Tenth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—"He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them" (Psa 145:19). Almost all those places that make mention of the men that fear God do insinuate as if they still were under affliction, or in danger because of an enemy. But I say, here is still their privilege; their God is their father and pities them—"He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him." Where now is the man that feareth the Lord? Let him hearken to this. What sayest thou, poor soul? Will this content thee, the Lord will fulfill thy desires? It is intimated of Adonijah that David, his father, did let him have his head and his will in all things. "His father," says the text, "had not displeased him at any time in (so much as) saying, Why hast thou done so?" (1 Kings 1:6). But here is more, here is a promise to grant thee the whole desire of thy heart, according to the prayer of holy David, "The Lord grant thee, according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel." And again, "The Lord fulfill all thy petitions" (Psa 20).
O thou that fearest the Lord, what is thy desire? All my desire, says David, is all my salvation (2 Sam 23:5), so sayest thou, "All my salvation" is "all my desire." Well, the desire of thy soul is granted thee, yea, God himself hath engaged himself even to fulfill this thy desire—"He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry and will save them." O this desire when it cometh, what a tree of life will it be to thee! Thou desirest to be rid of thy present trouble; the Lord shall rid thee out of trouble. Thou desirest to be delivered from temptation; the Lord shall deliver thee out of temptation. Thou desirest to be delivered from thy body of death; and the Lord shall change this vile body, that it may be like to his glorious body. Thou desirest to be in the presence of God and among the angels in heaven. This thy desire also shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt be made equal to the angels (Exo 6:6; 2 Peter 2:9; Phil 3:20,21; Luke 16:22, 20:35,36). Oh, but it is long first! Well, learn first to live upon thy portion in the promise of it, and that will make thy expectation of it sweet. God will fulfill thy desires; God will do it, though it tarries long. Wait for it because it will surely come; it will not tarry.
Eleventh Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—"The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him" (Psa 147:11). They that fear God are among his chief delights. He delights in his Son, he delights in his works, and he takes pleasure in those who fear him. As a man takes pleasure in his wife, children, gold, and jewels, the man who fears the Lord is the object of his delight. He takes pleasure in their prosperity, and therefore sendeth their health from the sanctuary, and makes them drink of the river of his pleasures (Psa 35:27). "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures" (Psa 36:8). That or those that we take pleasure in, that or those we love to beautify and adorn with many ornaments. We count no cost too much to be bestowed on those in whom we place our delight and whom we make the object of our pleasure. And even thus, it is with God. "For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people," and what follows? "he will beautify the meek with salvation" (Psa 149:4).
Those in whom we delight, we take pleasure in their actions; yea, we teach them and give them such rules and laws to walk by, as may yet make them that we love more pleasurable in our eyes. Therefore they that fear God, since they are the object of his pleasure, are taught to know how to please him in everything (1 Thess 4:1). And hence it is said, that he is ravished with their looks, that he delighteth in their cry, and that he is pleased with their walking (Can 4:9; Prov 15:8, 11:20).
Those in whom we delight and take pleasure, many things we will bear and put up that they do, though they are not according to our minds. A man will suffer that in, and put up at, the hand of the child or wife of his pleasure, that he will not pass by nor put up in another. They are my jewels, says God, even them that fear me; and I will spare them, in all their comings-short of my will, "even as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (Mal 3:16,17). Oh, how happy is the man that feareth God! His good thoughts, reasonable attempts to serve him, and good life pleases him because he feareth God.
You know how pleasing in our eyes the actions of our children are when we see that they do what they do even of a reverent fear and awe of us; yea, though that which they do amounts but to trim, we take it well at their hands, and are pleased in addition to that. The woman cast in her two mites into the treasury, cast in not much, for they both did but make one farthing; yet how doth the Lord Jesus trumpet her up, he had pleasure in her, and in her action (Mark 12:41-44). This, therefore, that the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, is another of their great privileges.
Twelfth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? The last dram of that fear giveth the privilege to be blessed with the most prominent saint—"He will bless them that fear the Lord, small and great" (Psa 115:13). This word small may be taken three ways—1. For those that are small in esteem, for those that are but little accounted of (Judg 6:15; 1 Sam 18:23). Art thou small or minor in this sense, yet if thou fearest God, thou art sure to be blessed. "He will bless them that fear him, small and great," be thou never so small in the world's eyes, in thine own eyes, in the saints' eyes, as sometimes one saint is little in another saint's eye; yet thou, because thou fearest God, art put among the blessed. 2. By small, sometimes is meant those that are but small of stature, or young in years, little children, that are quickly passed by and looked over: as those that sang Hosanna in the temple were, when the Pharisees deridingly said of them to Christ, "Hearest thou what these say?" (Matt 21:16). Well, but Christ would not despise them, of them that feared God, but preferred them by the Scripture testimony far before those that did contemn them. Little children, however small and soever, and although of never so small esteem with men, shall also, if they fear the Lord, be blessed with the most significant saints—"He will bless them that fear him, small and great." 3. By small may sometimes be meant those that are small in grace or gifts; these are said to be the least in the church, that is, under this consideration, and so are by it least esteemed (Matt 25:45). Thus also is that of Christ to be understood, "Since ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me" (1 Cor 6:4).
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