“Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple”
Psalm 65:4
The “sweet palmist of Israel,” David, has provided in this verse the very fullness of the blessings God has bestowed on His children. Included is God’s sovereign choosing of His people for salvation.
To be chosen is to be the object of God’s everlasting love, but not because one is deserving. In fact, it is quite the contrary. God chooses only at His good pleasure, and indeed that is a great blessing. But we also read that He causes His chosen ones to approach Him. Here is the blessing of having one’s stubborn will conquered, since one would never be willing or able to approach God of their own accord. Instead, God graciously changes the heart so that its disposition towards God is radically reversed in its affections. Where before that person was in rebellion against God, seeking to chiefly satisfy and love self, now that one has a new love for God and His people. This is what Jesus was talking about when he told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
This truth of the necessity of new birth in order to have a new will formed is a great blow to fallen man’s pride. Sinful man is self-deceived in believing he has a so-called “free will” whereby he can do whatever he pleases. But “whatever he pleases” is the crux of the issue. Left to himself, he would never come to God because his sin bound self-loving nature is such that he would never be “pleased” to approach God. He’s insulted that He would have to be chosen, as if he were not good enough. As such, he reasons that if approaching God is a result of God’s choice, then it must be God’s fault if he doesn’t.
But the chosen one, now powerfully transformed into a new creature, approaches God by faith, boldly and joyfully, with sins washed away by Christ at the cross, and beautifully clothed in the righteousness earned for him by Jesus. This is to be supremely blessed.
And yet there’s more. This being in the presence of God and in His courts is to be forever, and that chosen one will be satisfied to the utmost! Isaac Watts has written of the “three chief ingredients” of true satisfaction and happiness. He listed, “the contemplation of the noblest object, to satisfy all the powers of the understanding; the love of the supreme good, to answer the utmost propensities of the will, and the sweet and everlasting sensation and assurance of the love of an Almighty Friend, who will free us from all evils which our nature can fear, and confer upon us all the good which a wise and innocent creature can desire. Thus all the capacities of man are employed in their highest and sweetest exercises and enjoyments.”
And yet there are so many who believe that their greatest blessing lies elsewhere than in being chosen and caused to approach God and dwell with Him forever. It’s evidenced in their ignoring of God’s gracious invitation through His messengers in the pulpits to approach Him now by confessing and repenting of sin, and believing in Christ Jesus as the One who paid the price of their sin, and also obeyed God’s law on their behalf. It’s also evidenced by many who once approached Him, even professing Christ, and joining a church, but who are careless and irregular in their approach, some even having now gone their own way. When this happens, they start to demonstrate that perhaps they never were chosen. John wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 John 2:19).
But those truly chosen find a measure of this promised eternal satisfaction even in this passing life. They’re eager to worship God, and be with His people, in whom they see something of the image of Jesus Christ. They’re zealous for good works, and they’re anxious to tell others of their joy in Christ so that they too might partake of it. They long to sing praises to God, and to hear from their beloved Almighty Friend from His word. And then they delight in responding to Him in their prayers. They also have the great hope of dwelling in His courts, and “everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).
Indeed, let us say, blessed is the man God chooses, and causes to approach Him, that he may dwell in His courts, and there to experience such satisfaction forever. By God’s grace may you all be so blessed!
And to God alone be the glory,
Psalm 65:4
The “sweet palmist of Israel,” David, has provided in this verse the very fullness of the blessings God has bestowed on His children. Included is God’s sovereign choosing of His people for salvation.
To be chosen is to be the object of God’s everlasting love, but not because one is deserving. In fact, it is quite the contrary. God chooses only at His good pleasure, and indeed that is a great blessing. But we also read that He causes His chosen ones to approach Him. Here is the blessing of having one’s stubborn will conquered, since one would never be willing or able to approach God of their own accord. Instead, God graciously changes the heart so that its disposition towards God is radically reversed in its affections. Where before that person was in rebellion against God, seeking to chiefly satisfy and love self, now that one has a new love for God and His people. This is what Jesus was talking about when he told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
This truth of the necessity of new birth in order to have a new will formed is a great blow to fallen man’s pride. Sinful man is self-deceived in believing he has a so-called “free will” whereby he can do whatever he pleases. But “whatever he pleases” is the crux of the issue. Left to himself, he would never come to God because his sin bound self-loving nature is such that he would never be “pleased” to approach God. He’s insulted that He would have to be chosen, as if he were not good enough. As such, he reasons that if approaching God is a result of God’s choice, then it must be God’s fault if he doesn’t.
But the chosen one, now powerfully transformed into a new creature, approaches God by faith, boldly and joyfully, with sins washed away by Christ at the cross, and beautifully clothed in the righteousness earned for him by Jesus. This is to be supremely blessed.
And yet there’s more. This being in the presence of God and in His courts is to be forever, and that chosen one will be satisfied to the utmost! Isaac Watts has written of the “three chief ingredients” of true satisfaction and happiness. He listed, “the contemplation of the noblest object, to satisfy all the powers of the understanding; the love of the supreme good, to answer the utmost propensities of the will, and the sweet and everlasting sensation and assurance of the love of an Almighty Friend, who will free us from all evils which our nature can fear, and confer upon us all the good which a wise and innocent creature can desire. Thus all the capacities of man are employed in their highest and sweetest exercises and enjoyments.”
And yet there are so many who believe that their greatest blessing lies elsewhere than in being chosen and caused to approach God and dwell with Him forever. It’s evidenced in their ignoring of God’s gracious invitation through His messengers in the pulpits to approach Him now by confessing and repenting of sin, and believing in Christ Jesus as the One who paid the price of their sin, and also obeyed God’s law on their behalf. It’s also evidenced by many who once approached Him, even professing Christ, and joining a church, but who are careless and irregular in their approach, some even having now gone their own way. When this happens, they start to demonstrate that perhaps they never were chosen. John wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 John 2:19).
But those truly chosen find a measure of this promised eternal satisfaction even in this passing life. They’re eager to worship God, and be with His people, in whom they see something of the image of Jesus Christ. They’re zealous for good works, and they’re anxious to tell others of their joy in Christ so that they too might partake of it. They long to sing praises to God, and to hear from their beloved Almighty Friend from His word. And then they delight in responding to Him in their prayers. They also have the great hope of dwelling in His courts, and “everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).
Indeed, let us say, blessed is the man God chooses, and causes to approach Him, that he may dwell in His courts, and there to experience such satisfaction forever. By God’s grace may you all be so blessed!
And to God alone be the glory,