"Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power: in the beauties
of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy
youth." - Psalm 110:3
There is so much of the Lord Jesus in this sweet Psalm, indeed it is
altogether so truly a gospel Psalm, that the morning portion, which was
a selection from it, cannot be better followed than by taking another
verse of it for the evening portion, that both together may furnish out
blessed meditations to my soul, in the contemplation of our precious
Jesus. Here are views of Jesus, in all his blessed offices, as the
Prophet, Priest, and King of his people; and every verse is more or
less descriptive of his glorious person, offices, and character. This
precious portion for my evening thoughts, contains the promise of
Jehovah the Father, in his covenant engagements, that the Redeemer
should see the blessed fruits and effects of his undertaking in the
hearts and minds of his elect people. "Thy people (saith the Lord)
shall be willing." So then Jesus had a people before his incarnation,
and that people Jehovah engaged to make willing; willing to be saved,
willing to receive Christ, and own him for their Redeemer? Sweet
thought of encouragement to the poor sinner! The Lord undertakes to
give the willing mind; so that this is enough to stir the humblest to
attend the means of grace, where Jehovah will make Christ's people
willing in the day of Christ's power. And while it furnisheth out
encouragement to the sinner, it holds forth instruction to the saint;
the former can plead no inability, and the latter can make no boasting;
the willingness is of the Lord, and it is in the day of Christ's power.
My soul! thou canst subscribe to this truth. The first awakenings of
grace in thine heart, thou knowest, were not the effect of thy
strength, but the willingness there wrought by divine power. But there
are in this verse, also, "the beauties of the Lord's holiness" spoken
of; "from the womb of the morning." It is indeed to see "the King in
his beauty," and to worship in the "beauty of holiness," when the
Lord's people are made willing in Christ's power, and worship only in
the beauties of Christ's holiness. And such, the promise saith, shall
be the fruitfulness of the womb of conversion in Christ's strength,
when he seeth the travail of his soul, that, as the dew-drops of the
morning are incalculable, so shall be the multitude of redeemed souls
that shall "flee as a cloud, and as doves to their windows!" Precious
Lord Jesus! rule thou as a King, the rightful Sovereign of Zion; subdue
thine enemies to the sceptre of thy grace, and bring every knee of thy
people to bend to the rod of thy power. And Oh Almighty Father! ever
let my poor soul praise thee, love thee, obey thee, adore thee, that
thou hast fulfilled this covenant promise to thy dear Son, in the
instance of my soul Thou hast indeed subdued the natural stubbornness
of my nature, and made me willing to be saved in the Lord's own way.
And now, blessed Lord, I desire to bend the knee of my heart to Jesus,
and daily, hourly ascribe the whole of my salvation "to Him that
sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb that was slain, forever!"
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