David is described as “a man after God’s own heart.” What does that mean? Can that description be applied to anyone? If so, how can it be applied to me? I’m not sure that I’m qualified to answer those questions. David was a man of prayer – more than most of us are – was the this the source of that description? He was quickly humbled when his sins were pointed out. He knew how to worship, and his prayers were much more than about his needs or other’s needs. But at the same time, David was not afraid to ask Jehovah some of the most pointed questions. Apparently asking questions, even of God, is not a bad thing, depending on the condition of the heart. Perhaps someone may ask questions of the Lord, if he is willing to submitted to the Lord’s answer. Does being after God’s heart come before or after the questions?
When problems arose in David’s life, he didn’t turn inward, getting all self-centered. Nor did he turn outwardly toward the philosophers, educators and poets of his day. He turned to the Lord. But it wasn’t in a demanding sort of way, suggesting that God owed him answers. And it wasn’t with a FALSE humility either. David was being honest when he said, “Lord, you know that my heart is yours” – verse 3. “You know that in my weak way I have done my best to keep from sin” – verse 4. “Lord, I don’t deserve it, but I ask that you keep me as the apple of thy eye, and hide me under the shadow of thy wings,” – verse 8. And then he asks, “Why do the wicked seem to have such liberty, Lord? “They are out to destroy me. “But, they are so full, they have estates to leave to their children. “Lord, they are fed from off thy table, even though they are quite willing to spit thy face. “Lord, this doesn’t seem right. Why do you permit such things?”
As Spurgeon once said, “This Psalm smells of the furnace.” It is like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, down in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar’s boiler. They pass through the flame, but come out smelling like a rose. “Upon their bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” David passes through the questions and the fire. And part of the reason is that he trusts God for a future resolution – verse 15. After all the problems and perplexities there comes an ultimate perfection.
There is always a tendency, especially among the young and the weak of heart to take the road that seems the smoothest and less steep. Like Christian and Hopeful wanting to climb the fence into By-path Meadow to get to the Celestial City. But By-path is owned by the Giant Despair, and it leads only to Doubting Castle and serious trouble. We must, like David, asking the Lord to keep us – or guard us – lest we take to the paths of the destroyer. “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.” – verse 5. Christians are obligated to live a life that pleases Christ, but that one is not necessarily the easiest. It is important to be right even though it’s not always reasonable. It is important to be righteous even when the world says that it’s not always rational.
David teaches us to say, “I’ll wait for the final reckoning.” – verse 15. There are three things in verse 15 which bear closer scrutiny: The sight of Lord, the righteousness which He imputes, and the believers’ satisfaction with both.
Think about that SIGHT of the Lord.
During my life I’ve watched parts of only two or three movies depicting the Lord Jesus. Each one has disgusted me, until I’ve gotten to the point where I deliberately avoid Hollywood’s renditions of the life of Christ. I think I mentioned that there was one a year or so ago, and Twilla Little asked me for my opinion. I didn’t have an opinion, because I refused to watch it – consider it – or even to imagine it. Man’s depictions of the Lord always bear the stain of the artist’s sinfulness. It may not be that he’s trying to mislead people, but just that he is as sinfully corrupt as the rest of us. Our minds are not equipped to properly visualize the Holy One. And that includes mine. “God is a spirit, and He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.” Illustrations tend to force weak Christians into leaning on the flesh in order to augment their worship. Pictures are for children whose faiths are as weak as their muscles and minds. Paul said, “When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as child, I thought as child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” It is with the eyes of faith that we perceive the Lord; just as it was with the heart of faith that we ate his flesh and drank His blood at the time of our salvation.
But we have our Bibles, which give us a marvelous picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Him in symbols and types scattered throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have four accounts of the earthly ministry of Christ. Then there are such things as Jesus’ own self-portraits: “I am light of world; I am the bread of life; I am the resurrection and life. “I am the way, truth and life; I am the water of life,” etc. But admittedly these things are cloudy: For now we see through a glass, darkly.
But there will soon day be a day when we look directly into the face of the Saviour. Job said, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” As the great preacher, deacon, and martyr, Stephen left this world, he saw Christ. Paul told us all, “I desire to depart this world and to be with Christ” – at which time we will see Him. And he said that Christ is returning, and “we shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
The day in which David, you and I, see Him, we shall be rid of these sin-cursed bodies of ours. That will be “when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption.” And that will actually make the furnace of our current afflictions sweet. When Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah finally died, and met Christ a second time, they had much to forget. But their sufferings only added to the glory and joy of meeting their Saviour. Have ever thought about how sweet it would be to be blind. Like those blind men that Jesus healed during His earthly ministry. The first thing that we ever see, might be the face of the Redeemer. Then, “it (really) will be worth it all, when we see Jesus.” “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness.”
The second major thought in this verse is that word: “RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Now, it might be possible to send that word in wrong direction, applying it to the Lord. Of course when we see Christ, His face shall be enhanced by perfect righteousness. That’s like speaking of the “shining sun.” Of course the sun is shining; the sun always shines. The moment the sun refuses to shine, it will cease to be the sun. This is not speaking of Christ’s righteousness, but the righteousness of David as he gazes upon the Son.
There will not be a single unholy soul in Glory; there will not be anyone who is not a saint of God. And from where does that holiness to come? Even though David speaks of his struggle for a pure life, he failed miserably. That man’s righteousness was no better than Abner’s, Absalom’s or Adam’s. If he awoke without God’s likeness, it would be better not to awaken at all. But if David awakes with righteousness, it will be because of the righteousness of God in him. It might have been more theologically accurate if David had said, “I will behold thy face in THY righteousness.” Because that will be his condition when the Lord returns – by the grace of God.
I am told that the Chinese have a beautiful way of writing the word “righteousness.” Remember that those people use a kind of picture to write their words. And the word “righteousness” is made up of two other pictures. First, there is the word which stands for “me,” and above it there is another for “lamb.” Together they say a completely different word – “Righteousness.” That is the thought contained in the Word of God. Jesus Christ is “the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” One these days I shall meet Christ face to face, said Paul, “not having mine own righteousness, that which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
If I looked through a yellow piece of glass, everything in this room would look yellow. And in a sense I suppose that the same would be true if God looked through that glass. And if God looked through a blue piece of glass, I suppose that all would be blue. When the Lord looks through the crimson blood of Christ everything under that blood looks as pure as the freshest snow. “Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.”
The Child of God shall one day be like Christ, and he should long for that day.
Because that shall be a day of complete CORRECTION and SATISFACTION.
David looked with a slight bit of jealousy out of his long periods of poverty and pain. He had high hopes for God and His glory in this world. He had been told that of his children would the Messiah come to earth. There were times when David wanted more of the things of this temporary world. Just like all of us, when we get in our flesh. But above them all, David longed for the completion of the promises of God.
David and the worldling might be likened to cartoon that I once saw. There two Eskimos fishing through the ice – one had cut hole in the ice as one might expect. The other had cut an enormous hole which seemed go to the horizon, all in shape of whale. David’s hope, and his expectation was in the Lord. Shall he be disappointed? Not in the slightest. “Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
“I shall without question be completely satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” In everything else we shall be disappointed, but not in Christ. We shall be disappointed in our own service for the Lord. We shall be disappointed In our battle against our personal sins, in our prayer life, in our service. Spurgeon once said that he was never satisfied with a single sermon he ever preached. But neither Spurgeon, David nor am I dissatisfied with Christ Jesus. How can we be, for “it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.”
No matter what this world holds for us, whether wealth or poverty, those things are nothing in comparison to that which God hath prepared for them that love him.
