My soul faints for Your salvation

Posted : 23 May, 2013 02:11 AM

Psalm 119:81 My soul faints for Your salvation; but I hope in Your word.





The salvation of the Gospel was the constant object of faith

and desire to the Lord's people under the old dispensation.

Long had the church triumphed in the glowing anticipation, as

if in the full possession of the promised blessing- "It shall be

said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him,

we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. I will greatly

rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He

has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has

covered me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom

decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself

with her jewels." And as it was the joy of their living moments,

so was it the support and consolation of their dying hours. "I

have waited for Your salvation, O Lord!" was the expression of

the dying patriarch's faith. And how cheering were the last

words of this "sweet Psalmist of Israel," whose soul was now

fainting for God's salvation, even in his dark and foreboding

family prospect! "Although my house be not so with God, yet

has He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all

things and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire,

although He make it not to grow." Good old Simeon, in the

break of the gospel-day, was ready to "depart in peace, for his

eyes had seen God's salvation." And shall not we, under this

heavenly influence, naturally appropriate these feelings of

ancient believers to ourselves? What interpreter but

experience will be needed to explain them? The uneasiness

felt by any interruption of our enjoyment, will show the soul to

be fainting for this salvation. Nothing will satisfy but the

Savior. The tempting offer of "all the kingdoms of the world,

and the glory of them," will fail in attraction. Still the cry will be-

"Say unto my soul, I am Your salvation. Let Your mercies come also unto me, O Lord; even Your salvation, according to

Your word."

As the lowest expectant of this salvation, am not I richer than

the sole possessor of this world's portion? And therefore if the

Lord hides His face, I would look to no other quarter; I would

stay by Him, and "wait on Him," though days and months and

years may pass away, "until He have mercy upon me." My

soul faints for His salvation: and-pressing to my lips the fullest

cup of earth's best joy-my heart would burst with despair of

satisfaction, "but" that "I hope in His word." "By this hope I am

saved." In "the patience of hope" I am resolved to wait until

the last moment, lying at the footstool of my Savior. I am

looking for the "assurance of this hope"-when, in the joyous

anticipation of eternity, and with "the earnest of" the heavenly

"inheritance" in my soul, I shall echo the voice of my coming

Savior-"Even so come, Lord Jesus."

Oh, how precious and important a part of our armor is Hope!

As a "helmet," it has "covered our head in the day of battle"

from many a "fiery dart of the wicked." In times of darknesswhen the restless foe hides the prospect from the eye of faith,

and the child of God can scarcely, if at all, mount up and singeven then hope remains, and lights a candle in moments dark

as the chamber of the grave-"Yet the Lord will command His

loving-kindness in the daytime; and in the night-season His

song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."

And when the afflicted, tempest-tossed soul is trembling at the

prospect of impending danger-at this moment of infinite peril,

Hope holds out the "anchor sure and steadfast;" so that in the

awful crisis, when "deep calls unto deep, and all the waves

and billows are going over us," most unexpectedly "an

entrance is ministered unto us abundantly," in the Lord's best

time, into our desired haven. And it is this hope alone that

sustains us. Were we to conceive of God according to the

notions of our own hearts, we should give way to most unbelieving patience. But the Divine character-as it shines

forth in the word with such love and wisdom, such tenderness

and grace-invigorates our hope. The strength of the strongest

of God's people proves but small, when afflictions press

heavily, and expected help is delayed. But though the soul

faints, it cannot fail. We depend not on what we see or feel,

but on what the word promises. If God has engaged, it must

be fulfilled, be the difficulties-no, impossibilities-what they

may. Fixed, therefore, upon this sure foundation, with our

father Abraham, "against hope" from what we see, "we

believe in hope" from what God has promised. Thus the word

is faith's sure venture for eternity-stamped with such a

marvelous, mysterious impression of Divine glory and

faithfulness, and communicating such Divine power and

refreshment, that the believer cannot but produce his

experience of its efficacy for the support of his tempted

brethren-"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the

goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the

Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart:

wait, I say, on the Lord."



by

Charles Bridges

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