Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_590.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-27 | 4KB | 69 lines

\*Ver. 15. \\As for me\\, &c.] I do not desire to be in
their place and stead, with all their plenty and prosperity;
I am content with my present condition and
situation: for
\*\\I will\\, or %shall%
\*\\behold thy face in righteousness\\;
that is, appear before God in public worship,
where was the ark, the symbol of the face of God;
enjoy his gracious presence, have the discoveries of his
love, and see his face and favour; than which nothing
was more desirable by him and delightful to him. Or
God himself may be meant by %his face%; and especially
God as he is to be beheld in the face of Christ, the
Angel of his presence; and who is to be beheld by
faith in the present state of things, though as through
a glass, darkly; and in the future state perfectly, and
as he is, both with the eyes of the understanding, and,
after the resurrection, with the eyes of the body; see
\\#Job 19:26,27\\; and to this state the psalmist seems
more especially to have respect, as Jarchi interprets
it: and the beatific vision of God in Christ will be very
glorious and exceeding delightful; it will be assimilating
and appropriating; it will be free from all darkness
and interruption, and will continue for ever. And
this shall be seen %in righteousness%; the psalmist believing
that he should then appear as an innocent person
clear of all the false charges brought against him; and
so this may be understood of the righteousness of his
cause, in which he should stand before God, and enjoy
communion with him:, or this may design that perfect
holiness and purity of heart, without which no man
shall see the Lord; and which, though now imperfect,
shall in the other state be without spot or blemish:
or rather, the righteousness of Christ, which fits believers
for, and in which they are brought into and
stand in, the King's presence;
\*\\I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with thy likeness\\; which will be in the
resurrection morn: or, as Jarchi expresses it, when
the dead shall awake from their sleep; for this is not
to be understood of awaking from natural sleep in the
morning; when it is a satisfaction to a believer to be
with God, and to have God with him, \\#Ps 139:18\\;
nor of awaking from a sleepy drowsy frame of spirit,
which sometimes attends the saints; but of rising from
the dead: for as death is oftentimes expressed by sleep
in Scripture, so the resurrection by an awaking out of
it, \\#Isa 26:19 Da 12:2\\; at which time the saints
will arise with the image of the heavenly One upon
them: they will be like to Christ both in soul and
body; in soul, in perfect knowledge and complete holiness:
in body, in incorruption and immortality, in
power, glory, and spirituality; in this will lie their
happiness and satisfaction. Or the meaning is, that
he should be satisfied with the likeness of God, with
Christ the image of God, when he should arise from
the dead; seeing he should then appear with him in
glory, see him as he is, and be like him, and be for ever
in his presence; which will yield endless pleasure and
unspeakable satisfaction. For the words may be interpreted,
not of David's awaking, but of the glory of
God awaking or appearing; which would afford an infinitely
greater satisfaction than worldly men have in
worldly things {p}, to which this is opposed, \\#Ps 17:10\\; so
the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions read, I shall
be satisfied when thy glory appears, or is seen; and
so the Ethiopic and Arabic versions.

{p} Vid. Castel. Lexic. Heptaglott. col. 2014.