in your likeness.” How many are there here of that sort? Oh! if you are talking like that, you must expect to have trouble, for God never gives strong faith without fiery trial; he will never give a man the power to say that “shall” without trying him; he will not build a strong ship without subjecting it to very mighty storms; he will not make you a mighty warrior, if he does not intend to try your skill in battle. God’s swords must be used; the old Toledo blades of heaven must be smitten against the armour of the evil one, and yet they shall not break, for they are of true Jerusalem metal, which shall never snap. Oh! what a happy thing to have that faith to say “I shall.” Some of you think it quite impossible, I know; but it “is the gift of God,” and whoever asks for it shall obtain it: and the very chief of sinners now present in this place may yet be able to say long before he comes to die, “I shall behold your face in righteousness.” I think I see the aged Christian. He has been very poor. He is in an attic where the stars look between the tiles. There is his bed. His clothes ragged and torn. There are a few sticks on the hearth: they are the last he has. He is sitting up in his chair; his paralytic hand quivers and shakes, and he is evidently near his end. His last meal was eaten yesterday morning; and as you stand and look at him, poor, weak, and feeble, who would desire his lot? But ask him, “Old man, would you change your attic for Caesar’s palace? Aged Christian, would you give up these rags for wealth, and cease to love your God?” See how indignation burns in his eyes at once! He replies, “ ‘As for me, I shall,’ within a few more days, ‘behold his face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied’ soon; here I never shall be. Trouble has been my lot, and trial has been my portion; but I have ‘a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’ ” Bid high; bid him fair; offer him your hands full of gold; lay all down for him to give up his Christ. “Give up Christ?” he will say, “no, never!”
While my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the miser’s gold.
8. Oh! what a glorious thing to be full of faith, and to have the confidence of assurance, so as to say, “I will behold your face; I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness.”
9. Thus much concerning the spirit of David. It is one very much to be copied and eminently to be desired.
10. II. But now, secondly, THE MATTER OF THIS PASSAGE. And here we will dive into the very depths of it, God helping us; for without the Spirit of God I feel I am utterly unable to speak to you. I do not have those gifts and talents which qualify men to speak; I need a miraculous, supernatural communication from on high, otherwise I stand like other men and have nothing to say. May that be given me; for without it I am dumb. As for the matter of this verse, I think it contains a double blessing. The first is a beholding — “I will behold your face in righteousness”; and the next is a satisfaction — “I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness.”
11. Let us begin with the first, then. David expected that he should behold God’s face. What a vision will that be, my brethren! Have you ever seen God’s hand? I have seen it, when sometimes he places it across the sky, and darkens it with clouds. I have seen God’s hand sometimes, when the chariots of night drag along the shades of darkness. I have seen his hand when, launching the thunderbolt, his lightning splits the clouds and rends the heavens. Perhaps you have seen it in a gentler fashion, when it pours out the water and sends it rippling along in rills, and then rolls into rivers. You have seen it in the stormy ocean — in the sky decked with stars, in the earth gemmed with flowers; and there is not a man living who can know all the wonders of God’s hand. His creation is so wondrous that it would take more than a lifetime to understand it. Go into the depths of it; let its minute parts engage your attention; next take the telescope, and try to see remote worlds, and can I see all God’s handiwork — behold all his hand? No, not so much as one millionth part of the fabric. That mighty hand in which the young comets are brooded by the sun, in which the planets roll in majestic orbits; that mighty hand which holds all space, and grasps all beings — that mighty hand, who can behold it? But if such is his hand, what must his face be? You have heard God’s voice sometimes, and you have trembled; I, myself, have listened awe struck, and yet with a marvellous joy, when I have heard God’s voice, like the noise of many waters, in the great thunderings. Have you never stood and listened, while the earth shook and trembled, and the very spheres stopped their music, while God spoke with his wondrous deep bass voice? Yes, you have heard that voice; and there is a joy marvellously instinct with love which enters into my soul, whenever I hear the thunder. It is my Father speaking, and my heart leaps to hear him. But you never heard God’s loudest voice. It was only his whisper when the thunder rolled. But if such is the voice, what must it be to behold his face? David said, “I will behold your face.” It is said of the temple of Diana, that it was so splendidly decorated with gold, and so bright and shining, that a porter at the door always said to every one that entered, “Take heed to your eyes, take heed to your eyes; you will be struck with blindness unless you take heed to your eyes.” But oh! that view of glory! That great appearance. The vision of God! to see him face to face, to enter into heaven, and to see the righteous shining bright as stars in the firmament; but best of all, to catch a glimpse of the eternal throne! Ah! there he sits! It is almost blasphemy for me to attempt to describe him. How infinitely far my poor words fall below the mighty subject! But to behold God’s face, I will not speak of the lustre of those eyes, or the majesty of those lips, that shall speak words of love and affection; but to behold his face! You who have dived into the Godhead’s deepest sea, and have been lost in its immensity, you can tell a little of it! You mighty ones, who have lived in heaven these thousand years, perhaps you know, but you cannot tell, what it is to see his face. We must each of us go there, we must be clad with immortality. We must go above the blue sky, and bathe in the river of life: we must out soar the lightning, and rise above the stars, to know what it is to see God’s face. Words cannot set it forth. So there I leave it. The hope the Psalmist had was, that he might see God’s face.
12. But there was a peculiar sweetness mixed with this joy, because he knew that he would behold God’s face in righteousness. “I shall behold your face in righteousness.” Have I not seen my Father’s face here below? Yes, I have, “through a glass darkly.” But has not the Christian sometimes beheld him, when in his heavenly moments earth is gone, and the mind is stripped of matter? There are some seasons when the gross materialism dies away, and when the ethereal fire within blazes up so high that it almost touches the fire of heaven. There are seasons, when in some retired spot, calm and free from all earthly thought, we have taken our shoes from off our feet, because the place upon which we stood was holy ground; and we have talked with God! Even as Enoch talked with him, so has the Christian held intimate communion with his Father. He has heard his love whispers; he has told out his heart, poured out his sorrows and his groans before him. But after all he has felt that he has not beheld his face in righteousness. There was so much sin to darken the eyes, so much folly, so much frailty, that we could not get a clear prospect of our Jesus. But here the Psalmist says, “I will behold your face in righteousness.” When that illustrious day shall arise, and I shall see my Saviour face to face, I shall see him “in righteousness.” The Christian in heaven will not have so much as a speck upon his garment; he will be pure and white; yes, on the earth he is
Pure through Jesus’ blood, and white as angels are.
But in heaven that whiteness shall be more apparent. Now, it is sometimes smoked by earth, and covered with the dust of this poor carnal world; but in heaven he will have brushed himself, and washed his wings, and made them clean; and then he will see God’s face in righteousness. My God! I believe I shall stand before your face as pure as you are yourself; for I shall have the righteousness of Jesus Christ; there shall be upon me the righteousness of God. “I shall behold your face in righteousness.” Oh Christian, can you enjoy this? Though I cannot speak about it, do your hearts meditate upon it? To behold his face for ever; to bask in that vision! True, you cannot understand it; but you may guess the meaning. To behold his face in righteousness!
13. The second blessing, upon which I will be brief, is satisfaction. He will be satisfied, the Psalmist says, when he wakes up in God’s likeness. Satisfaction! This is another joy for the Christian when