PSALM 36

TEHILLIM 36

8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

It is a mode of self-test to ask ourselves how far the prospect of an endless life devoted to the celebration of God's praise appeals to our sense of pleasure. In a state of fully-developed and enlightened reason, the prospect is a ravishing one, of being clothed with power, and endowed with capacity to open out our faculties in the lucid contemplation of rapturous and sustained admiration of the inherent and supernal excellence of eternal wisdom and power.

No privilege or joy of created existence can in the nature of things come near to this - none so purely sweet, none so lasting and inexhaustible. The delights of human friendship are great, the pleasure of personal gratification is something, but who shall measure the joy of reciprocal communion with the Eternal Father,

"Of Whom and through Whom and to Whom are all things?"

It is written,

"In Thy presence is fulness of joy;" and, again,

"Strength and gladness are in His place."

To be linked in unity with Him must be a noble ecstasy, burning with the steadiness of eternal glory, with an intensity that does not diminish its power, and a gladness that does not interfere with its dignified and perfect symmetry. "To drink of the rivers of Thy pleasures" must of necessity be the highest possible joy, and a joy that does not pall or exhaust itself because fed by the inexhaustible supply of the Spirit.

Seasons 2.72