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I. CONCERNING THE DEITY WHOM FAITH CLAIMS. There can be no claiming or believing till He be known. It is therefore proper to begin with a display of His glory.

1. Every perfection in His glory. Had we the tongue and the voice of the seraphim, we. could not declare it all. Paper broader than the earth, ink deeper than the sea, pens stronger than iron, and hands readier than the quickest scribe, could not write the thousandth part of it.

2. God is the Creator and Preserver of all (Isaiah 42:5).

3. God is the spring and fountain of our reconciliation by the death of His Son.

4. God is the promiser and the lawgiver. Without the promise, we could not observe the law, and without the law, we would abuse the promise.

5. Our blessedness is in God (Psalm 62).

II. CONCERNING THE CLAIMING OF PROPERTY IN GOD.

1. The Word is the ground of our claiming property in God.

2. Believing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the exercise of our claim. Christ and God are not divided and separated, in our believing and claiming. God was, and is, and will be in Christ. Christ was, and is, and will be in God.

3. The promises of the covenant encourage our claiming interest and property in God through Christ Jesus the Lord.

4. The exercise of the heart which believes and claims interest and property in God is recommended by the example of Christ. In the anguish and bitterness of distress He cried, "My Father," and "My God." And no sooner was He delivered from the power of death by a glorious resurrection, than He said, "I ascend to My Fatter and your Father, and to My God and your God." Follow His example.

5. The Spirit of adoption constrains to this exercise of the heart. Without His presence and operation, no man believes and claims interest and property in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. No law condemns this exercise of the heart. Believing and claiming interest and property in God through Jesus Christ is against no law. Is the law against the promises of God, or the promises against the law of God? God forbid.

III. THE MANNER IN WHICH INTEREST AND PROPERTY IN GOD SHOULD BE CLAIMED IN BELIEVING.

1. In Christ. Christ is the true, and living, and only way to God. "No man," said He, "cometh to the Father but by Me." In claiming interest and relation in one, we claim interest and relation and property in both. The guilty and polluted cannot approach the holiness of the Lord but through, and by, and in a Mediator, whom He hath made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

2. In humility. When we venture into the presence of the high and holy One, and say, "O God, Thou art my God," humility of mind is our adorning. Our unworthiness as creatures, and our pollution as sinners, should produce in us the deepest debasement before Him.

3. With reverence. "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." When the humble spirit is before Him, saying, "O God, Thou art my God," it doth not allow itself to forget and disregard these instructions.

4. With confidence (Psalm 48:14).

IV. CONCERNING THE SEASONS IN OUR EXERCISE OF BELIEVING AND CLAIMING RELATION, INTEREST, AND PROPERTY IN GOD THROUGH CHRIST.

1. The season of labouring. God is the glory of our strength; and believing and claiming Him in Christ, what service may we not undertake boldly, and what labour may we not endure joyfully.

2. The season of suffering. We need to abound in the believing exercises of the heart to God-ward through Christ, in order to draw in strength from the promises to endure it, and encourage and confirm hope of deliverance out of it.

3. The season of trouble and vexation of spirit.

4. The season of heaviness and grief.

5. The season of temptation. By steadfast believing, and continuance in well-doing, ye will, through the grace, and Spirit, and word of Christ, defeat every attempt to invalidate a claim, standing on His own My God and your God, My Father and your Father.

6. The season of dying. Steadfast believing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement, will make us smile in the face of an enemy at whose appearance our heart would otherwise be alarmed and dismayed.

(A. Shanks.)

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KJV: {A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.} O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

WEB: God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.