February 17

This is all my salvation, and all my desire. - 2 Samuel 23:5.

ALL my salvation requires to be done, and all my salvation requires to be given, is included in the everlasting covenant. And how much is required! Is the pardon of my sin necessary? There it is: “I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Is holiness necessary? There it is: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you, and a new heart will I give you.” Is strength necessary? “The Lord is my strength and my song, and has become my salvation,” and he will put strength in us. Is grace necessary? The covenant gives it. Is glory necessary? It provides it. Is God necessary himself, with all his relations and attributes? There is the grand provision in the covenant: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

So therefore all the Lord’s people have each a God for himself; a God to guide, to guard, and to supply all their need from his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. David also says, “This covenant of Salvation is all my desire.” The believer desires to comprehend, with all saints, what is its height, and depth, and length, and breadth. He desires more of all this salvation, but not more than all its rich and glorious provisions. If we regard this as the supreme good, it will be all our desire to know more clearly our interest in this covenant, and to feel more richly an experience of its blessings, and to live more entirely according to its motives and encouragements. If we thus regard the blessings of this well-ordered covenant, our hold of other things will be loosened; and we shall sing, with Doddridge:-

“All my capacious powers can wish

In this doth richly meet;

Nor to my eyes is light so clear,

Nor friendship half so sweet.”