J. Bolton, Selected Sermons (2nd Series), p. 97. CXLIX.—International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 641.