As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.As for the saints that are in the earth, They are the excellent in whom is all my delight.
3 sermons cite this verse
it is good to be back with you on the sunday after in a lot of churches it's the day you can count on a guest preacher on the substitute organist and a lone choir soloist, because the regular organist and the choir and the pastor really need a day off. Not in Duke Chapel, clearly, but in a lot of places. In my church, we call it Low Sunday, because the attendance is usually low, along with the adrenaline. Sometimes you can find an Easter bulletin still tucked in the hymnal. from last week, or a kind of shriveled azalea blossom under your pew that fell from the flowered cross when the sexton took it out on Monday. Faithful Christians may say, the Lord is risen all year long, but on this Sunday in particular, it can feel as if he was risen last week. So in some ways, it's a lot like other weeks after, the week after the wedding, the week after the graduation, the week after the baptism, the birth, the death. …
"Let others choose the sons of mirth To give a relish to their wine. I love the men of heavenly birth, Whose thoughts and language are Divine. Do you, dear Friends find rest in the company of God's chosen people? The ungodly do not. If some gracious person should go to their house and begin talking about the mysteries of the Cross, their impatient glances at the clock would soon show that such a theme was a weariness to them. When they go up to the place where God's people meet, to worship Him, the shorter the service is the better they like it! And the reason is that they do not savingly know the Lord. A man without sight would not be likely to be very much charmed in a picture gallery. And a man who was stone-deaf would not be very delighted with the grandest oratorio that was ever performed! In like manner, we cannot expect that those who have no spiritual sense can find delight in the company of God's people. But how different it is with the man who is really saved! He can say, with David, of the saints that are in the earth, that they are "the excellent, in whom is all my delight." A good old saint, whom I went to see on her dying bed, said to me, "It always gives me comfort, Sir, to think that God is not likely to send me to dwell with the wicked, for I never liked their society here. I believe He will let me go with my own company and I have always kept company with His people since I have learned to know Him." I assured her that I believed it would be so. It is a sign of Grace when we find rest with those who are really spiritual because they are spiritual. You may love some saints of God, yet it may be no sign of Grace on your part—there may be something specially lovable about them so that you cannot help loving them or you may have received some temporal kindness from them and, therefore, love them for purely natural reasons. But it is a very different matter when we can say, with John— "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Some of us can truthfully declare that our happiest hours are those that we expound with the saints of God! And we can fully sympathize with Dr. Watts when he says— …
When we first joined the Christian Church, we were told very plainly in the Scripture that there would be tares among the wheat. That there would be some among us who would go out from us, because they were not of us. Christ taught us that among His 12 disciples, there was one Judas, and if some hypocrites intrude among us, it need not astonish us! We knew it would be so. He forewarned us and admonished us of it. We have heard it and so have we seen—and if the seeing of it has been painful—we can at least say that God was truthful and frank in warning us that so it would be. Well, there were good things spoken of the Church of God and we have found them true, too. I expected to find in the Christian Church some holy, prayerful, devout Christian men and women—and I have found them. And I have rejoiced to be among them, to mingle with them, and to be of their company, joining with them in holy worship, the washing in the blood that has washed them! I can truly say that I have found a Peter—many a bold earnest Brother like Peter. Many a loving John! Many a busy Martha and some communing Marys. The Church of God always seems to me, as I have seen it, to be a vast deal too good for me to be a member of it, if I did but judge myself. And, instead of finding fault, I would join with David and say, "You are my Lord: my goodness extends not to You, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight." I know the world will often find fault and rail and tell us there are no such things as ancient Christians. I have seen as glorious Christianity as even the Apostles saw, and as good works of the Holy Spirit in members of this Church as ever gladdened the eyes of those Apostles! I have seen suffering endured with an astonishing patience, labor done with a perseverance that was most commendable, liberality evinced with a freedom that showed that the love of Christ constrained, prayer kept up with a fervency that marked the indwelling Spirit and souls cared for, sought after and won, too, with an indefatigable love that only the love of Christ could inspire! I know we always think we live in the worst times, but we do not! …